The 48 hour film challenge happens a few weeks before the Sci-Fi London film festival and is exactly what it says on the tin: A film made in 48 sleepless hours, on a weekend in April. On Saturday at noon, representatives from your team turn up at Sci-Fi London HQ and randomly select the required elements of the film: the title, a prop/action, a line of dialogue and an optional science theme. You then have until 1pm Monday to write, prep, shoot, edit, VFX, score, render and upload. It's mad good fun. I thoroughly recommend it.

This year our required elements were:
Title: TWENTY TO ONE
Prop/action: a character rips a page from a book
Line of dialogue: Nothing's impossible, that's what you always taught me

The story and characters were locked about 10:30pm on Saturday, which didn't give me much time to speak to the director and start sorting out costumes before the actors went to bed. The cyborg outfit Alexa is wearing is not just a costume, it's actually V.1 of a wearabletech etextile platform I am designing for rapid prototyping. You can see more about Second Skin and how it is made in the projects section of this site.

Made for the 2018 Sci-Fi London 48 Hour Film Challenge Required items Title: TWENTY TO ONE Prop/Action : A character rips a page from a book Dialogue: "Nothing's impossible, that's what you always taught me." #sfl48hr

Every year a slightly different group of us makes up the team. Linchpins Tom Worth and Al Monty are there every year herding the cats. Tom sends an email around and everyone shows up if they are available. Directors rotate; this year it was the turn of our resident VFX genius Ken Turner. Sometimes I'm just costume, other years I've covered costume, makeup and art department. Last year I 'consulted' from SF (mainly complaining about my geographical issues and giving permission to raid my archive) and was credited thus. I just noticed there's a yearly credit for 'Oakiness', which goes to the most rock-like person on set who gets everyone through. This year it went to Baxter the dog, who was very patient with us invading his house.
Why do we do this? Because film people are stress junk workoholics and erm.. everyone needs a hobby? It’s one of my favourite yearly creative binges, second only to etextile summercamp. An excuse to spend quality time with the gang, make an art and to try and get our film in the top ten. Top ten means the film will be shown on the big screen at the Sci-Fi London film festival on the 2nd May. So we get to celebrate by drinking and shouting at our creation.. #goals

Right: Our 2014 entry Back came second place and went on to win the 'Science and The Imagination' prize at Danny Boyle's Shuffle film festival in East London. I love this one.

For more films by our gang, go here: https://vimeo.com/album/3892819
To see more flms, check out the hashtag #SFL48HR

See you next year?

" A very important sci-fi film" - Danny Boyle Winner of the Science and Imagination Award at the Shuffle Film Festival 2014 2nd place in the Sci-Fi London 48 Hour Film Challenge 2014 Made in 48 hours from these elements picked at random from a hat Title: Back Issue Dialogue: We just fitted him with one. Its transmits from here and this is the receiver Prop: ID. We see someone take a photo ID from a bag, wallet or pocket Optional theme: A man's geneology test results suggest an unknown species, his paternal line ends with his grandfather he never knew. Featured on the BBC Radio 4 Film Programme

Last spring we designed the costumes for Karel Van Bellingen's debut movie The Leap. Rachel worked on the initial phase of design and locked in the costumes to commence shooting, then handed over to Rebecca who handled everything on set and designed for additional scenes. You can read the synopsis and watch the 30min film in full below. With 100k views and climbing on Vimeo, The Leap is a stunning testament to the talents of it's director, who is also responsible for the writing, production design and editing. Huge congratulations to Karel and the whole team for a truly stunning sci-fi film!

The Leap: In 2069, New Earth is declared open for civilian migration, a decade after its discovery. As tales of wonder and opportunity reach the Old World, taking ‘the leap’ becomes the dream of millions. Unable to afford the journey, many of the less fortunate risk their lives being smuggled aboard cargo ships. The inter-planetary Migration Administration, or IPMA, deals with human trafficking on a biblical scale. Fifteen years later, Jacob Reiss, a disillusioned IPMA veteran, has a fateful encounter with a young cartel prostitute. A meeting that forces him to confront a dark chapter from his past in order to save them both from a bleak future in one final, violent shot at redemption.

Take Point presents an Ascension production in association with Great Guns. Written, designed & directed by Karel van Bellingen Produced by Craig Tuohy Cinematography by Tony C. Miller Music by Chris Green Sound supervised by Dominic Gibbs Visual Effects supervised by Bryan Jones Visual Effects by Troll VFX, Villains Wear Black & Engine House Officially licensed by Dolby to showcase DOLBY® ATMOS™ worldwide. Synopsis In 2069, New Earth is declared open for civilian migration, a decade after its discovery. As tales of wonder and opportunity reach the Old World, taking ‘the leap’ becomes the dream of millions. Unable to afford the journey, many of the less fortunate risk their lives being smuggled aboard cargo ships. The inter-planetary Migration Administration, or IPMA, deals with human trafficking on a biblical scale. Fifteen years later, Jacob Reiss, a disillusioned IPMA veteran, has a fateful encounter with a young cartel prostitute. A meeting that forces him to confront a dark chapter from his past in order to save them both from a bleak future in one final, violent shot at redemption. Website: www.theleapfilm.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theleapshortfilm

SCiFI-LONDON 48hr film challenge

THE LEAP