How long does it take to complete the making of a certain film? The answer, of course, differs from director to director. For some, crafting a script, assembling a cast and crew, shooting, editing and exhibiting can take just a few months. For others, the process takes several years. But for participants in Mark Ruppert's 48 Hour Film Project, the name says it all: the film must be completed in just two days!

Entering into its third year, the 48 Hour Film Project has invaded more than a dozen cities worldwide-beginning in our nation's capital and traveling as far overseas as Auckland, New Zealand and London, England. Now, with the National Film Challenge, you can be a moviemaker anywhere and participate. Here, Ruppert discusses the Project's genesis and why such a short time span is freeing and frustrating all at once.

Jennifer Wood (MM): As evidenced by the number of like-minded events that have popped up over the last few years, the type of film event you've created seems like a logical next step in the progression of the "film festival" model.  Moviemakers are given just a couple of ideas to create, shoot, edit and screen a movie. How did this idea first strike you?

Mark Ruppert (MR): It was after I had read about the 24-hour play in New York. I just really loved that concept and thought it would lend itself to film and video. But I knew that we would need more time, so we doubled it to 48 hours and got working.

MM: What made you think that such an idea could and would catch on with moviemakers?

MR: It appealed to me as a filmmaker and the very first time that we did this, I put my own team together. I got a couple of fellow filmmakers to agree to put teams together and the next thing we knew there was a total of 10 of us who were willing to do it and it was a phenomenal success. When I thought about it, I had no idea whether the films would even be watchable, being made in that short a timeframe. And the amazing thing was that every single film that first time out was good!

MM: When and where was the first event?

MR: The first one was in D.C. in May of 2001.

MM: What made you decide to branch out and not keep it just a local, D.C. event?

MR: We got such a phenomenal response in D.C-we went from 10 teams to 15 teams to 36 teams-and we knew that we really had something that resonated with filmmakers. So the next logical step was to take it to some other cities.

MM: In most cases, are the participating moviemakers in each city local, or are they traveling from all over to take part?

MR: It's primarily people who are located in our host city, but we do have travelers. We had a team from Miami go to New York, we had a team from New York go to Boston.

MM: Can you explain the process of how these teams are put together? Is it just one moviemaker who signs up and assembles his or her own team?

MR: Exactly. Ever team leader or filmmaker is responsible for putting together his or her own team and getting all the equipment; they're basically responsible for every facet of production. We then provide the rules, the screenings and the prizes.

We come in at the kickoff event on Friday night and it's here where you can really feel the excitement and anticipation in the room. It's here that each team draws its genre for its film out of a hat. Then we draw a prop, a character and a line of dialogue that must appear in each of the films from that city.

The "Boondogglers of Atlanta" happily accept the 48 Hour Film Project's grand prize for their film, White Bitch Down.

MM: And then they just go from there?

MR: At 7:00 p.m., they're out the door and we see them two days later.

MM: Do they have any other information before then, like location, or should they be scouting that ahead of time?

MR: Right, they take care of all that stuff. Locations are totally up to them. Some of the stuff they can do ahead of time are scout locations or even get permits if they think they want to shoot in one place; they can certainly recruit their cast and crew and get a lot of their equipment together.

MM: Then how do you go about choosing participants. Is it just if you want to take part you can, or is there an application process?

MR: Well, because we guarantee a screening to each of the teams, we do have to limit the number of total participating teams in each city. We've done as many as 48 teams in a city, but typically we'll do between 24 and 48 teams.

The way that it works is that teams send in their entry form and we have a limited number of spots that re available on a first come, first served basis.

MM: Are most of the participants beginners, or more experienced moviemakers?

MR: We tend to have more people who are in the profession than complete novices, but we do have both. We have students participate, too, but not that many. A lot of people assume that it's mostly students when really it's mostly people who work in the profession.

MM: What do you think it is that appeals to professionals about the opportunity, who are already doing this in some aspect for a living?

MR: What's appealing about it is its shortness. They know that they don't have to spend six months working on a project. Oftentimes we'll find people who've recruited their team from among friends and people they work with and they don't have any trouble finding teammates because they're only asking for a maximum two-day commitment.

Also the time limit, even though it's a significant hindrance, is actually very freeing because filmmakers don't have enough time to worry about the perfect line or whether they got the shot just perfectly or whether that actor is available this weekend. As soon as 7 o'clock rolls around they just have to start creating and make something happen!

MM: What sort of technology are you-and your participants-using to make this happen in such a short period of time?

MR: Certainly this whole thing would not have been possible even five years ago without a non-linear editing system; computer editing has basically made this do-able. Combine that with the digital cameras that are now available, and available at a reasonable price, and quite a few people have their own equipment and can do their own thing.

MM: Speaking of editing, do participants make all of their own post-production arrangements ahead of time as well, or do you have editing suites, etc. available to them?

MR: No, that is something they take care of as well.

MM: How is the winning team selected?

MR: We do a couple of things. The first thing is we have audience award winners; we have our audience vote at each of the screenings. Then we have a panel of local judges select the best film from that city. We're excited because this year we're taking those best 11 films, and they're all going to screen at South by Southwest in March. And there we will announce the national judges' decision and the best 48 Hour Film of 2003.

MM: What are the prizes? Do they differ at each event?

MR: The prizes vary from city to city as we continue to look for the appropriate sponsor for the entire project, which we currently don't have. Every city winner receives a trophy and the screening at South by Southwest, which is basically the prize.

MM: Film festivals are typically an audience-oriented event, whereas this seems to be much more moviemaker-oriented. But you do screen the films, so how do you market that aspect?

MR: Most of the people attending are somehow related to the filmmakers.

MM: So it is more moviemaker-oriented than audience?

MR: Yes. At least the initial event in each city. Then we've also been able to partner with some of the local film festivals. After we did the Philadelphia Project, we brought the "Best of Philadelphia" to the Philadelphia Film Festival and there we had an audience of 1,300 people. In Atlanta we were part of the Atlanta Film Festival. In Auckland, New Zealand, for their "Best Of" screening they had 2,100 people. So it does spread beyond the filmmakers once we do our "Best Of" screenings.

MM: After your last Washington, D.C. event, we received a number of letters from people who had participated, or attended, requesting to either write about the experience or telling us that we should make a story out of it. It really shows that what you're doing is working, and getting people excited.

MR: One of the side benefits has been that, in many of the cities, the film community gets energized. You see a lot of filmmakers discovering people whom they've never worked with but now want to work with and it gets so many people making films, which is what it's all about.

MM: You have recently also developed the National Film Challenge, which seems a logical outgrowth of the 48 Hour Film Project. Can you talk a little bit about exactly what this is and why you felt that now was the time to take on yet another event.

MR: The issue that we've faced is that we can only accommodate a certain amount of filmmakers in each city and we can only go to a certain number of cities. We heard from filmmakers all across the country who couldn't participate, so we decided to create the National Film Challenge, which is a one-weekend competition where any filmmaker anywhere can compete. They'll actually have longer than 48 hours-they'll have until Monday to send us their film. So it's not a true 48 Hour Film Project, but it is a weekend film competition and we're excited to see what that brings.

It will start off with an e-mail on Friday night and it's basically the same rules: participants will receive a genre, a character, a prop and a line of dialogue and go from there. So far we have 85 teams signed up for the first year and we're very excited about it.

MM: So they'll just Fed Ex or mail the films to you and then what happens from there? Where do you screen those films and how long is the judging process?

MR: Well, the big challenge, of course, is getting so many films judged and it's something that many film festivals face when they get hundreds of entries-they must be judged. So we have our panels of judges that will be screening each and every one of the films and will be judging the best. From there, we're going to put the 10 best out on a DVD and the one grand prize winner will also be screened at South by Southwest

MM: So what other new developments can we expect to see from the 48 Hour Film Project in the next year?

MR: We have signed an agreement with a Danish company that is going to produce the 48 Hour Film Project in Copenhagen, Berlin and Dublin in 2004. We'd like to add some more U.S. cities; we don't have specific targets beyond the 10 U.S. cities we did this year, but we're looking.

For more information on the 48 Film Project, visit http://www.48hourfilm.com.