I hope you haven’t begun reading this blog with the hope that by its title, I was referring to Walter Hill’s, mid-eighties, Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy picture. If that was the case, I’m afraid I’m going to have to burst your bubble right here in the first paragraph. No, the 48 hours I was referring to are the 48 that were all allotted for me and the five courageous individuals that competed as a team in the 2007 48 Hour Film Project.

If you’re unfamiliar with the 48 Hour Film Project, the title provides a large clue as to the rules. You and a motley crew of your own assemblage have 48 hours to write, produce, shoot, edit and score a film. The rub is that you draw the genre of your film-to-be from what may as well have been a hat. You are also required to include in the film a prop which is randomly chosen and is different in every city that hosts a 48 Hour Film Project of its own. (For Nashville contestants this year, the prop was a car part). In addition to the prop, you are given a character that you must incorporate and a line of dialogue that has to make its way into the film. (In our case the character was a gentleman named Steve Fogarty, an electrician by trade, and in our script also the deliverer of our required line “Can I get a little help, please?”)

Our team consisted me and five brave lads and ladies who each give new meaning to the term intestinal fortitude. Each of them highly trained, cunning and equipped with the sort of cat-like reflexes, model good looks and rapier wit that you can usually only read about in books or witness on nature programs. Which is to say that it’s a rare thing to be tossed so deeply into the mix with a group of any number and not to have any cross words or heated disagreements. We carried each other through. At times we were even forced to resort to marathon sessions of affecting bad Brooklyn accents during our punchier moments: “Can I get a boom mike over he-ya.” (I’m not sure exactly how this came about, except to say I vaguely remember having a conversation about Tony Danza with one of my teammates and it seemed awfully funny to all of us at the time.)

The film we made is called “Up With People” (our genre was superhero), and though we didn’t have the time (or the pyrotechnics budget) to put all of our ideas in the final cut, I can honestly say without the faintest hint of disappointment that it was one of the more rewarding experiences of my brief career as a filmmaker. It’s a real inspiration to sit around a table with a group of people and have a chance to watch them all be creative.

So while the sleep batteries are low, the emotional and artistic batteries are, I’m happy to announce, fully charged and looking forward to the next opportunity I’ll have to work with any of the members of my team. So there you have it, a little mushy maybe, but every word of it true. I want to thank Abigail, Brandon, Jamie, Johnny and Pam for giving me something more constructive to do with my weekend than watching the Smoky and the Bandit trilogy (which was also discussed in depth during our shoot).

I hope you’ll seek out the 48 Hour Film Project in your own city. It’s an exhausting process but an interesting one, and an excellent way to test your filmmaking mettle. For more info check out the 48 Hour Film Project site HERE.