The Art Institute of Jacksonville Wins Five Awards in 48 Hour Film Project

[Jacksonville, FL, June 27, 2008] – The Art Institute of Jacksonville really turned heads at the recent 48 Hour Film Festival Project Jacksonville 2008, winning five awards.  Students and faculty of the Digital Filmmaking & Video Production program at the school, formed two teams that took on the challenge to write, cast, rehearse, direct, shoot, edit and produce a four to seven minute film in two days. 

The “Red” team consisted of students, faculty and staff.  The “Black” team consisted of students only.  The competition involved 26 teams who started work on Friday, May 4, 2008 at 7 pm and had to complete their film by Sunday, May 6, 2008 at 7 pm. 

Many surprises were thrown at the teams as they set out on their mission, including surprise elements that needed to be incorporated into the film such as a required prop, line of dialogue and character in the film that were announced just as the competition began.  Each team drew out of a hat for one of 14 possible genres on which to theme their film.  Both the Red team and the Black team drew the genre of “historical fiction.” After 48 hours of non-stop filming, editing and more, both films were screened at the Florida Theater in front of a crowd of hundreds. 

At the Best of the 48 Hour film Project Award ceremony, The Art Institute of Jacksonville’s two teams won five awards.  Red Monkey Ratchet, based on a rock stars’ efforts to make a comeback during the birth of the video channel era of MTV, won an award for Best Use of Character Jerry Mills.  Chorophobia, about a couple overcoming their fear of dancing, won second place in the Festival and awards for best male actor, honorable mention for costume design and best use of the line of dialogue.

“It was an amazing experience for our students and faculty to work together to create a film under such extreme pressure. It was like taking everything we teach and condensing it into one weekend,” said Nadia Ramoutar, Academic Director, Digital Filmmaking & Video Production at The Art Institute of Jacksonville.  “The fact that we won so many awards in a community of professionals just shows how much potential this program has.” 

To learn more about The Art Institute of Jacksonville, visit, www.artinstitutes.edu/jacksonville.  

The Art Institute of Jacksonville is one of The Art Institutes (www.artinstitutes.edu), a system of over 40 education institutions located throughout North America, providing an important source of design, media arts, fashion and culinary arts professionals.