The 24 Hour Film Challenge

For those who remembered the stresses of the 48-hour challenges previously 24 hours must have seemed nearly impossible. "In fact it's easier" says Johnnie, " You have less time to mess about, less time for "script meetings", it forces you to get out there and make something and make it quickly". Tom Wontner of Agar House who took part in the challenge agrees; "24 hours to make a film sounds totally mad, but it's actually a very liberating experience. We all know about writer's block - well, many filmmakers suffer the same thing with films. That's where a challenge can actually prove a rather effective laxative!"

On the morning of Saturday 18th September, sixty diehard filmmaking teams arrived at the UGC Shaftesbury Avenue to meet the challenge. As with previous years they were presented with a title and a genre and then they were kicked outside to get going. The cries of anguish as they were read out their directives were all part of the fun. What would you do with "Shark Hunt" and Kung Fu? Or "Informatica" and Horror? The first became a very funny and rather touching short about the wife of a Shaolin superhero who is always under attack by menacing and badly dubbed ninjas.