The 1st annual 24 Hour Filmmaking Festival kicked off Oct. 22th, 2004 at 9:43 PM in front of the Boulder County Court House on the Pearl Street Mall. 74 teams entered the event, and some teams didn't make it back when the doors closed at 9:43 PM, Saturday!
Award winners from The Shoot Out Boulder 2004 Top Ten Films
Best Film “Cookies & Milk”
 Best
Director: C. Troy FluhrBest Actor: C. Troy Fluhr Best Comedy: Jeff Arbough “Ideas” |
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Producer Morgan Russell accepts his team's awards
for Best Music Composition: "Pursuit"
& Best Screenplay: "Pursuit"
Best Cinematography: Robert Hubbard
Best Sound Design: Robert Newman
Best Art Direction: “Lucky Penny”
“Lucky Penny”
Best Cinematography: Robert Hubbard for “Lucky Penny”
Shooting Star who appeared in the most number of films in 24-hours -- Eight! MaryLee Herrmann
Scenes from 2004
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| Hollywood Director Rob Reiner (The Princess Bride) pays a visit to the set of The Shoot Out Boulder 2004 with Festival Director, Michael Conti. Video Still by Thomas Lofstrom. | Judging Lead, Amanda Conti, and
Festival Director, Michael Conti welcome Kristi
Street (on
the far right) who is the founder of the The Shoot Out, and is from
NewCastle, Australia. |
We celebrated the winning films from The Shoot Out Boulder 2004 at the historic Boulder Theater on Sunday, October 24, 2004 at 7 PM. If this isn't enough, the filmmakers, their friends and families were all there to share in the excitement of seeing who brings home the Best Film from The Shoot Out Boulder 2004.
Besides showcasing the Top 10 Films, some of Colorado’s
finest talent put up an eclectic appearance for the first Annual Shoot Out
Boulder 2004. Robert Markle of the comedy troupe of Rodents of Unusual Size
(and Denver’s own Mr. Bean) was "The Dude",
Shifty-Gears brought their rock n roll sound with songs written specifically for the Shoot Out,
Elizabeth
Rose, the sultry voice of late night’s in Denver Jazz scene also made a rare appearance, and there was an Argentine
Tango by "DANCE of the HEART" of the duo of Brian
Dunn and Deborah Sclar. 
Somewhere in all of this mix, is the world premiere of Joe’s Box, which defies any sane explanation.
At the end of the evening , Michael Conti and the producer, Will Campbell acknowledge all the support from the volunteers that helped make the first year event happen.
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Illustration
by Ethan Wenberg, Westword
2004 Press and Articles
Voted Best New Festival (since March 2004) in Westword.
Read about The Shoot Out 2004 in The Daily Camera (10/15/2004). PDF
Read about it in The Daily Camera (10/24/2004). PDF
Read about it in The Daily Camera (10/28/2004). PDF
Read about it in Westword (10/21/04) PDF
Listen to the radio interviews on KBCO [download required]
September 15, 2004 Airdate
Colorado Public Radio's "Colorado Matters", an awarding radio show that focuses on the state's people, issues and ideas, recently did a show on The Shoot Out Boulder with Michael Conti..
Listen to the Program Achive of Boulder Film Project
Action! Film festival shoots
through town
Competitors allowed 24 hours to create a 7-minute 'Shoot Out' movie
By Brittany Anas, Camera Staff Writer
October
24, 2004 [link to article]
Boulder was a stage this weekend.
In an alley near 13th and Pearl Streets on Saturday afternoon, 29-year-old Matt Scull was dressed in black, playing the part of an archdemon. Around the corner, a man wearing pantyhose over his head was staging a mugging.
"The Shoot Out," a 24-hour filmmaking festival that is modeled after Australian events, hit the Pearl Street Mall, Chautauqua Park and other popular landmarks in the city. Boulder was the first American city to hold the contest, in which films are made in a fast and furious fashion, downplaying the role of technology, organizers said.
Filmmakers from 74 teams began bustling around Boulder at 9:43 p.m. Friday. They had exactly one day to produce a 7-minute movie, with strict guidelines on where their scenes needed to be shot.
Varsity Pond on the University of Colorado's campus, the clock tower at Eads Smoke shop on 28th Street and Canyon Boulevard and RedFish, 2027 13th St., were among some of the locations filmsters could choose from.
In Scull's movie, "Reapers," he played an archdemon who collected souls from people as they were dying. In the flick, he and Brian Watson, an archangel, are like business partners. They are the first to arrive at death scenes, bottling up souls they collect in plastic tubes. They use cotton balls to depict the souls, and at the end of their work day, they send them to either heaven or hell in a homemade vacuum chute.
"We had a basic structure and script for the film, but we pretty much winged it," said Watson, as they were shooting their last scene Saturday afternoon.
At 9:43 p.m. Saturday, organizers stationed outside the Boulder County Courthouse on Pearl Street did a countdown to turn tapes in.
One man quietly turned away after his movie was literally a minute too late.
Some teams slipped their projects in with just minutes to spare. "Dude, we made it!" said Dino Tsaoysis, a 23-year-old film student at the University of Colorado. "We literally just finished in time."
Tsaoysis and his team crafted a film about a girl "who played leapfrog with death." She played chess, gin rummy and leapfrog with an actor who the group said "personified death." In a final scene, the girl loses, and is pushed into Boulder Creek, shivering as the group filmed.
A team of judges were set to select 10 finalists by today.
Shoot Out winners announced
'Cookies & Milk' takes local festival's top prize
By Matt Sebastian Camera Staff Writer
October
28, 2004 [link to article]
CORRECTION: (10/29/2004) This article misstated Amanda Conti's role in the festival. Conti was the judge coordinator and did not serve as a judge herself.
A race-against-the-clock comedy involving an about-to-expire carton of milk and a plate of cookies took home the top prize at last weekend's inaugural Boulder Shoot Out 24 Hour Filmmaking Festival, organizers announced Wednesday.
The short film "Cookies & Milk" — written, directed and produced by Mark Spencer — won the Best Film trophy, earning Spencer's three-person production team a digital video editor and a screening at the Boulder International Film Festival in February.
"It was just a great little film," says Amanda Conti, head judge of the event, which challenged would-be Steven Spielbergs to produce and film a short movie in less than 24 hours. "Time was a major factor in a lot of the films. Wonder why?"
Boulder's Shoot Out is a franchised offshoot of the 5-year-old Shoot Out concept, which has been a hit in its native Australia and New Zealand. More than 70 teams entered, most comprised of local, Front Range filmmakers.
Sixty-six teams completed their films, which couldn't exceed seven minutes, between 9 p.m. Friday and 9 p.m. Saturday. Each was required to five of 12 predetermined items — ranging from the phrase "I get no respect" to footage of the clock tower at Eads News & Smoke Shop — to prove their films were made during the designated contest period.
"For what the event was, it just exceeded my expectations," executive producer Michael Conti says. "The amount of talent that showed up and committed to producing a short film in 24 hours, well, it was just inspirational."
The top 10 films were screened Sunday at the Boulder Theater to a nearly sold-out crowd, and judges then gave the following awards:
Best Comedy: "Ideas" — Written, directed and produced by Christopher Troy Fluhr. Starring Jeff Arbough.
Best Director: Christopher Troy Fluhr for "Ideas."
Best Musical Composition: Morgan Russell for "Pursuit."
Best Art Direction: "Lucky Penny" — Written by Lesli Young, directed by Anne MacComber and Robert Hubbard, and produced by Jana Miller and Steve Young. Starring Lesli Young, Tara Thompson and Dawn Merrick.
Best Screenplay: Morgan Russell for "Pursuit."
Best Cinematography: Robert Hubbard for "Lucky Penny."
Best Actor: Christopher Troy Fluhr for "Ideas."
Best Sound Design: Jana Miller for "Lucky Penny."
Shooting Star (actor appearing in the most number of films in 24-hours): MaryLee Herrmann.
Best Film by Filmmakers Under 18: "Twisted Forest" — Written, directed and produced by Walker Lyon and Matthew Jones.
News from Australia, Sun-Herald, 07/03/2004 Film Festival shoots for overseas success NEWCASTLE'S The Shoot Out 24-hour film-making festival has international screens in its sights. Following last night's climax of the sixth and most successful do-it-yourself film festival, franchise events will be held in the United States, New Zealand and Queensland. With only 24 hours, a camera and their imagination, 200 teams from around Australia used Newcastle's rain-soaked streets as the backdrop to create their fast but sharp cinematic masterpieces. "Technology is at a point where you can do anything you want, but it comes back to whether you have a good story," Shoot Out judge and actor Marcus Graham said. The 10 finalists were shown to a packed house at Panthers Newcastle last night. After two hours of screening, "best film" was awarded to Sydney filmmakers Luke Hammonds and Adam Webb for their comedy flick Keeping it Hard. It is estimated this year's event, which saw more than 1500 people participate, generated about $750,000 [AU] for the Newcastle economy. "That's just the local economy, that doesn't include the value of getting Newcastle known as a place around Australia and internationally," Shoot Out director Kristi Street said. "They are coming from all over. We only had 20 per cent of teams from Newcastle this year." Offshoots of the festival will be held in Townsville, Queensland; Hamilton, New Zealand and Boulder, Colorado in coming months. Boulder, Colorado festival executive producer Michael Conti said he had been following the Newcastle festival for two years. "Unlike a lot of existing do-it-ourself movie competitions, Shoot Out focuses on the more creative side of filmmaking," he said. "This is a very pure form of art, you do all of the editing on the camera." Keeping it Hard also took the best art direction prize. Other major winners included Pig In
Mud for best director (Natalie Martin) and best script, and The Park
for best cinematography. Australia's community of makers of short films was on a high after Adam Elliot's win for Harvie Krumpet at the Academy Awards, and now one of our most innovative short film events is being snapped up overseas. The Shoot Out film festival, which is the only 24-hour filmmaking festival, has been franchised overseas, to cities including Boulder, Colorado. (A number of New Zealand locations and cities in Britain look ready to join in.) News of the global franchising of Shoot Out is a considerable achievement for the people who started the home-grown festival - Kristi Street, Teresa Conicella and Craig Foot. The trio have cleverly marketed and trademarked their Shoot Out brand, while not losing sight of creating a wonderful, organic festival for filmmakers. The quirky NSW-based event features up to 1700 filmmakers converging on Newcastle each year to make a film in 24 hours. The international franchising of Shoot Out could eventually lead to promising opportunities for local filmmakers, who have embraced the event since its beginnings in Newcastle in 1999. It means their own work may end up competing on a global platform, in key territories including the US and Britain. |
