Cody Michael Schmidt ’15 won the award for Best Director in the regional 48 Hour Film Project.
Cody Michael Schmidt ’15 received the Best Directing award for “Found,” his team’s entry in the Greensboro 48 Hour Film Project. Schmidt was director and co-producer for General Pictures, a team headed by Elon staff member Rick Earl, technical director for Cultural and Special Programs.
General Pictures also won second runner-up for best picture and runner-up for best actress for the performance of Abby Burris, a student at Weaver Academy for the Performing and Visual Arts and Advanced Technology in Greensboro.
Earl has been a producer in the competition for the past six years and this was only the second film for Schmidt, who made his directorial debut last year at the 40 Hour Film Project with “The System.” That film, also made with General Pictures, took home best actor and best actress awards.
Other Elon alumni involved in the film project this year were Marty Lucero ’16 as director of photography and James Crooks ’16 as post-production sound mixer. This year’s team also included Elon faculty members Todd Coleman, associate professor of music and coordinator of the Music Production and Recording Arts Program, who served as editor and composer, and Stephen Futrell, associate professor of music and director of Choral Activities, who served as location sound recordist. Both have participated with Earl for the past 6 years.
The Greensboro 48 Hour Film Project is part of an international competition where teams compete to write, shoot, edit and submit a short film in only 48 hours. This year’s competition was held the weekend of June 24.
The best picture from each local competition advances to Filmapalooza, the official 48 Hour Film Project Awards weekend and the top 10 films of the year from around the world will be screened at the Short Film Corner at Cannes 2017.