LOGAN SQUARE — Are you an insomniac, a masochist or someone who genuinely enjoys an extremely tight deadline?
If not, maybe you just dream of your work being projected on a movie theater screen.
The upcoming 48 Hour Film Project, the world's longest-running timed filmmaking competition, combines a bit of all of the above.
The competition, in its 11th year in Chicago, pits teams against each other in a 48-hour filmmaking blitz: That includes writing, shooting, editing and scoring the movie.
At the end of the 48 hours each team's finished four- to seven-minute short film will be shown on the big screen at the Logan Theatre.
The competition is open to anyone and regularly draws a diverse group of teams ranging from pros with teams of 40 to amateurs just getting into film. It has become a right of passage for filmmakers and their crews, some say.
"It's extremely wild," said 41-year-old Dagoberto Zolio Soto, an actor and producer whose team won the audience choice award in 2010. The Little Village resident, who has appeared in Chicago Fire, was the lead actor in "Delilah" that year.
The 48 Hour Film Project is a worldwide festival that will be held in more than 130 cities this year. This year the Chicago version of the festival expects 60 teams to compete. Over the history of the project, about 30,000 teams have participated.
While teams are urged to line up some actors and possible locations to shoot during the mad dash that is the 48 Hour Film Project, it's impossible to prepare for what's to come.
At 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 14, each team draws a genre from a hat, including buddy film, comedy, dark comedy, cop/detective, drama, horror, western and sci fi.
Each team will also be required to include an assigned character, prop and dialogue.
"Certainly there's a lot of stress and pressure, but for emerging filmmakers this is a right of passage," said Jerry Vasilatos, this year's executive director. A Chicago native and graduate of Columbia College, Vasilatos said the competition is a "trial by fire" for filmmakers to learn how to handle deadlines and work with others.
The biggest draw for young and new filmmakers is the chance to have their creation shown on the big screen.
"A lot of people who have competed have never had that opportunity," Vasilatos said. "Especially in a very nice movie theater like the Logan Theatre."
Friday night is usually filled with writing the script from about 8 p.m. until 5 or 6 in the morning, according to Zolio Soto.
Teams then shoot the script up to the actors and plan for a 9 or 10 a.m. call before a full day of shooting until 4 a.m. Sunday.
Once the shooting is complete, all of the clips are sent to an editor, who has to beat the clock to piece the finished product together by 7:30 p.m. Sunday.
"We are just running on fumes at that time by Sunday at 5 o'clock," Zolio Soto said.
Most directors and producers catch little to no sleep over the weekend.
The finished films will be shown over three nights at the Logan Theatre Aug. 18-20. Those viewings typically sell out.
The awards will be judged by a panel including film critics, producers and actors. The panel will select a best film and the audience will determine the Audience Award.
The grand prize in the competition is $5,000 and a chance to screen the film at the Cannes Film Festival. The top 10 films of the year from around the world will be screened at the Short Film Corner at Cannes in 2016.
There is a $160 entry fee through Aug. 6, and after that the fee bumps up to $175.
"The cool thing about this project is that nobody gets paid," Zolio Soto said. "You are doing it for the love of filmmaking."
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