The 48-Hour Film Project (www.48hourfilm.com) is a new filmmaking experience in the country and combines film and video production in a festival-like setting. Filmmaking teams come together and have only 48 hours to produce a movie-from scratch. The 48-Hour Film Project will tour 12 other U.S. cities, in addition to going international for the first time to London, Paris, and Auckland, New Zealand. This past weekend's project is the fourth time that the 48-Hour Film Project has occurred in the nation's Capitol.

The K3WL Productions short, "I'm Here," is one of the creative endeavors of this 48-Hour Film Project. This horror short is about Ella, a young woman who wakes up to discover herself in a cramped, enclosed dark space. She bangs and screams, but no one hears her. Surprisingly, no one helps her when called on her cell phone. However, once reached, Devon, her boyfriend, franticly rushes to her aid to resolve her predicament. Short, simple, yet horrific.

"I am quite pleased with the quality of my team and the short that we created this year," says Marianna LaFollette, Producer and Team Leader. "My 48-Hour team was made up of various levels of production experience-from high-end to amateur. Production professionals who work with APTN, CNN and Reuters, among other clients, volunteered to work alongside passionate amateurs who either love film, want to break into the field, or both. This combination of people allowed the team to work well together, flow smoothly from one shot location to the next, and soak up the best out of their weekend experience.

The team's production professionals found the intense work requirement (48 hours) almost normal compared to their usual work speed. As Director Brad Ulery reveals, "When we are covering breaking news, we always work as if 2 minutes now is 2 minutes all day. Therefore, we won't get stuck at day's end with lots of work still to be accomplished for the job." Brad feels that the broadcast production professionals have an advantage over others in the competition who do not do this type of work intensity and career for a living. However, the project's appeal is the opportunity to do something creative for once.

The two main acting professionals also gained much from their participation. "Part of the real benefit of this [project] is making professional contacts with whom to collaborate again on future projects," believes Independent Producer Wayne Barbin, the actor who played "Devon." "It makes me want to do more with [the team] in any capacity."

On the other end of the spectrum, the amateurs on the team enjoyed their time with the crew, and learned quite a bit from everyone around them. Some of them had done the project before with Ms. LaFollette's past teams, and others were there for the first time. The amateurs were quite surprised about the complexities for shooting each shot, the difficulties and importance of good sound, and the necessary ability to shift gears from one unworkable solution to a better one.

A few children participated in the project, including 13-year-old actress, Alycia Princler. "In the future I would like to be an actress, sing, dance or do some kind of production," Ms. Princler declares. This project will help stimulate her interest in the living arts and show her what the working real world is all about. Furthermore, her experience in the short will give her the drive to aim for an art career once she hits college.

The Producer and Team Leader, Marianna LaFollette, has participated in the 48-Hour Film Project since its May 2001, Washington-DC inception. In the first May 2001 Project, she was the Sound Mixer for the Poppycock Productions team, which did the horror short, "Soul Long." For the second 48-Hour Film Project,, Ms. LaFollette gathered together her first team, and as Producer/Team Leader and Co-Director, she successfully completed the Project's first sci-fi entry, "Ember Lane." (A script for a full-length feature film is in the works). And, finally, in May 2002, as Producer and Team Leader, she lead her 2nd team to create another entry into the Project's 3rd DC installment with "Quarter Round," a fantasy short (www.anti-statik.com/quarterround).

In her other harried worklife, Ms. LaFollette is a highly-trained, high-end freelance Sound Technician and covers network news (CNN, Fox Newschannel), documentaries (HGTV,Food Network) and corporate industrial pieces in the Washington-DC area and nationwide.

For more information, please contact Marianna LaFollette, Producer, K3WL Productions, P.O. Box 77333, Washington, DC, 20013, #202/669-5876 (cell), email = mlafollette@erols.com.

Marianna LaFollette, Producer/Team Leader of K3WL Productions, firmly believes in the mastery of the craft and strives to improve and add to her skills, while helping others do the same. The road to improve is paved with bumps, but with perseverance and passion, she and others with her will continue to move forward in order to gain a better footing in the world.