Darlene Giordano must sell or how I came to make a film in 48 hours. (News and Report).

Being a film- and videomaker for over 15 years I have experienced my fair share of anxiety-ridden, pre-shoot nights, weekends hunched over production grant forms and have spent months--or even years--finishing one project. I know that these experiences I describe are not unique. Imagine, then, the prospect of being given only 48 hours to write, shoot and edit a short narrative film. If you had asked me a month ago, I would have said success within that timeframe was improbable If not impossible. Enter the 48 Hour Film Festival.

I first heard of this festival via a media organization called the Philadelphia Independent Film and Video Association and lamented the fact that I didn't think I knew anyone crazy enough to think they could finish a project in such a short period of time. Luckily, I was wrong. Two days after hearing about the festival, Michael Schweisheimer, a former Temple University student of mine, contacted me about participating. He was now an independent producer in Philadelphia and was looking to form a production team to enter the festival. He wanted to know if I would be interested In shooting the project. While I didn't think this proposition sounded like "play," I was game and signed on before I had the chance to chicken out. And play we did. But to appreciate our two days of start-to-finish video production It is necessary to first understand the background and premise of the 48 Hour Film Festival.

This unique festival, which just wrapped up a six-city tour, Is the brainchild of Mark Ruppert, a Washington, D.C.-based videomaker. Inspired by a 1998 New York Times article about two women in New York City who organized a 24-hour play competition, Ruppert immediately thought this Idea could be translated to video yet was not quite sure how to proceed. By 2001 he was ready to act. Factoring in the post-production time needed to complete a video project, Ruppert decided to expand the time frame to 48 hours and to devise production parameters that would allow for creativity yet insure that projects would be entirely conceived and finished within the 48-hour time period. Armed with a plan, he brought his Idea to his friend and film collaborator Liz Langston.

The response to that first call for production teams was overwhelming, with 10 teams participating. The thrill of creating work in two days and seeing it screened upon completion inspired Ruppert and Langston and their fellow D.C. media-makers to try it again. After the second successful D.C. 48 Hour event, they teamed up to co-produce the festival and take It on the road. The goal for 2002 was to hold the festival in six American cities and they both agree that the response was incredible. The 2002 D.C. kick-off event attracted 30 teams. Then it was on to New York City and Atlanta where 24 teams competed in each city. Los Angeles saw 44 teams compete and Philadelphia had teams sign on. The final stop was Austin, Texas the first week In November and the festival organizers report an equally enthusiastic response. It is clear that the 48 Hour Film Festival Is developing into a phenomenon. The grassroots approach attracts amateurs, professionals, students and filmmaker wannabes and the parameters of the festiva l are proving to be its most unique and surprisingly freeing element.

The festival event officially begins at 7 p.m. on a designated Friday and ends at 7 p.m. on the following Sunday. Twelve-narrative genres are compiled and at 6:30 p.m. on Friday each team draws from a hat to find out which genre it will work with. At this time each team is also given the same character, prop and line of dialogue that must appear In each of the finished films. While production teams are allowed to have already secured actors, crew and locations, they cannot actually start the project until 7 p.m. that evening.

On Friday night, October 18, my team waited for the parameters to come in. At 6:50 p.m. we received the call--our genre was "Superhero"; the character was Darlene Giordano, real estate agent; the prop was a turkey baster; and the line of dialogue was "Have you no shame?" Various members of the team worked on and off through the night with writer Michael Cargill to finish the script. When I arrived at 8 a.m. at the historic church Schweisheimer had secured as one of our locations, I was handed the final script, finished just, two hours earlier. Our mission--complete a parody of Sex in the City where the four main female characters are all superheroes in search of, if not Mr. Perfect, at least his sperm. The race was on. From 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. we shot an abduction scene in the church basement, a fight scene in the chapel and the film's final scene in the pastor's office. Then it was on to the restaurant location where we worked until i a.m. shooting the crucial super posse scene, the one that would bring Giordan o (real estate agent by day, Amazing Woman by night) to the realization that Mr. Perfect wasn't all that he seemed. The cast was talented and could roll with the production setbacks that were bound to happen under such rushed circumstances. The crew was attentive, proactive and kept their sense of humor thoughout the long day. After each scene was shot, the DV tape and log was rushed back to Schweisheimer's apartment where Craig Rizzo (another former Temple student) was editing at the Premiere station. Sunday morning came early for some, with final cityscape shooting completed, editing and sound work continuing, and the 7p.m. deadline looming. We made it back to Drinker's Tavern, the 48 Hour Film Festival headquarters, with one minute to spare. By Tuesday evening we were able to view all the finished pieces at Philadelphia's Prince Music Theater. While I was proud of our finished film, Super Sex in the City of Brotherly Love, I was unprepared for the amazing quality of content and production values I saw on d isplay that night. Twenty-one films were screened that evening; too many to enumerate here. However, a few merit further mention. I was taken aback by the cleverness and bloodletting of the horror entry Less Plot, More Kill. In this film Giordano leases an apartment to unsuspecting renters, each of whom is murdered and eventually eaten by Giordano and her minion, In the same program appeared the delightful Have a Nice Day: A Day in the Life of Sid Montgomery, a mockumentary that follows Sid, a men's room attendant, through a day at work. The day, of course, unfolds as anything but typical. Not to be outdone, the dead-on film noir Listeria Only Kills Once, with Its world-weary gumshoe portrayed as a health inspector, had the audience rolling with its clever writing and excellent cast.

After such a whirlwind filmmaking experience, where does one go from here? The festival directors have set their sites on expanding the festival to 12 cities, including such international locations as France and New Zealand. However, the most exciting result of the festival turns out not to be the finished films, but the excitement the experience has generated In the Philadelphia mediamaking community. Already a listserv has materialized and organization is underway to form a discussion group for future networking and collaboration. Ruppert verifies that this same phenomenon has happened in other cities on the festival tour, In the final analysis, this is the gift this particular festival gives--not just screening great short films for an appreciative audience but generating, or in some cases, regenerating, local filmmakers to pursue their work with renewed enthusiasm. For more information on the festival, visit www.48hourfilm.com.

LEANN ERICKSON is an independent film- and videomaker and a professor of film and video production at Temple University in Philadelphia.