The Godfather of short film challenges joins the BritFilms team

Source: BritFilms

Johnnie Oddball, founder of the world renowned 24 hour and 48 hour film challenges, has joined the BritFilms team as a member of the panel of judges for the 24 hour film challenge. The challenge will be held on the weekend on 3 and 4 November at the Cineworld Nottingham.

Johnnie entered the film industry as a lighting technician and gained experience and contacts by working his way up. He created the 48 hour film challenge in London in 2000. He then went on to create one of the biggest filmmaking events in British history in 2003 with his national 48 hour film challenge – set in London, Bristol, Manchester and Scotland – where over 10,000 people participated and 488 short films were made. In 2004 he produced another four filmmaking events around Europe which included London, Berlin, Paris and Bulgaria, and the first 24 hour film challenge at Cannes in 2005. Johnnie also has three feature films to his credits.

Currently, he is a writer/director on a horror film called ‘Asylum on the Hill’. In 2003, he wrote, produced and directed his second feature ‘The Dark Hunter’ – a Spinal Tap meets Blair Witch style comedy horror about two wannabe filmmakers lost in making a bad horror film. He sold this to an American distributor and it received a West End debut and is now available on play.com.

This became a groundbreaking success for guerrilla filmmakers as it was a 90 minute full length feature film shot in just 12 days on DV with a £2000 budget and a small crew of just 30 people, some of which were members of the winning team from the first 24 hour film challenge.

Johnnie also helped start both the Greenwich and the Portabello Film Festivals, and he was awarded "Film Person of the Year 2003".