San Antonio 48 Hour Film Experience

Is it possible to deliver a short film in 2 days? That was the question for 8 teams of independent filmmakers during San Antonio’s new 48 Hour Film Experience, where they all rose to the challenge and presented their finished products to the public at Thursday night’s awards ceremony and wrap party.


Locals Wes Akers, A.J. Gutierrez, and David Rodriguez proved their ingenuity and resourcefulness when their movie Call of the Cowboy took 1st place honors, despite getting their crew together at the last second. “David met A.J. that day we started filming,” explained Akers. “But the energy was all there.

The event was all about creatively circumventing limitations. In addition to the time constraint and eight minute maximum length, contestants also had to draw from a hat a genre, a character, a random line of dialogue, and a location within San Antonio’s new 86-acre Enchanted Springs Ranch, and incorporate each into their final story.

Even more unforeseen obstacles kept the directors on their toes, however, as Akers recalled: “We had a script, but A.J. left it in the car. We only had three hours to be on the ranch, our slot was from 9-12, and it didn’t help that we showed up at 10:00. So we had 2 hours, and it was raining, and we [worried about] continuity, some shots are gonna be raining, some aren’t.” Interjected Rodriguez: “You gotta do what you can with what you got, and we just kept going and didn’t let the rain stop us.”

The screening was held downtown at Sunset Station, where the occasional passing train made for a unique film-going experience, and was hosted by the San Antonio Film Commission. Said Commission Director Drew Mayer-Oaks:
“Dean McCall from [internet advocacy non-profit] Salsa.net and I met at the ‘05 South By Southwest Festival and we wanted to create an event that would allow filmmakers to do something here and highlight our locations. We had a great turn-out tonight, it was a lot fun.” Mayer-Oaks created and coordinated the fest along with McCall and Erik Bosse. Are the winners going to compete again next year? “Definitely,” said Akers. “We’ve gotta defend the throne!”

The event attracted San Antonio artists far and wide, such as Calvin Robertson.

“I heard about it from the executive producer of the local film I’m working on, The Bad Seed. San Antonio has a lot to offer, film-wise, and it’s good to see filmmakers out here holding it down.”

The public was allowed to vote online for their favorite short as well. The Audience Award went to Hands On, written and directed by Buddy Calvo. The judges, which included San Antonio director Pablo Veliz (Clemente, 2006), selected Don’t Go Back To Ray’s for the 2nd Place prize and Retribution as 3rd.

Thanks to Frank Robles of Neapolitan Networks, these and all the other films are now viewable at www.sa48hr.com.

-Andy Gately