This October, Binghamton University students and alumni will have the opportunity to join the ranks of international filmmakers as they compete in a two-day production challenge.
BTV and the Binghamton Film Initiative (BFI) are collaborating to host BU’s first ever 48 Hour Film Competition. The contest is based on the 48 Hour Film Project, a competition hosted in cities all over the world that gives teams of five-to-10 people 48 hours to write, shoot and edit an original film.
Founded last year, BFI is a website where students who are interested in acting, filmmaking or writing can showcase their talents and find other artists. According to Jared Biunno, BFI co-founder and a senior majoring in cinema, the two organizations partnered in order to increase video production at BU.
“Both of our organizations just want to promote media,” Biunno said. “There’s not enough film and TV on campus.”
At the start of the competition on Oct. 3, each team will be given mandatory prompts including a genre, line of dialogue, character and a prop.
“These requirements sort of force the contestants to not come up with a predetermined film idea,” said Michael Hickey, president of BTV and a senior double-majoring in computer science and history.
According to Hickey, the film’s running time only needs to be a few minutes long, and students are also encouraged to work with a composer to write original music for their project.
Biunno said that BFI’s website will be used as a hub for contestants to contact one another. Students who register on the site can display their interests and other projects, as well as the positions that they need filled. If two students’ interests and needs match then they can contact one another directly through the website.
According to Biunno, the films will be aired a week after the competition and judged on a variety of categories including best director, actor and actress. The best will then be featured on the University’s website.
The contest will be judged by cinema professors Joyce Jesionowski and Monteith McCollum, theater professor Barbara Wolfe and English professor Ryan Vaughan.
To add to the competition, BFI co-founders Tyler Downey, a senior double-majoring in theater and English, and Biunno also plan on competing against one another in the contest.
“I’m fully prepared to wipe the floor with him, but we are letting our respective films speak for themselves and I’m very excited to face-off with my co-founder (and to accept my award and possibly do a victory dance in his face),” Biunno wrote in an email.
Hickey said that he hopes the event will excite more BU students to get involved in film.
“[Our hope is] that we can spread the experience of filmmaking to as many students as possible in a short amount of time. We really want students to enjoy the process, make new relationships and ultimately create some really engaging and creative films,” Hickey said.
Ken Omiya, a junior majoring in cinema said that the challenge would improve his skills as a filmmaker.
“Winning this would give me great exposure and could lead to connections,” Omiya said. “It’s also a good experience for learning how to hustle. It’s stress, but a good stress.”
Omiya said that he did not expect to get much sleep during the contest.
“We’ll see how the winds of film take me,” Omiya said. “But I’m a college student, I can manage on two hours of sleep.”