By Staff

San Diego Free Press contributor Horacio Jones, who recently garnered an award from the San Diego chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, has produced a short film with co- director Fabrice Murgia for the 48 Hour Film Project San Diego.  Titled Wingin’ It, the work is the story of a rebellious angel who must be coached on how to take souls to the after-life.

The 48 Hour Film Project is a worldwide film competition in which local teams have 48 hours to write, shoot and edit a 4-7 minute short film. A little over 100 teams signed up to compete. To keep the process honest, contestants randomly picked a genre one Friday night at 7pm. They were also provided a prop, line, and character to use in their film.

Team Viva! (named after Jones’ production company CinemaViva) worked on the script and pre-production until 3am Saturday morning. Filming took most of Saturday from 9am until 9pm. The team stayed up the rest of the night completing the editing process. With the help of coffee and Chinese takeout, they managed to turn in the film by the 7pm deadline on Sunday.

For this year’s competition Horacio Jones brought back local actors David Wagner and Lisa Winans. Last year, Lisa won the Best Actress award for the competition for her role in Desert Rose. Rosarito artist Gretchen Smith, made a special trip up to San Diego to be a part of the contest. She proved invaluable as she bravely ventured to Walmart in the middle of the night to buy materials for creating the angel’s wings. Joel Morillo provided his expertise as Director of Photography and Special Effects Supervisor.

The San Diego 48 Hour Film Project Screenings will be held over a four day period at the Reading Gaslamp 15 Cinemas in downtown San Diego. Wingin’ It is slated to screen August 13 at 6:30pm. It is an entry in Group G.

Entries will be judged for their artistic and technical merit and adherence to the assignment.  Attendees of each premiere screening will also be able to cast their vote for their favorite movie to win the Audience Award.  The winning films will move on to the Best of San Diego Screening on Sat, Aug 22, 2015 @ 6:00pm – 9:30pm at the Reading Gaslamp 15 Cinemas.

Horacio said, “Creating a fantasy genre film without time and budget was particularly challenging. Fortunately with smart storytelling and creative costuming, the team was able to put together a funny and memorable film.”

Trailer for Wingin’ It

Best wishes to Horacio and his team!

• San Diego 48 Hour Film Project Screenings  August 10-13 at the Reading Gaslamp 15 Cinemas
• Wingin’ It  screening August 13 at 6:30pm. (Entry in Group G)
• More information about San Diego 48 Hour Film Project can be found here.