A Collierville teenager recently helped contribute to a short film that has been voted No. 1 in the country.
Callie Hollis, a student at St. George’s Independent School, competed against 380 teams from 56 cities in 27 countries created short films as part of the annual Global 48 Hour Film Competition.
The concept of the competition is to script, shoot, edit and produce a short film within the 48 hours.Hollis is one of nine Tennessee teenagers who worked on the film, which she described as a dramedy with elements of science fiction.
The group, which calls itself “i’mmature flix crew,” met at the Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts.
At 17 years old, Hollis is the youngest of the group of teens.
“The oldest member of our crew was 18 years old,” she said. “To to be able to say that a group of teenagers beat professionals is a high achievement.”
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Hollis’ family recommend that she remain at home during filming.
This created some challenges, considering that the movie, which is titled “MAR-E 01” and runs around 8 minutes in length, was shot in Nashville.
So, Hollis had to contribute virtually using video conferencing programs like Zoom and FaceTime.
With the title of production designer, Hollis assisted with costume and set design.
She also helped pick some of the music for the production.
“I was a little scared at first to do it virtually,” she noted, “but it actually ended up looking so nice with the production design that Justice Skinner and I did. It ended up being a great film.”
Her group was one of 12 teams in Nashville to compete from June 5-7.
Each team gets assigned a genre and must include a prop, line and character.
“MAR-E 01” focuses on a mother and her daughter.
The mother continuously encourages her daughter to engage in extracurricular and social activities.
Fearing the emotional anguish that relationships can cause, the daughter analyzes the cost-benefit of forming bonds with others.
So, instead in engaging with others, the daughter spends her time building a robotic sheep.
The idea comes to her when she is unable to form a connection with a flock of real sheep.
The film stars Leanne Marsh and Katherine Boettcher and is now representing the U.S. in the global competition against 15 other countries.
Anyone can vote by going to cinema48.com.
“In order to move on we need your votes,” Hollis said.
The group is now competing in one of four brackets against films created in Columbia, France and Slovakia.
Those interested in watching and voting on the films can create an account at cinema48.com, which will immediately take participants to the voting page.
There are nine members of the “i’mmature flix crew,” including; Isabelle Leonard, Tyler Skrove, Justice Skinner, Callie Hollis of Collierville, Cason Smith, Ryan Bowen, Libby Wisener, Lane Stanley and Ellie Cagle.
