A short film created by a team of Westminster College students for the fall 2023 Pittsburgh 48 Hour Film Project was selected as the competition’s Best Student Film.
“Loose Grip,” produced by the team Give ’Em Props Productions from Kandice Hartner’s Single Camera Video class, earned the honor at the film project’s Best of Screenings and Awards Show on Oct. 29. The film was also nominated in the categories Best Use of Required Character and Best Leading Actor.
The annual contest challenges teams to research, shoot and edit a short film in a single weekend. For the fall competition, the genre themes fall into two categories: horror and science fiction. Teams were provided guidelines and required elements and given just 48 hours to craft, shoot, edit and submit a four- to seven-minute film. Teams chose from one of two genres and were given a required prop, a line of dialogue and a character.
The Westminster students selected the genre “parallel universe” and were required to use an adhesive bandage as a prop, include the line “I learned this secret long ago” in the script, and incorporate the character of skater Shawn Taker into the story.