24 Hours to Make a Movie

This is a post by JBFC Communications Manager, Karolina Manko

Today, we ready our filmmaking troops to take on one of the hardest, toughest, and most brutal of JBFC challenges. No, I’m not talking about buying a Friday-night movie ticket to a new release. I’m talking about making a movie in twenty-four hours!

This evening kicks off the Burns Film Challenge for high school students. At 5pm a dedicated and ambitious group of 35 students will gather in our Media Arts Lab screening room to ready themselves for the task of creating an original short film from start-to-finish. After JBFC faculty member and Burns Challenge organizer, Sean Weiner runs through the rules of conduct, the participants have twenty-four hours to story-board, script, shoot, and edit their films. Working in groups of 3-5 students, each team will be provided with film equipment and granted twenty-four hour access to our Media Arts Lab. Our dedicated faculty and equipment staff will be on-hand throughout the day/night to assist our tireless filmmakers and to troubleshoot any quirks that may arise.

But wait, there’s more! As if making a movie in twenty-four hours wasn’t already challenging enough, Sean has come up with three specific requirements that each team’s film must accomplish in order to compete for first place. These requirements ensure that none of our participants arrive with pre-scripted or pre-planned ideas, and that all Burns Film Challengecontent is original. We do our best to keep them a secret, so you’ll have to check back at 5pm for the big reveal. In the meantime, check out last year’s winning film. Good luck to all of our students and staff! We salute your hard work and anxiously await your films.

If you’d like real-time updates on this year’s Burns Film Challenge, follow us on Twitter and Instagram. (We’re using #JBFClab.)