48 Hours and the Challenge of Group Dynamics

Patrick Whalen
Jul 28, 2017 · 3 min read

Happy 48-day!

What’s 48-day? I’m glad you asked. It’s the day the 48 Hour Film Project kicks off.

The 48 Hour Film Project is a wild weekend in which teams of filmmakers have 48 hours to write, shoot, edit, and score a short. Oh, and the genre of the short film is randomly selected on Friday night along with the reveal of 3 required elements (character, prop, and line of dialogue) that must be included. It’s an incredibly challenging weekend that forces creativity.

The 48HFP started in 2001 in Washington D.C. and has since expanded to hundreds of cities around the world. My partner, Trish, and I organize the New Haven, CT chapter.

For some, it’s just a two-day event. For us, it’s a seven to eight month process, and even in those off months we’re still looking at ways to improve it. This year we focused on growth and new partnership, working to connect with similar organizations. A lot of what we’ve done with 48 is building the foundation for the Nutmeg Institute (more on that at a later time).

The 48 Hour Film Project is an interesting beast, especially when it comes to group dynamics. Whether you’re in school, at work, or putting together a film shoot there’s a high likelihood you’ve worked on group projects. Working with different personalities, prioritizing deadlines, and managing workloads can be difficult. Groups form into cohesive units over weeks, months, even years. Now imagine if you only have two days to work together cohesively.

Bruce Tuckman developed his group development model back in 1965. For those unfamiliar, in the Forming stage the participants learn about their challenge or task and about each other. In the Storming stage group members begin to show their true personalities; they clash over ideas and roles. The Norming stage brings everyone closer together, they understand one another a little bit better and the arguments are stronger for it. Finally, in the Performing stage the group works to it’s peak abilities, everyone knows how to work together and the group can work without much supervisor interference.

The 48HFP works the same way. As the organizer of the event it’s interesting to watch some of these dynamics evolve. Do note that most of our winning teams have done this before (or worked on other projects together). But it’s fun to watch first-timers return and see who on the team returns (and who doesn’t). The 48 teaches you very quickly who you will want to work with again. The atmosphere of a film set combined with the expediency of the event drive home the group formation faster than most other events. You can tell how well they worked together by the final film.

I’m looking forward to see my teams tonight but more importantly I’m looking forward to seeing them next week to screen the films. Making a film is impressive. Making a film in a weekend with forced creative elements is very very impressive. You need a great to do that.

Patrick Whalen is the co-founder of the Nutmeg Institute, an MBA candidate at the University of Connecticut, and a reluctant Insurance expert. His favorite movies are Empire Strikes Back and The Sting. His Twitter account is just him “yelling” about UCONN Men’s Basketball and Football.

Patrick Whalen

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Content Creator. Storyteller. Relationship Builder. Student. Founder.

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