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Dustin Keene takes pride in the fact that even a director with millions of dollars at his disposal and a cast full of A-listers would be hard-pressed to accomplish what he has done for the past three years and what he hopes to do again next weekend: write, direct, edit and score a movie in 48 hours.

The 32-year-old, who runs Keen Innovations video production company, will lead one of about two dozen filmmaking teams hitting the streets of Greensboro next weekend for the 48-Hour Film Project.

This year the Gate City will be among 54 locales nationwide and about 80 worldwide taking part in the filmmaking competition. The event will begin June 19 at Studio B in Greensboro. Filmmakers will randomly draw a genre, a character, a prop and a line of dialogue and during the next two days create a four- to seven- minute film revolving around those things. Many participants expect to get no sleep in the process. The official rules state that the only work allowed before kickoff is the organization of a cast and crew, finding locations and getting equipment.

The winners in each city receive a trophy, screenwriting software and a showing at Filmapalooza in Las Vegas. There the city winners will compete for the title "Best 48-Hour Film of 2009." That honor brings with it a $3,000 cash prize and a Panasonic HPX170 camera. The 10 best movies will also be screened at the Cannes Film Festival.

What does it take to win? Past winners offer their insights on the dos and don'ts of marathon movie making.

"It's a learning experience, no matter what level you're on," Keene said. "And for those who are in the industry, this a tremendous opportunity to get exposure for your short film, which is very hard to do."

Dan A.R. Kelly

Three-year veteran and director of "Cadence," the 2008 Greensboro winner.

What sort of advice would you give to someone doing this for the first time?

My first advice would be don't stress it.

I didn't make it in 48 hours the first time. The first time I did it, it took me 56 hours (missing the deadline in the process). So, you know, just have fun. To me that's the best thing. That's why I keep doing it, because it's a tremendous amount of fun, and it's a really good creative exercise.

What have been some of the biggest mistakes you've made through the years?

Trying to crowd in too much, on my first year especially. I had a lot of actors that wanted to do it. I tried to write a lot of characters. But you only get seven minutes, at most, so trying to develop each of those characters became a problem. Not trying to do too much, honestly, is probably the best advice I can give in that department. Just focus on a good story told simply.

How do you keep going for 48 hours?

Personally, I'm one of those odd ducks that can stay up days on end without too much negative impact, though I do get a little silly. I don't think I've had a year where I've gotten more than two hours of sleep during the whole time. But that's me.

I try to rotate other people out on my teams, so that they can get sleep. They're working, and then they're getting some sleep, and then they're working again. So, in terms of scheduling, you know your basic process is going to be writing and then shooting and then editing. So, you try to organize people into each of these different areas, so that everybody gets a bit of downtime.

Dustin Keene

Three-year veteran and team leader of the Keen Collaboration, which produced "JoBeth," the 2007 Greensboro winner.

What sort of advice would you give to someone doing this for the first time?

The No. 1 thing that you need to do is make sure the people you have lined up are very good at their individual jobs. You need someone who is going to shoot the film. You need someone who definitely knows how to capture audio. I think that's the No. 1 mistake that people make in this competition. They shoot something and it sounds terrible, which makes the quality of the film bad, no matter how good the concept was or the content is.

What have been some of the biggest mistakes you've made through the years?

Being overly ambitious. Last year we tried to make the first film ever to be made in 48 hours that was in 3-D. And so we engineered a way to shoot a 3-D movie. Lightning struck during a storm last year, though, and knocked out all of our power about an hour before the turn-in time. So, we had to turn in a 2-D version.

How do you keep going for 48 hours?

We have to be shooting Saturday early and then wrap shooting by midnight so we can start editing. You want to manage the call times and the sleep schedules of people because you don't want people to be up for two days straight. Whenever the director can get sleep, fantastic. Hopefully while you're editing, he can catch a good six hours sleep.

Jason Pierce

Five-year veteran and director of "Gi Ho Lo: The Legacy of Richard Long," the 2006 Greensboro winner.

What sort of advice would you give to someone doing this for the first time?

The biggest piece of advice I would give is to decide ahead of time what you want to get out of it. Is your goal just to finish and have fun and learn something? Or are you looking to go in and make the best movie you've ever made? You have to plan differently depending on what you're doing in that regard. Ideally you want to go into it and have fun. Too much pressure otherwise.

What have been some of the biggest mistakes you've made through the years?

The biggest mistake for us was thinking we had to write everything out. (Now), we have a general outline. We'll scribble down what scenes we think we should get in there, and as we go, we sort of learn more things about the story and the characters. But it's usually a small piece of paper with some notes on it. The year we won, our "script" was half a piece of notebook paper with about six lines on it.

How do you keep going for 48 hours?

I don't drink caffeine, so I just do it by sheer force of will. But I take catnaps, three or four hours a night. I go until I can't keep my eyes open and then go sleep for a couple of hours, get up and keep going.

Matt Moore

Five-year veteran and team leader of Good as a Mugg Productions, which produced "Yesterday" and "Organized Art," the 2004 and 2005 Greensboro winners, respectively.

What sort of advice would you give to somebody doing this for the first time?

Just do what you want to do. Go all out. Make sure you follow the rules. Don't rely on the crazy little phrase, "It's not complete, but it doesn't matter." Don't step into it like it's just a game. If you're serious about it, you have to try to rule it.

What have been some of the biggest mistakes you've made through the years?

It's not so much the mistakes you make, but the decisions you make. It's Murphy's Law. Not so much what mistakes you make, but what decisions explode in your face.

How do you keep going for 48 hours?

It's the competition that keeps you going. That and Red Bull and energy drinks. I hate Red Bull, so I usually drink Full Throttle. But just getting the damn thing done, that's my motivation. Seeing the other side (the finished product), that's what keeps me awake.

Contact Robert C. Lopez at 691-5091 or robert.lopez@news-record.com