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Whistler's 72hr. Filmmaker Showdown won by Outdun Productions

Whistler production duo beats out nine other teams for $15,000
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OUTDUN OUTDOES THE REST- Members of the Whistler production company Outdun Productions celebrates their winnings after taking home the top prize in the 72hr. Filmmaker Showdown at the TWSSF this year. Photo By Conrad Petzsch-Kunze, photos@conradpk.com

It was a film about an airplane and it beat out nine other films for the top prize at the 72hr. Filmmakers. Showdown on Tuesday night.

Whistler locals Mark O'Krafka and Ian Dunsmore of Outdun Productions took home the $10,000 Best in Show award for their film Zero, along with another $5,000 given by sponsor Olympus for the filmmakers using Olympus equipment to shoot.

Zero also earned the prize for Best Sound.

"Every time I come to this place I get blown away by the films that come out," O'Krafka says. "It's always been a humbling experience and we hoped to come in with something that we could at least be proud of."

Dunsmore says that they had abandoned their original idea about "a snowflake, which was going to hit the ground into snow" and came up with their winning idea the morning of the shoot.

"The filming process was a little crazy," he says. "The first day was definitely learning the camera, figuring out how it was all going to evolve."

He says they'll likely invest the money into future film projects.

Zero follows a day in the life of a little Styrofoam airplane as it becomes lost in the great wild world. Each of the 10 challengers had to use the airplane as a prop in the films - one of the competition's few rules.

Each team had 72 hours to shoot, edit and create a five-minute film. Thirty films were turned in and 10 finalists were chosen to compete for the grand prize at a sold-out gala at the Whistler Conference Centre.

A panel of judges from within the film industry picked the Best in Show winner.

Other finalists included Rebecca Wood Barrett for her in-jokey ski ballet film Rush and former champion Johnny Fleet's hilarious time-travelling quest to stop a particularly disastrous one-night stand.

Wood Barrett's Rush won the People's Choice Award by wide margin, taking home $1,000 to spend at the State of the Art show held in the conference centre foyer.

Check back with Pique for updates on tonight's Intersection and the Pro Photographer Showdown on Thursday.