Let's say you want to make a movie. Lots of people do.

Now give yourself only 48 hours -- not a minute longer -- to write a screenplay, get actors and locations in order, complete principal photography, finish editing and postproduction and turn in the movie to judges.

Then consider that you'll learn what kind of movie you're randomly assigned to make -- comedy, silent, sci-fi, road movie, etc. -- about five minutes before that 48-hour countdown begins.

Maybe you'll just rent a movie instead.

More than two dozen filmmaking teams won't take this easy way out this weekend. They'll compete in the third annual 48 Hour Film Project, a national contest of will, ingenuity and energy drinks resulting in camaraderie, unexpected hurdles and heartbreak that I wrote about when the contest debuted locally in 2007. Just watching these folks at the start and finish of their quests was exhausting. Their war stories were interesting.

One team staged a fist fight for a scene and a Clearwater cop wasn't amused. Another team got locked inside the school where they were borrowing editing equipment. Another made what they felt was a sure-fire winner, only to endure a computer crash that knocked them out of the running.

The ones that beat the clock and the odds were pretty impressive. The runaway 2007 winner was Unspeakable, a gripping cop drama by the Viva La VHS team that grabbed seven prizes. You can check it out above, and should. Last year's winner, the silent comedy Crime's a Cookin' by Team Jump Cut, is a small gem that should be on YouTube but isn't.

If you run into a haggard posse of camera-toting competitors this weekend, anywhere around the Tampa Bay area, give 'em two thumbs up. Then stop by Channelside Cinemas on July 22 for two showings (6:30 and 9 p.m.) of the completed movies.