Picture this; you have 48 hours to make a film that will be shown to an eager audience. For a participant of BG Reel’s 48 Hour Film competition, it sounds like any other weekend.  

Housed in the Theatre and Film Department at Bowling Green State University (BGSU) is BG Reel, a student organization committed to encouraging students to make their own independent film projects, typically within 48 hours.  

The concept of 48-hour film projects stems directly from the “48 Hour Film Project, Inc” originally initiated in Washington D.C. The global event is regarded as being the largest filmmaking competition in the world. It was created to be a launching pad for careers in the film industry and a creative outlet for all those who enjoy filmmaking. 

Dr. Cynthia Baron, faculty advisor for BG Reel, said the competition started out as a sporadic event. 

“Sometimes there would be one or two a year and then it became more regularized around 2003, 2004 and really with amazing people working in the student org who give up their time to make things happen,” Baron said.  

Baron said these competitions can be a great experience for students, allowing them to understand the conditions of filmmaking.  

“Once you’ve sort of survived a weekend, then you know who you like to work with. You recognize that it’s long hours; you know that there’s a lot of just hanging out time while something else gets figured out. It kind of demystifies everything,” she explained. 

Despite the hiccups that may come from working with others, Dr. Baron has found that often those involved at BGSU are capable of problem solving.  

“There’s something about people who come to BG who are generally really smart, really capable and also nice. I mean, there’s something really collaborative and if they don’t like to work with people, then they know that and they just go on their own and that’s fine too,” she said.

When it comes to production, students oversee the resources or props necessary to produce their films while meeting their proposed criteria. Dr. Baron found that there was “a lot of creativity” in how students were able to find what they needed. 

The props for the projects are proposed during the organizations’ criteria meetings by other students to make the films more interesting. On top of that, there is one big criterion each team must hit. Lou Buchanan-Berrigan, a media production major and Secretary for BG Reel, is one of the officers responsible for assigning the criteria. 

“The global challenge is one big criteria that applies to every team… so for the cabin fever one, if your film wasn’t all shot in one location, technically that would be grounds for disqualification because you didn’t follow that rule,” Buchanan-Berrigan explained.  

The officers of BG Reel brainstorm themes for the competitions to make things more interesting. 

“We all discuss it together. If there is any sort of ideas, we just sort of shout them out and then develop ideas from there, then we narrow down to what do we like best, what do we think is the most achievable and what do we think people will enjoy?” he explained.  

For anyone who isn’t a film production or media production major, fear not. The 48-hour film competitions are open to anyone. Dr. Baron finds them to be a “campus wide adventure.” 

“There’ll be a digital arts person who comes in, a biology major, but they really love film and so they will come. Or it may be somebody’s roommate who’s in sociology and they kind of thought about acting and there’s theater folks who get involved,” she noted.  

With Halloween coming up, BG Reels’ annual Halloween 48s are expected to draw a nice crowd.  

“People love to come out and support the scary movies; they love to make their own. So, this one usually tries to make it into our biggest 48s of the year and seeing how big our last one was for September, it’s like, where are we going to go from here,” Buchanan-Berrigan said.  

With an estimated total of 130-150 attendees at the latest 48-hour film event, the film competitions continue to grow, giving students more and more opportunities. 

“Every team has a different blend of people in different positions, and the 48s often provide people with a really good outlet to try things that they’ve never done before,” he said. 

The film screening for the Halloween 48s will be held at The Bowen Thompson Student Union Film Theater, Room 206, on Oct. 30 starting at 8 p.m. 

 For more information about BG Reel and how to get involved, click here.