The 48 Hour Film Project (48HFP). Melissa and her team will be holding their next exciting Machinima competition during the weekend of November 14th-17th 2008.

What is Machinima?

As you may know, Machinima (muh-sheen-eh-mah) is a new form of filmmaking using real-time, 3D virtual environments and gaming technologies. By using an avatar's point of view as the camera, the virtual world becomes a set and other avatars within view are the actors. This exciting new form of filmmaking is gaining in popularity and enabling artists with small budgets to create films that can mirror scenes from bigger budget filmmaking.

Who is the 48HFP?

? The 48HFP's mission is to advance filmmaking and promote filmmakers of all kinds. Through its festival/competition, the Project encourages filmmakers and would-be filmmakers to get out there and make movies.
? In early 2008, the 48HFP successfully ran the first Machinima version of the competition in the virtual world, Second Life.
? The event is a wild and sleepless weekend in which Machinima teams compete to write, shoot, edit and score a movie in just 48 hours.
? On Friday night, teams are given a character, a prop, a line of dialogue and a genre, all to include in their movie. 48 hours later, the movie must be complete and uploaded to a designated FTP site.
? Films will then be screened, usually in the next week. The winning film goes on to compete in the national competition.
? Competitions are usually city-based. The Machinima competition is an international one based in the "virtual world."
? In 2007, some 30,000 filmmakers made films in 55 cities around the world (including the virtual world, Second Life). This year, we're even bigger, with filmmakers in over 70 cities taking the challenge to make a film in just 48 hours.