Duuuuude.  I'm still amazed that Hong Kong's first 48 Hour Film Project is in the bag. 

 Incredible to think that Spencer and I decided to go for it just under 2 months until the deadline.  (For those who may not know the story behind this year's event dates - Halloween weekend was a necessary choice as it was one weekend before the global competition deadline, and I was on business travel for the 2 weeks before.  Shame we didn't pull horror for any of the teams)

We started out targeting our teams who we knew could pretty much show up and do it, people who had a mix of experience, skills, resourcefulness and/or sheer bravado.

In the end, we had 14 teams and 125 people filmmaking like banshees over one weekend.

Congrats again to our winners, Fly Eye Media, on nabbing our first Best Film honours!

It's been a somewhat crazy sleep-depriving but very gratifying experience, with some amazing feedback from our teams who participated, people who already want to sign up for next year, sponsors who came on board in a hurry and a general public who were very enthusiastic to see the screening (we had about twice the demand of our seating capacity).

Some of my best memories for this year include ordering posters while standing in line at customs in Tokyo, discreet boogeying at the screening, distributing iced coffees at some strange hour and Michael pounding down the pavement to the Drop Off 30 mins before deadline.

Thanks and much appreciation goes to:

Our Judges

Mr. Li Cheuk-to, Artistic Director of the Hong Kong Int'l Film Festival

Mr. Kenny Bi, Director (first Hong Kong film to go to competition at Sundance)

Ms. Elizabeth Kerr, Film Reviewer at The Hollywood Reporter

Our Sponsors

AliveNotDead

Clockenflap

Focus on Film

Drop (you can get Lychee Martinis there)

Special thanks to Raffi, Lindsay, Elissa and Vivian!

Time Out, SCMP and the Standard.

Agnes b Cinema.

Club 71 - the best place to grab a pint and have a big bag of Lay's classics.

Our volunteers: Gloria, Mya, Mandy, Tifa, Brian, Alfred, Sarah and Chung.  Thanks for your support and the amazing job you guys did of helping to keep things running and under control!  Thanks especially to Gloria, who was there for all 3 events and brought her Managing Director persona to the job.

Kenneth Lim, Photographer - thanks for coming on board last minute and getting us some great shots of our teams in action!

Severin Bonnichon, Editor - thanks also for coming on board last minute, and helping us to figure out all the technical stuff, spending hours prepping our numerous DVDs and running the screening.  And for being very French.

MC Simon Yin - So impressed man, you just showed up, we talked for 15 mins and you made the whole screening for us.  And btw you're booked for 2010.  

Spencer Douglass, Associate Producer & Dead Tiger - Again...we did it!  Thanks for coming on board to Mission Impossible and giving it your all to make things work (without a computer no less), coming out all the way to Quarry Bay - TWICE - and for making it fun.  48 would not have happened without you and your late-night texting and location wrangling.  I owe you a chocolate tea party.  We are MSH.

To my SO, who was being patient while I had my 48 blinders on, and for getting me everything I needed last minute - DVD player, hard drives, food.

To my parents...oh sorry that's another speech.

And finally to our teams, who came on board for the fun, for the experience, but mostly for the love of filmmaking.  This first year was definitely our most guerilla year, and therefore you are all the most guerilla filmmakers I know in Hong Kong now - you have the drive, creativity and resourcefulness to make your mark in this medium - and I hope you will continue working on stuff until one of us wins an Oscar.