Fall River filmmakers win big at this year’s 48 Hour Film Project

In just 48 hours, local production company Shwing Entertainment went from a tight-knit group of sketch comics to a team of award-winning silent filmmakers.

Last month, Elijah Boulton, Lewis Coverdale and Connor Locke’s seven-minute film Growing Pains won Best Film of 2022 at the 48 Hour Film Project (48HFP), Atlantic Canada region, beating seven other teams in the regional contest. 

“So we got the prompts on Friday night. We wrote the script Friday night, we filmed during the day Saturday and edited it on Sunday,” said Boulton, the film’s co-director, cinematographer and editor. “Then I put it into my editing program and I just played it all back and I literally burst into tears. I was like, it’s perfect.”

The 48HFP is a worldwide, weekend-long film production competition which has competitors write, cast, film and produce an entire short film in just 48 hours. 

Shwing Entertainment reached out to their friends, actor Kenzie Macintosh and composer Jonah Peveril to help. The team of five was significantly smaller than their competitors.

Mark Ruppert, executive producer of the 48HFP, says the average team has 12 members.

On the Friday night of the contest, teams pick a genre from a hat and are assigned a character, prop and line that must be included in their film. 

This year, Shwing Entertainment was pushed outside their comfort zone, drawing the genre “silent film.”

“We’re like, ‘Damn, okay, we’ve never done a silent film. This is going to be, like, difficult but super fun at the same time,’ ” said Locke, who acted in the film and produced.

“We know we can do comedy. We know we can do action. We know we can do all of these things. But to be able to make, like, a beautiful love story without a single word of dialogue…” said Boulton. “I never in a million years was like, yeah, that’s something I could do. I was like, that’s so far removed from anything I’m comfortable with. So to be able to make something like that, and succeed, clearly, means the world.”

Growing Pains, which tells the tale of a young woman and young deaf man falling in love, was also awarded Best Directing, Best Music, and Best Choreography and will go on to represent Atlantic Canada against all the other city winners around the world at Filmapalooza 2023, which is being held in Los Angeles in March. 

Filmapalooza is an international film festival showcasing over 135 short films. Attendees have the opportunity to network and participate in workshops led by industry experts.

Shwing Entertainment has a Youtube channel where they post their videos.

“None of us ever went to film school or anything, but we’re just passionate about it. And we love doing it,” said Boulton.

The win has been a major confidence boost for the team.

“There was some stiff competition, there were teams of, like, over 50 people that we were up against… We were literally a team of five people. I guess it proves that you don’t need a big Hollywood budget if you’re passionate about something,” said Boulton.

Writer-director Coverdale agrees. “It sort of validates that what we’re doing, it isn’t quite just sort of a messing around with your friends sort of thing. You know, it’s a bit more than a hobby now.” 

Ruppert says doing well in the 48HFP is very indicative of a team’s talent. “One of the things that’s interesting about all filmmaking, whether you’re talking 48 hours, or you’re talking Hollywood budget, is that you’ve got to deal with time restrictions, and some problem is always going to pop up. And so that’s one of the things that you, the skills that the 48HFP requires, they really transfer to all levels of filmmaking.”

Ruppert also noted Shwing Entertainment’s use of original music.

“That’s something that doesn’t happen, happens in less than 50 per cent of the time.”

This year, the 48HFP held more than 75 filmmaking events around the world with more than 2,500 teams taking part. This was Shwing Entertainment’s second year competing. It will be their first time attending Filmapalooza in the spring.

“If actual filmmakers in L.A. are seeing our film and being like, hey, this isn’t bad, this is something … that’s a huge deal,” said Boulton. “That’s a really big step for us. And that’s really, really exciting.”

The team says we can only expect to see more Shwing Entertainment projects in the future.