48 Hour Film Project Begins Friday Night

It's that time of year again. Bleary-eyed guerrilla film crews may be seen wandering the streets this weekend bearing hastily typed script pages and cases of Red Bull. It's the 48 Hour Film Project, in which masochistic filmmakers, writers, and actors get together to make a short film in two days flat, from concept to script to shooting to editing. It's the 100-meter dash of filmmaking, and over 100 teams have assembled to participate in this year's project. The whole thing kicks off Friday evening at an event where each team will be given the genre for their film, as well as a character, a prop, and a line of dialogue that they must include. After that, it's off to the races. If you want to take part, it's not yet too late; there's a waitlist for new teams, who can get in if others drop out at the last minute, or you can offer your services to existing teams. The resulting films can be seen at a series of showcases beginning on Tuesday at the AFI, and a best-of collection from this year's submissions will be screened on May 21.