Jenna Bacon, Campus Carrier asst. arts and living editor

Another successful 48-hour film challenge is in the books! This past weekend of March 15 and 17 teams of students took on the challenge of writing, filming and editing a short film within forty-eight hours. The 48-hour film challenge is hosted by Viking Fusion, a student run media platform dedicated to showcasing student productions while striving to both inform and entertain not only the Berry community but also audiences beyond. The challenge began at 5 p.m. on Friday, March 15 and concluded at 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 17. Each film in the challenge must incorporate a specific genre, prop, and line of dialogue assigned by Viking Fusion at the beginning of the 48-hour timeslot. In the process of deciding what genre, prop, and line of dialogue should be required submissions are gathered from the Viking fusion staff and from a poll posted on Viking Fusion’s Instagram.  

This year the designated genre was musical, the prop was granola bars and the line of dialogue was “How bubonic”.  All costume planning, script writing, filming, and editing must begin after the challenge starts at 5 p.m. However, participants are permitted to organize teams, secure equipment, and secure filming locations prior to the start of the challenge. Each film must have a duration of at least 3 minutes and no more than 8 minutes. Two awards will be presented upon the conclusion of the challenge. The first award will go to the film deemed the best by a panel of judges comprised of Berry Alumni. The “Fan Favorite” award will be granted to the film that gets the highest number of votes from the Viking Fusion team. 

Berry Sophomore Roger Thomas won the “Fan Favorite” award during last year’s 48-hour film challenge with his short film “Work from Home”. Due to scheduling conflicts, Thomas decided to enter the 48-hour film challenge as a single-person team. Thomas didn’t have time to write out a full script so a lot of his acting in the film is improvised.  Thomas shared what strategies he would suggest to someone who is also doing a one-man film. 

“You have to be 100% locked in,” Thomas said.  “If you finish early that is better than finishing on time. Because if you finish early, you can either clock in early, or you can do some additional edits. So, aim to lock in and get it all done as soon as possible.” 

Aside from being a fun experience, a lot can be learned from participating in the 48-hour film challenge. The teams participating in the challenge must successfully collaborate to get the film done, which involves dividing up tasks and utilizing each team member’s strengths while also carefully managing their time. Communication Technology Specialist Steven Hames explains the ways that the 48- hour film challenge benefits Viking Fusion and participating freshman. 

“For us, for a Viking Fusion, we get some people who are not usually on our production team or working on films who jump in to do this,” Hames said. “Then for our younger folks, we’ve got a team that’s comprised mostly of freshmen. For them, it serves as a stepping stone for them to go further in Viking Fusion and some other ways, especially if they’re interested in filmmaking or things of that nature.”

The 48-hour film challenge is open to all college students, regardless of their major or affiliation with Berry College, who are interested in filmmaking. Aside from being an incredible learning experience, the 48-hour film challenge is also a way for the Berry Community to learn more about what Viking Fusion is and what they do. Executive Director of Viking Fusion Senior Addison Howard shares what he hopes Berry students will learn about Viking Fusion through engaging with the 48-hour film challenge.

“We want people to recognize who we are,” Howard said “We’re visual student media. We want people to know what Viking Fusion is and to get involved and we want people to see that award-winning projects have come out of the 48-Hour film challenge and out of Viking Fusion in general. So, this is just kind of like a fun promotional activity to promote interests and involvement in the community.”