Last night, I gained entry into the top-secret judges’ chambers (read: cramped Angelika Dallas office) of the 8th Annual Dallas 24 Hour Video Race. The event is put on annually by the Video Association of Dallas. After a long night of spirited debate, roast beef sandwiches, and pondering where one draws the line between an edible and an inedible fruit or vegetable, the winners were announced. And for those of you who didn’t see the rules reel five times, here are the elements that were required for any team that wanted to take home the big prizes:

Theme: misunderstanding
Prop: an edible fruit or vegetable
Location: a street or traffic sign
Line of dialogue: “…the one on the left”
And, as the title of the race suggests, all films were completed within a specific 24-hour period.

And the winning teams are:

Pixelvision (high school students and younger):
1. Landdolphins
2. Digital Death
3. Team Swine

Here’s Digital Death’s Left and Write:

Futurevision (college students):
1. Shoot or Die
2. Silencer Films
3. View Finder Productions

Silencer Films’ Not For Sale had the theater howling with laughter:

Auteur (1 or 2 team members):
1. Elephant & Castle Productions
2. Blocknaw Productions
3. Original Dub Master

Elephant & Castle took the mockumentary route with Misunderstood: Portrait of a Genius:

Guerrilla (3-5 team members):
1. Monochromatic Productions
2. Curtis Needs a Ride
3. GüD Films

Both 1st and 2nd place winners featured small children in leading roles … Take note, 2010 competitors. Here is Curtis Needs a Ride’s Sweet Tooth:

Hollywood (6+ team members):
1. Tie between Whispering Eye and Brownian Motion
2. Palatia Motion Picture Group
3. The Depth of Fielders

Brownian Motion took a very different approach to the required elements in Choices:

Congratulations to all of this year’s teams! The 24 hours of sleep debt was clearly worth it.