Eighty-four hours is three and a half days. In that time frame, a student has twenty hours of school, more or less twenty hours of sleep, and about eighteen hours of technology time. Or, in that time frame, you can give up these norms and create a script, shoot a movie and edit instead. For Woodland’s digital media class, that’s exactly what they did.

[pullquote]EDITORS
Jillian Plante
Matthew Luxeder
Ethan Carlone
Jack Setaro
Craig Starkey[/pullquote]

Friday, December 1st to Monday, December 4th, the digital media class participated in their annual Eighty-Four Hour Film Challenge. From Friday, a group of students, selected from the class, were given a set of requirements for the video.

The video had to be in between two to three minutes and had to include: the sound of water, one famous movie quote off of a list, a select person and action from a list, salt and pepper, a first kiss, and select shots.

All through out Friday, select students in the Digital Media program were excused from class to work on this project. The students made a list of actors, created a script, formed a setlist and contacted the Prospect Dairy Bar for approval to shoot the short film in the local diner. Once out of school and approved, all through the rest of the night the team shot the entire film.

For the next two days, some of the students spent hours editing. From audio, to transitions, the editors worked closely together for hours straight.

Jillian Plante, the lead producer of the project, commented on the creative process.

“This year the process went extremely smooth,” said Plante. “A lot of times it’s not cohesive but everyone was on board and the team worked well together.”

By Monday, students were again given the right to be excused from class, getting the final voice-overs and polishing the finishing touches. At 12am on Monday night, all was submitted and now the anticipation was on.

The director, Matthew Luxeder, too, commented on how he believes this years challenge ran.

“This was one of the best film challenges I have worked on since I have been here,” said Luxeder. “Overall, it was a lot of fun to make.”

The team efficiently ran through the four day competition and now the waiting game is on. With all hopes and all effort, the team now patiently waits for the news from the competition.