Some scripts drift aimlessly around Hollywood for years without ever being filmed. Movies are shuffled from studio to studio, distributor to distributor. Stalled images are repeatedly chopped on the editing board.

The 48 Hour Film Project is the antithesis of the Hollywood dinosaur. It's guerilla filmmaking - rebels with cameras in hand, out on the street, creating movie magic.

The film-in-a-weekend project, begun in May 2001 in Washington, D.C., has spread across the country as amateur and professional filmmakers have caught the creative bug. Nationally and internationally, more than 60 cities are part of the 2007 tour.

The premise is simple: Teams write, shoot and edit a four- to seven-minute film between 7 p.m. Friday and 7 p.m. Sunday. Of course, teams don't learn what genre of film (there are 14 plus seven wild cards) until 7 p.m. Friday, and all films must include at least one pre-determined character, a character's occupation, a prop and line of dialogue.

Last weekend, 39 teams dashed around the metro to create movies as part of the Little Rock 48 Hour Film Project. One team, TIX3 Films, is a collection of a dozen souls - some experienced, others brand new to the process - creating a film called The Growth and Care of a Prickly Pair.

TIX3 had planned ahead of time, deciding which genres (sci-fi and fantasy) would force them to turn to a wild card genre, securing filming locations and obtaining a bunny outfit and other costumes.

Team members assembled near Park Plaza to wait for producer Mindy Hawes, director Luke Kramer and key grip Zoie Clift to draw TIX3's genre at a kickoff for the project at Riverdale Cinemas 10. Shortly after 7 p.m. Friday, the call comes. Genre: Buddy Film. Character: Nick or Nancy McCray. Character occupation: Former pro-sports star. Prop: Birthday candle. Dialogue: "Say it like you mean it, baby."

Within minutes the creative wheels start rolling as plots are considered: A down-on-his-luck pro-wrestler, a ruined Scottish caber tosser or a disgraced strongman competitor are three characters bounced around.

At 9:45 p.m. a breakthrough moment occurs. What if the main character is a former rodeo clown who lost his best friend in the ring and is about to perform as a clown at his nephew's 15th birthday party? The absurdity of the situation forces the pair to become buddies. Throw in a bunny in an antique British MG convertible, and TIX3 has a film.

"You never quite know what you're going to do," Kramer said Friday. "I guess that is the point. We're treading in waters that we might not be comfortable in but what the hell."

It's 1 a.m. before additional plot points and scenes are hammered out. Before calling it a night, Kramer offers the team some advice.

"This weekend we get to take a break from seriousness to have fun," he said. "It's the whole idea of the process that is the key."

The team reconvenes at 7 a.m. Saturday, at its location off University Avenue and, fueled by doughnuts and coffee, convoys out to a house Chenal Valley to begin filming.

But TIX3 hits an immediate snag - a competing team already has claimed the house and TIX3 must find a new location pronto. A few phone calls later and a new - and ultimately better - location is secured in Hillcrest on a quiet residential street lined with blooming crape myrtles.

Kramer, Hawes and director of photography Dean Clift make a quick run-through of the new location. Then the crew busies itself setting up shop, and the cameras start rolling. Team member Louis Whitfield fills the role of rodeo clown Nick McCray while Corey Hendricks, a brother of a team member, is cast as the nephew. Hawes plays the mother, and a group of Hendricks' friends plays the extras at the birthday party.

During filming, Kramer switches from technical director - "Look back at the pillar, back at the brass knob, back at the pillar" - to a nurturer for the amateur actors - "Just sit in silence for a while. Silence is okay. If you think of something to say, say it. If not, we can sit in silence for a minute."

The keys to making a successful film during the 48 Hour Film Project are teamwork, swallowed egos and a certain instantaneous creativity. Case in point: As the filming continues, local musician Adrian Tillman is sequestered in a back room, hunched over his Roland keyboard, creating music for the film.

Throughout the rest of the morning and into the early afternoon, filming proceeds at a breathtaking pace. Scenes are filmed one after another, with actors and extras shuffling in and out.

Shortly after 2 p.m. Saturday, TIX3 hits another obstacle. During a playback of a scene, Kramer and Dean Clift discover the dialogue on footage up to that point has apparently not been captured. Tapes are switched, cameras are swapped, and not until the footage is played back on a TV a few panic-stricken minutes later is it uncovered the audio is present on the tapes, and the cameras' playback capabilities are to blame.

By Saturday evening, most of the filming is complete, but TIX3 discovers the dilemma of the 48 Hour Film Project: How do you convey a poignant conversation between two seemingly divergent characters in less than a minute or two? How do the two main characters actually become buddies?

Both Kramer and Hawes tell the pair to just converse, and since Hendricks and Whitfield had never met before Saturday, the conversation is awkward yet funny, just like a real-life conversation between a rodeo clown uncle and a teenager would be.

Shooting is completed, equipment is loaded, and the borrowed house is cleaned up before TIX3 reassembles for the editing process that continues into the early morning hours of Sunday.

By Sunday afternoon, time becomes the key word.

"We got time," Clift said. "The tighter we can cut it the better."

The editing process along with creating and adding end credits continues throughout the afternoon. Around 4 p.m. - three and a half hours before deadline - Kramer starts prompting the team to wrap it up.

"At this point we kind of got to let go," he said. "We got a few hours before we turn it in."

TIX3 views the final film on Kramer's editing monitor, offers last-minute tweaks, and Kramer begins the final process: rendering the film.

By Monday morning, 36 of the 39 teams that had signed up for the project had turned in a completed film, according to Steve Stone, producer of the Little Rock 48 Hour Film Project.

And how did TIX3 Films fare? A completed version of the film was turned in before the 7:30 p.m. Sunday deadline, but the audio did not sync with the video. The problem was fixed, but the final film was turned in after the deadline, disqualifying the team from any judges' awards.

Kramer said he was disappointed yet satisfied the audience would be able to see a finished product.

"I have never experienced something as emotionally, physically and creatively draining in such a short period of time," he said. "It was like I was in a completely different world the whole time.

"I had a hell of a time. It was a hell of a ride."

Screenings of the films created during the 48 Hour Film Project will be held July 24-26 at Riverdale Cinemas 10.