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F

orty-eight hours. It’s not a lot of time, but you can do a lot. You could drive to Raleigh & back. You could have dinner with friends. Twice.

You can also write, shoot, edit, and produce a film.

That’s the premise of The Old Theater’s “Official Unofficial” 48 Hour Film Festival.

The idea was orginally part of a larger, national event held every January – but Oriental is too wee to participate in the national event; towns must have a population of at least 10,000. We miss that by 9,008.

So the Old Theater has their own “Official Unofficial” 48 Hour Film Festival.

A call was put out. It’s described like this:

The Official Unofficial 48 Hour Film Festival
Write, shoot, and edit a short 4-7 (maximum with credits) minute film over the weekend
• Be at the Old Theater for the kickoff on January 10th at 5p
• A genre, character, prop and line are received at the kickoff – and must be included in every film.
• After leaving The Old Theater, teams have 48 hours to write, shoot, and edit a short film.

Four films were submitted. This past weekend they were shown on the Old Theater big screen, and viewers cast their vote for a variety of categories.

The results:

• No Refunds / Best Picture, Best Use of Prop
  
• Irreversible / Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Sound
  
• The Night Captain / Best Screenplay or Story, Best Use of Character
  
• The Zephyr / Best Lead Actor, Best Lead Actress, Best Use of Line
  

The award statuettes.

Film Festival Award winners. At left, Bob Gordon, Morgan Porterfield, Donna Armento, Jonathan Kirkland. Photo right, Rachel Applebee.

The films:

No Refunds by Wayward Wind Productions. Genre: …

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IRREVERSIBLE by Rachael Applebee. Genre: …

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The Night Captain by Tony Benda. Genre: …

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The Zephyr A Flash Production. Genre: …

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