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What can you do in eighty-four hours

Eighty-four hours is equivalent to three and half days. In three and half days a person could can go on a weekend vacation, watch a movie marathon, or drive across country. Some students at Woodland however, will be using this time to make a movie.

The eighty-four Film Challenge is a race against the clock that requires students to think, plan and then create a four minute original film in just eighty-four hours. The students of the Digital media three club (DM3), who are participating in this challenge, do not get any information until Friday December 6th at seven a.m. This year’s team consists of Meaghan Terry, the senior producer, Aidan Music, the Project Manager, Drew Chura, the Director of Photography, Anthony Cuda, the project Consultant, Ewelina Lamanski, the Producer and Kristen Cullen, the Intern. From that moment on they need to plan a film that will follow the given criteria.  Once they have the ideas laid out they must then film their own clips. In order to get everything just right filming requires many takes and a lot of editing.

Planning for the event is hard because the team is given no information prior to the start of the challenge. DM3 coordinator, Ralph Riello, believes the most difficult part of the eighty-four hour film challenge is developing the story line on Friday, and putting it into effect before the students leave for the school day. “The criteria must be woven into the overall story,” stated Ralph Riello. “So the students have to brainstorm all day Friday and settle on a storyline.”

When the team has settled on a story line. The team then needs to come up with a location and scenes where the theme will work. Many times it is up to the parents of the production team to offer up their homes as a place to film the movie.

As the stress levels rise so do conflicts. It is common for people in the group to begin to feel the pressure of working on a deadline. “[The students] feel the effects of working together for three straight days under a hard deadline…some tensions develop,” said Riello.

This year the production team is working with expectation. For the past two years they have won the Audience Choice Award at the CT Film Festival.

The overall goal for Riello is not to win the Audience Choice Award, but to show his team that one can still produce good work on a deadline. “ ‘The Show’ is the boss, stated Riello. “Everybody works with one goal in mind, to produce a great show.”