With tired faces and exhausted minds, 26 teams rushed through the doors of Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium at 5:45 p.m. Sunday to hear the final results of this year’s 48-Hour Shootout.
When the winner was announced after one hour and 30 minutes of deliberation, participants were in for a surprise: Instead of picking one winner, judges selected both Take-it-Easy Productions’ Dust Jacket and Illegal Entertainment’s Home for first place.
“The judges did some crazy stuff this year,” said Anna Livingston, a senior studying video production and the event’s producer.
The event’s producers and judges arrived at the auditorium at 5 p.m., anticipating the storm of video production majors that were soon expected to burst through.
“It was so stressful,” said Jessica Rovniak, a sophomore studying video production and 48-Hour Shootout co-producer. “This means a lot to a lot of people. To some it might seem crazy, but for us it’s the biggest event of the year.”
Despite late runners in the past, by the 6 p.m. deadline each team had turned in their DVDs ready to be viewed by the audience and fellow competitors. When the first film, The Martyr of Warren Valley, began to play, Alisha Estabrook, a junior studying public relations who attended the screening, said she could tell she was in for a night of entertainment.
“Some of the movies were really great and funny,” she said. “Others weren’t as funny or as well put together but I’m still really impressed by their work in only two days.”
There were only a few technical glitches throughout the night, resulting in one of the smoothest and quickest shootout screenings, Livingston said.
“It was great this year,” she said. “It went as fast as I think it possibly could and everyone has improved so much. It’s fun to see how teams grow year after year.”
Mike Mytnick, Rovniak’s fellow producer, a sophomore and video productions major, said this year’s show had some of the most creative films yet, inspiring standing ovations, laughing crowds and suspenseful screams.
”It’s been pretty good,” he said. “The movies have shown off the story really well and shown a lot of creativity and have all been really good. There is entertainment for anyone and anyone can get involved.”
Although teams had complained in the past about the assigned genres, props and lines, Rovniak said the producers received fewer complaints than in years past.
“Usually there are some complaints, but this year we didn’t receive any calls or anything from the teams,” Rovniak said. “We picked out a lot of great topics this year and we had fun doing it.”
When the weekend wrapped up, the credits for Dust Jacket and Home rolled as each fatigued member accepted the title of the 2012 48-Hour Shootout Champion.
“I think everyone did an amazing job this year,” Livingston said. “There were some really unique ideas and stories. I feel really lucky to have had the experience of producing this event for the past two years.”
lf328610@ohiou.edu
