We recently connected with Alyne Harding and have shared our conversation below.

Alyne, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

A year or so after my first Filmapalooza (the championship round of the 48 Hour Film Project), one of the South African film students I’d befriended reached out and asked me to proofread a script he’d written for a contest. The contest required the script to be in English, which was not the student’s first language. I read it and made some suggestions. The script made it to the final round of the contest and won an award!

Currently, I’m on a mission to make Texas more hospitable to the creative arts and promote dynamic involvement by children and adults of every age and on every level of experience and training, whether as a hobby or in pursuit of a career. The 48HFP is part of that mission.

Alyne, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I fell in love with filmmaking after seeing “Return of the Jedi” NINE TIMES in the theater shortly after the tragic loss of my younger brother. I’ve been the Austin City Producer for the 48 Hour Film Project since 2013, six years after moving to Austin from Houston, where I got my first taste of the 48HFP in 2007. A varied assortment of event, social media, research and legal dayjobs have provide me with the tenacity and skills needed to expand the local project to TWICE a year in 2015! In 2022, after learning that that Dallas project was in need of a Producer, and having lived there for several years in the 90s and early 00s, a colleague in the Netherlands double-dog-dared me to accept the challenge of producing a 48HFP in another town. Each project has taken on its own unique personality, challenges and benefits.

What is the 48HFP? It’s a wild and sleepless weekend in which teams make a short film, from scratch, in just 48 hours. On Friday night, team representatives draw a genre from a hat. They are then given a character, prop and line to include in their films. On Sunday night, the films are turned in, and teams celebrate… or collapse. All submitted films, even those that miss the deadline, are then screened at a local theater in front of an audience of filmmakers, friends and families. Eligible films are judged by industry professionals and compete for a variety of awards. The coveted Best Film will advance to our global competition, Filmapalooza. The top films from “Filma” go directly to a special screening at the Cannes Film Festival!

A childhood of both trauma and privilege have gifted me with audacity, imagination and determination to overcome the unknown, and personally strive for improvement and to and broaden the 48HFP within Texas every new year, come what may!

In addition to the 48HFP, I often counsel the creatives I meet with outside-the-box advice to face challenges. I promote the creative content made by members of my “film family” and enjoy writing copy and crafting graphic designs for posters, flyers and social media marketing. I’ve even designed a few logos!

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

“This is NOT my first Kobayashi Maru!” Any fan of “Star Trek” knows that the Kobayashi Maru is a challenge to test your ability to face a no-win scenario, accept the loss, process the grief and guilt, and learn to keep moving forward, regardless. Princess Anna of Arendelle faced a similar situation in “Frozen 2,” expressed her thoughts and feelings, rather intensely, in the song, “The Next Right Thing.”

I won’t look too far ahead
It’s too much for me to take
But break it down to this next breath, this next step
This next choice is one that I can make

My younger brother passed away quite suddenly when I was 10 years old after a long battle with brain injury. That was MY first “Kobayashi Maru.” Thirty years later, I faced another huge loss with the dissolution of my marriage — but I had two children to take care of, so I couldn’t succumb to the darkness. I had to do the next right thing.

I had basically given up ALL of my own dreams a year before in the hope I could salvage the relationship and keep our family together. In the midst of the ensuing chaos, an opportunity appeared in my email inbox, but I knew I couldn’t handle it just then. I channeled another Disney Princess of Arendelle and just “let it go.” A year later, newly settled into the single-parent life, my divorce in the final stages, the opportunity appeared again! This time, I had to give it my best shot. I applied for the City Producer role with the Austin 48 Hour Film Project, with little hope I’d be considered… but I was! A wonderful man named Brian Bowers interviewed me by phone and decided that, although I was a little light in experience, I more than made up for it in enthusiasm. I got the job!

That opportunity totally changed my life! I went from trudging through day jobs, living hand-to-mouth to provide for my kids, to meeting countless creatives, traveling the world, expanding my own creative talents and realizing that “impossible” can be made possible if you only TRY! Although neither of my children are interested in pursuing creative careers, they generally enjoy the bonding experience of helping me with the backend production of the Austin and Dallas 48s. My daughter is learning to take ownership of certain duties, delegate tasks to volunteers, and compose, proof and tweak copy. My son is learning to set up backdrops and cameras and run a video board. I cannot imagine how bland and colorless my life would be, had I not taken that chance in 2013. I’m so very grateful to Brian for believing in me!

The world lost Brian Bowers earlier this year. In his memory, I am resolved to do for others what he did for me.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I aim to build my reputation on fairness, kindness and positivity. It can be frustrating to answer the same questions over and over, or to face criticism with dignity and patience, but I love my participants and think of them as family, even when I’m at the end of my rope. I try to remember that everyone is dealing with something they can’t always share, so sometimes even the smartest, sweetest and most capable individual is going to be difficult to work with. Often, I’ll reach out to my fellow city producers to share my frustrations so that I can face my participants’ questions with a genuine smile and a kind word. It helps knowing I’m not alone.

One of the most frustrating challenges is convincing others that you run a fair competition. I always try to mix up our judges every year to avoid any appearance of bias. I truly believe in the spirit of the 48 — to encourage everyone to make their voices known, to learn what they are capable of and to identify weaknesses so they can strive to improve in those areas) and it serves no purpose to influence the outcome. Still, even the best judges are only human and everyone thinks their film is the best ever — and it IS, to them, as it should be. But life doesn’t administer participation trophies and a winner MUST be chosen by someone to advance to the next round. My own favorites are rarely the winners. It can be heartbreaking, and I try to encourage all of our participants to learn from the experience and to submit their shorts to other festivals that may appreciate them more. Let what they’ve made with us fuel their creativity and success in the future.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/noblwish
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/austin48hfpcp/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/48hourfilmaustin
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/atx48hfp/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Austin48HrFilm
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/@austin48hourfilmproject
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@austin48hourfilmproject

Image Credits
No credits, but these are the locations where some of the photos where taken: SportsGarden AFS Cinema Filmapalooza Austin Public Da Big Daddy G Show