Making a movie in 48 hous

About 40 film lovers from the Cape Girardeau area have some things in common. Most of them hadn't shaved. Some hadn't changed clothes and all of them relaxed a little after turning in their short film to the 2008 48 Hour Film Project: St. Louis before deadline Sunday.

The 48 HFP challenges filmmakers in different cities to make a five- to seven-minute film in 48 hours. Teams are randomly assigned a genre, given a common character, line of dialogue and a prop, and 48 hours to complete a film.

"From there your brain starts going and you get ideas," said filmmaker Grant Welton. Welton's family banded together to help after his team from last year opted out.

There was a comedy, two sci-fi films, a road movie, a detective/cop and a rogue wizard filming on the Illinois side of the river that many saw, but no one will claim it as part of their film.

Welton's team, Soul-tribe Productions, made a sci-fi film, "A/S/L?" about "virtual reality dating in the future with kind of a twist at the end," he said.

Jason Gibson decided this year he wanted to gather a team of friends for their first 48 HFP. The team, Doctor Deuce Productions, pulled together a relatively virgin film crew to make the movie. Its detective/cop short "Brother" is about a detective investigating his brother's murder. Doctor Deuce was the second-smallest crew from Cape Girardeau with only six crew members and a lead actor.

"I'm not an indie filmmaker," Gibson said on the drive to St. Louis to turn in the five-minute film. "We're all just guys who like to screw around with this stuff."

"I think we edited it pretty well. The music was really top-notch, I thought," he said.

Victory's Muddy List was another team of locals that included 48-hour film veterans Louie Benson, Ryan Heckman, Hugh McGowan V and Scott Elsey. Their horror film, "CHKUR FRND," won Best Editing in 2007.

This year, the new team drew the road movie genre, which means the movie has to travel a distance and be on the road. "Driven" follows a girl on the run from a hit man hired by her own father. Scott Elsey from Muddy Waters said they filmed at Cape Rock in Cape Girardeau and Horseshoe Lake in Illinois, among other locations.

"It actually proved to be a little difficult," Elsey said. "We've always been able to script our movie to one location."

Joanna Wende reunited with her previous film crew and formed Montage 4. They made a comedy called "Doyle Based on a True Story," about a man who just can't talk to women. They stayed in St. Louis to save drive time.

No Title Productions and Backwards Logic made a sci-fi called "The Moebiuf Effect" about a man commissioned to build a time machine.

Team member Patrick Bond said he was satisfied with their final result. The movies were screened in St. Louis after SE Live went to print. Winners will be announced this weekend and will be screened Tuesday at the Tivoli Theatre in St. Louis.

Editor's note: Southeast Missourian photographer Aaron Eisenhauer participated in the 48 Hour Film Project with Doctor Deuce Productions.