NY Times
In the 48 Hour Film Project, moviemakers get a weekend to complete a four-to-seven-minute film. Mark Ruppert, who started the project in 2001 with Liz Langston, said that they wanted to find out whether it was possible to make a movie in such a short time and if so, whether anyone could stand to watch it. The project, which started in Washington, is now a business employing four people full time and has spread to 87 cities around the world, including Lima, Johannesburg and Casablanca. A few of the filmmakers are professionals; many more are hobbyists or people who fantasize about turn pro. On Friday evening, teams draw from a hat a slip of paper specifying one of 14 genres for their film, including horror, mockumentary, sci-fi and road movie. After genres are picked, a list of elements that each film must include is read off. Seattle’s list of included a carpenter named Van or Vanessa Saskia, an orange and the line “I can’t believe you said that.” To check out the winners of Seattle’s 48 Hour Film Project, which took place May 14-16, click here.