It just doesn't fit. We've had them all: Indiana Jones, Titanic, Shrek, Bombastic blockbusters, heartbreaking romances and crack-up comedies.
But the best movie still is the one that you make yourself: at the ‘48 hours' film competition.
Ready, set, go! 60 teams from Otago had exactly 48 hours to write, shoot and edit a movie over the 2nd weekend in May.
Kick-off for the event was on Friday evening, May 8 in the Regent Theatre, where each film crew was given a genre plus an object, a character and a line (the same for everyone) that had to appear in their 1- to 7-minute-movies.
Genres and teams were exotic and chaotic: which meant that some people came down from Wanaka only to draw 'Parallel Worlds', while other crews such as a family of 5 were rewarded with 'Real Time', 'Religious' or 'Conspiracy'.
But no worries: less fancy genres were also available amongst the ones that make you scratch your clueless head, although classics like 'Horror' and 'Romance' are hardly any easier to think of a decent story.
At exactly 1900hrs the Regent's doors freed more than 600 motivated moviemakers, armed with exaggerator Alex Puddle, a rock and the words 'It doesn't fit', to provide 48 hours of perspiration, inspiration and most of all deprivation of two nights sleep.
Time was spent mostly brainstorming, editing and despairing, whether it's of the broken microphone that makes all your shots sound like Catwoman scratching the blackboard or the computer cable that just doesn't fit (there we go!) into the camera.
The rules were strict and so it was no surprise that after half the participants came running into the Regent 2 minutes to 7 on Sunday to finally hand their film in, 8 teams were disqualified because their movie was the wrong format.
Never mind: fun is all that matters in the end and despite lack of sleep, fun triumphed.
City Finals will be held tonight, 7.30pm at Glenroy Auditorium, so for those of you who are curious to know what people can put together in 48 hours, tickets are still available from Wild Pair, 241 George St, $15, dress up nicely.
- Thomas Forstner, LPHS
