enlarge John Patriquin / Staff Photographer

Ashley d'Entremont and team started with a genre, one character, one prop and one line of dialogue and took off running.

enlarge

Kyle Walton shoots video of John Libby and Keith Monk. Their team, Short Shorts, was among about 20 participating in the two-day event.

enlarge John Patriquin / Staff Photographer

Ashley d'Entremont and John Libby work on "Knobbers," their entry in the 48 Hour Film Project. The team received special permission to shoot after hours at Kathy & Dave's Cafe on Forest Avenue.

IF YOU GO

THE 48 HOUR FILM PROJECT

WHEN & WHERE: Screening of films from this year's contest will take place Sept. 5 & 6 at the Nickelodeon on Temple Street.

HOW MUCH: Tickets are $5 for children and seniors and $7.50 for adults.

INFO: 48hourfile.com

Two days of high-volume creativity -- hunting down costumes, conning their way into locations, calling in favors from friends -- and they could not decide on a name for their work.

When you make a film -- especially if you make it in two days -- it has to have a name.

Ashley d'Entremont, who directed the feature, explains the name.

"Knobbers," she said. "Knob is bonk spelled backwards, so ..."

Maybe it would be better to start at the beginning.

6:35 p.m. Friday, Aug. 24, 2007

RiRa

The corner pub room at RiRa is almost shoulder-to-shoulder with people. The teams taking part in the 48 Hour Film Project have assembled to get the bare-bones outlines of a plot they'll need to make their movies.

Each team will be given a genre, a character, a prop and a line of dialogue to work with.

This is the second year in a row the project has drawn out Portland's amateur screenwriters, directors and actors with the promise of the seven minutes of screen time all teams get.

Nationally the contest will take place in cities across North America, Europe and Asia. But tonight more than 50 people, roughly 20 teams, are milling around.

For the moment, d'Entremont, a recent graduate of the University of New England, and her teammates on Short Shorts are relaxed and optimistic.

Noah Harrison, who is handling the music for the film, said making a film in two days likely means rolling with whatever breaks you get.

When the action finally starts, the crew ends up with the following genre/character/prop/dialogue combination:

Detective/cop.

Tree expert Burt or Betty Didier.

A bookend.

"We don't have time for this."

"Make sure to have your film here by 7:30 Sunday night," Jesse Savage, the local coordinator of the project, tells the teams. "If it's here by 7:31, it's too late."

3:15 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 18

University of New England Westbrook Campus

"Someone's been assaulting people with book ends," Laurel Libby explains.

Libby is busy looking up information about tree types on Wikipedia in a computer room at the campus library. Libby, a nurse in real life, is working her way into the role of Betty Didier, tree expert and crime suspect.

The basic plot of the film revolves around two police officers investigating a mysterious case of assaults in small-town Maine.

In the morning the team filmed in various places around Saco and Biddeford. The group, former and current UNE students and friends, are meeting up at the Portland campus to shoot more scenes.

Libby said she's been in a few small plays before, but nothing on film. To be a part-time actress she has to rearrange her nursing schedule. But it's worth it, she says.

On the other side of the room d'Entremont is on the phone trying to secure yet another location to shoot a scene.

It's been this way all day, cold-calling various locations, asking for favors and generally hustling their way through the scouting, blocking and casting that most films spend weeks on.

"We're just looking for a diner-type place to film some scenes in," d'Entremont says to someone on the phone at Kathy & Dave's Cafe on Forest Avenue.

As the crew watches, d'Entremont explains the contest, the basic online of the movie and why they need to get into the cafe that closed several hours earlier.

"OK! Great!" she says, getting off the phone. "Let's go."

3:50 p.m.

Kathy & Dave's Cafe

An ice machine hums away as the crew sets up in the darkened diner. Kyle Walton sets up his camera behind the lunch counter as John Libby, playing the skeptical police chief, and Robert Johnson, as the eager young cop J.R., hash out the scene.

They'll shoot two scenes in the diner -- one where J.R. is trying to convince the chief a series of crimes are connected, another where the chief comes around to J.R.'s suspicions.

"Chief, get a load of this," Johnson says,...