The weekend before last was a whirlwind of filmmaking chaos and excitement – the 48-hour Film Project sat upon Minneapolis, and the town was appropriately aflutter. To put it plainly, 60 production companies (that makes Minneapolis the third largest in the nation, thankyouverymuch) got together for our assignments on a Friday evening at Cuzzy’s, a bar that should only seat about 17 people but somehow crammed in about 139 before the revolt and subsequent move to the parking lot. There, each company drew out of a hat a genre written on a slip of paper. Genres included such gems as Restoration Drama, Musical/Western, Foreign Language Film, Comedy, Mockumentary, Spy, Sci Fi, etc. After everyone had their genre in hand, the 48hFP Dudes in Charge (DIC) announced a character name and profession, a prop, and a line of dialogue – all of which had to be used in our films. Then we were released with the instruction to get back to Cuzzy’s and the DIC with a completely original 7-minute (max) film by 7 pm on Sunday. Yes, a mere 48 hours to work some cinematic magic.

And so we did. We had the best damn team these Twin Cities have ever seen – it is rare to be amongst so much staggeringly good talent across so many fields, from cinematography to music to editing to acting – I was so proud. Tired and cranky come Sunday, but proud.

And, as it turns out, for good reason: we’ve just been informed by the DIC that our little ditty was selected to be re-screened as part of the “Best of Minneapolis!” Yay, us! So – grab whoever is nearest, and swing on over to the Riverview Theater on June 27^th at 7 pm to view “Burnout Trail” and the 12 other besters. I only saw 10 out of the 60 when ours first screened last Tuesday – I can’t wait to see the others!

This experience hereby makes it on my personal "Best of Minneapolis" list. Indeed.

UPDATE: Well, a girl goes fishing a day earlier than planned, and all hell (the good kind) breaks loose! I just returned yesterday from the northwoods and it looks like while I was getting in touch with nature our film was getting in touch with the "Best Actor Ensemble" Award! Congrats, team! SO proud.