48 Hour Hacker

We sat in front of the live stream waiting for the categories to release for what would be my first 48 Hour Film Festival.

Graphics moved in a dizzying manner across the screen to reveal the categories. The eighties action movie, the family movie, the film noir/neo-noir, the revenge, the musical or one take, the comedy-horror (we were relieved to not get horror), and then our lucky number 7 genre was called.

The Hacker/Heist movie.

In our original intention, we would be a small team attempting to do paper puppets but with the realisation of the category we quickly pivoted to digital. We riffed on ideas, drawing upon the deep lore of previous projects and somehow landed on lore I had created at the start of last semester.

The tunnels underneath the university have long been a topic of discussion among students. In a previous film, I had roped in two lecturers to be characters within the film, one being the tunnel research expert, and the other being the original architect of the tunnels. Sitting in the late hours of discussion around a film we had to make in 48 hours, it somehow landed on the ridiculous plot points that I was now going to play the daughter of the researcher who needed to find coordinates on an incredibly messy laptop of files to find her father’s last known location. The only thing that could stop them? The mysterious Tunnel Man, a character I came up with after discovering the real existence of the original tunnel maps.

Since our team was one of sleepers (we really should have been called Team Sleepy), we rolled back to uni around mid-morning on Saturday and set out to finalise the script alongside an incredible feat of energy by my fellow writer and cinematographer who developed a shot list in record time.

Suddenly, we were directing a short film involving seven actors (including myself) and expanded character arcs from my previous film. A team member sent out last minute messages to friends who came within a half hour notice and we were rolling the camera by 2 pm. In a miracle of script and improv, we only had to do 3 takes per shot and by 5:30 pm we wrapped up live-action filming.

The editing process was full of laughter and our riffing turned into a paper puppet show featuring three lecturers who didn’t seem to question at all why we put their likeness on popsicle sticks.

By the time Sunday approached, we all sleepily mosied over once more to campus and tucked into the post-production process. What started as a chill morning inevitably turned into a rush of balancing sound clips (shoutout to sound man for a heroic effort) and adding VFX nearly an hour before submission time.

In the spirit of the contest, even if you are a millisecond late you could be disqualified, so I quickly filled out the form and then proceeded to worry about said form well after the submission. The anxiety of effort never truly leaving me.

This was my first film being screened to a public audience outside our little bubble at the university. What I loved was hearing people laugh at the same things I laughed at while writing it. What I found interesting, as I always have even with my writing, is the interpretation and response through the filters of experience. Here was a room full of people who had done this 48 Hour film competition multiple times before. We were little fish in a big pond. I found it important, despite the editing blunders we made and the deep awareness of being in the learning process, to sit with the choices in a screening room.

I was met with my face on the screen and although I have long given up the image of my face to the university in their marketing campaigns, I was now looking at me acting. Something I have not done since I was in high school.

I loved being on stage when I was young. I don’t think it was for the love of the stage, but more so the feeling of collective creation. I was surrounded by it in all my years growing up. I have met my closest friends on stages, my kindred spirits of art. There is something within the bond of creation, our voices in sync, our riffs of dialogue, the harmonies of instruments that pull me towards feeling more connected to the world and the people around me.

In this experience of 48 Hour filmmaking, not only did I have an incredible amount of fun creating a ridiculous film that I love for its absurdity of lore, but I also have a deep reverence for the people who showed up to support. I am not sure I could ever put into words truly how much that meant to me in this process.

People dropped off food. People sent me encouraging messages. People showed up at last minute and went along with any silly ideas we wanted to try. My team made an expansive effort that reached outside their regular comfort zones. That support, that collective creation, is what fuels me at every corner of this journey.

Thank you, immensely, to my team for giving it a go and showing the fun in how calm collaborative spaces are possible when you all have a shared goal. And a huge thank you to my family, who sponsored us in this endeavour of achievement. Your belief in me at giving life a second try has been at the core of everything I do.

May the lore live forever on in the tunnels.

You can watch our film on YouTube, 404: Adrian Not Found
(with hopefully a ‘Director’s Cut’ to come in the future)