The 48 Hour Film Challenge

How does it all work? All you have to do is turn up at one of four venues across the country on the appointed day, pick your film title and genre out of a hat, then script, shoot and edit your film over the next 48 hours. Sound impossible? At last year's challenge over 700 people turned up and 55 films were eventually completed.

Behind the whole enterprise is part time promo director, part time cycle courier and full time DIY film-maker Johnnie Oddball. We asked him how he dreamed up the idea of a 48 hour challenge. "I was surfing film sites a year or two ago looking for tips and inside info on the film business and all I read were just endless moans, gripes and whingeing about how hard it was to meet like-minded people, raise money for films, or get taken seriously by anyone with a job in the business. So I thought what all these people need to do is just get on with the business of actually making something".

Frustrated by the lack of gumption, gusto and sheer 'get up and go' of his fellow DIY film-makers, Oddball threw down an electronic, bulk mail gauntlet to this vast constituency of the ignored. 'If you can turn up to the Curzon Cinema in London's Soho at 10am on Saturday 31st of August, are happy to pick a title and a theme out of a film can, and use them to make a 10 minute film within 48 hours, you can come back two weeks later to watch your film on the big screen - with a prize for the best films'.