20 Years of Guerilla Filmmaking - 48Hours

This year the Vista Foundation 48Hours film competition celebrates the 20th-year of guerilla filmmaking.

It started in 2003 as a sidebar to the Becks Incredible Film Festival with just 44 teams in Auckland only, before expanding first to Wellington and eventually taking over the entire country.

Brainchild of renegade producer/director Ant Timpson, 48Hours was all about abandoning traditional pathways of funding and slow development and instead, diving headfirst into making a film. Risks, mistakes, fast decisions, new friendships, fallings out, failure and surprise success were the name of the game. Most of all, the competition is about making filmmaking fun. Over 6000 shorts have been produced for 48Hours to date.

I’ve been co-managing the Vista Foundation 48Hours with Ness Patea for the last five years, but my first taste of 48hours was way back in 2005. MiniDV was the cutting edge of technology and we worked somewhere we could borrow a camera from. As a backup we had a Hi8 camera but didn’t want to use it. We had Antonia Prebble lined up to act (before she was famous) and Marty Williams ready to shoot it. We filmed most of the day, but the tape failed so we had to start from scratch mid afternoon. The film was below average and it didn’t make a load of sense but the team and I were hooked. We liked making films, but the adrenaline rush of the time pressure, the self confidence caused by a lack of sleep and perspective and making films with my mates was the best thing ever. 48Hours became an annual event to plan the year around and so spawned a number of not-so-great films, combined with amazing experiences.

After nine years of competing we did get better - nothing like practice to make you improve. I finally found myself in a winning team in 2013 and decided it was time to stop competing and work behind the scenes. I ended up co-managing Wellington before joining the national management squad with Ant Timpson and Ness Patea.

It's been an amazing journey and with a 20-year legacy, I meet so many people who have an association with the competition. Everyone has a story to tell about the 48Hours, and many people attribute the competition to their current screen career or media job.

We interviewed the director of feature film ‘Snakeskin’, Gillian Ashurst, for the Future Filmmaker Workshops last week in Christchurch and she revealed her latest short film ‘The Meek’ was inspired by a 48Hours entry she did with her family a few years prior. YouTube sensations Viva La Dirt League came through the competition and are now making a living basically ‘making three 48hour films a week’ for their YouTube channel. With millions of views their comedy skits are super popular and just go to show you really can make a living doing what you love. Taika Waititi won in some of the early years of the competition and while we can’t claim all of the credit for his success he is one of many talented creatives who have cut their teeth over the adrenaline-filled weekend event.

20-years later, times have changed. MiniDV is well obsolete and everyone wants to submit a 4k version of their film. Teams shoot those 4k films on their phones. The access to technology and the ability to do complex post production on even simple home computers and tablets has upgraded the quality of films immeasurably. School kids turn up with production quality better than the winners from those early days.

What hasn’t changed though is the filmmakers. Keen, enthusiastic, experimental and filled with imaginative ideas, there is now a whole new generation on the path to making films.

We’re seeing category winners show up on the Civic Stage who weren’t even born before the competition began, and the children of successful filmmakers are making appearances - Kyle McNaughton and Kerry Warkia’s kids came second in Taranaki a few years ago.

That pure joy of getting together and making your crazy idea into a film is still alive and well and the future of NZ film looks to be in capable hands.

The shoot weekend for 2022 is August 12th - 14th and registrations are open now at 48hours.co.nz.

Whether you’re a novice who has never made a short film, a filmmaker wanting to push yourself into a new challenge and take a risk or you want to bring the old team together for nostalgic reasons, we would love to see you in the 20th year of the Vista Foundation 48Hours film competition, we want this year’s competition to be the best one yet!

For the 20th anniversary year we’ve got a prize pool of over $90,000 with an incredible top prize for the grand final winner. The Grand National Champ in 2022 will win the Grand National Champion APEE, $15,000 cash prize ($12k from Wingnut, $2k from Viva La Dirt League), $20,000 worth of post production services from Park Road Post*, $15,000 worth of gear hire from Portsmouth Film Equipment Rental*, $10,000 of licensed music from West One Music*, 1-year Digital Pigeon Professional subscription (valued at US $900 a year). There are loads of other prizes too - all listed on our website.