By Ron Ford,
The 50 Hour Slam is a yearly competition in which filmmakers in the Spokane/Coeur d’Alene area vie to make the best movie they can, from conception to finished piece, in just over two days.
On Friday, March 27, a crowd of potential contestants, or “Slammers,” converged at KSPS-TV’s facility on South Regal for the launch of the 2015 50 Hour Slam. The contestants were given several parameters — a location, a theme and a video element — all of which had to be included in their films. Thirty-seven teams were sent on their way at 8 p.m., and by 10 p.m. Sunday, fifty hours later, 29 of those teams had delivered finished short movies of 3 to 5 minutes in length.
Many adventures took place in the intervening hours.
Four-time Slammer Jesse James Hennessy, a cook at Picabu Bistro, says he views the timed filmmaking competition as a “filmmaker’s workshop.”
“I love the process of making a film, and with the 50 Hour Slam you get the whole shebang in a few days,” Hennessy said. “I use it to explore different ways to approach filmmaking. It’s good to be pushed out of your comfort level.”
The 50 Hour Slam began with a casual discussion over beers between festival organizers Juan Mas, Adam Boyd and Thomas Dineen.
“We started merging ideas of what we wanted to do with the Spokane film community to motivate it and push it do more than it was already doing five years ago when we started,” Mas said
Since that time, the Slam has outgrown its original venue, The Magic Lantern Theater, and moved on to The Bing Crosby Theater, where the 15 top films will be screened on May 2 and awards will be given out.
Slammer Rebecca Cook, a voice-over artist, finds the competition to be a good-natured one.
“I like how the Slam really is a friendly competition,” Cook said. “There’s a certain feeling of camaraderie between all the filmmakers.”
Audio engineer Joseph Wynecoop returned to the competition after not finishing last year.
“The first time around we had hang ups with locations and cast, but ended up with a decent eleven minute film, [which is too long for the competition],” Wynecoop said. “What we did this time was consider our locations and minimized moves. I’ve spent the last year honing editing skills and camera movements, along with massive reading about directing. Overall, we were satisfied, turning in our submission.”
Hennessy encouraged Spokanites to support its own by supporting the 50 Hour Slam.
“Spokane has a really cool thriving ecosystem of creative folk and there are many avenues for pursuing filmmaking. The 50 Hour Slam is one of them.”