HOW many hours? I'm hoping against hope that I'll be selected to do a film in this year's 48 Hour Film Project. I mailed in my application by Priority Mail the day of the announcement, so with any luck I'll be one of the first fifteen applications received, and thus guaranteed a slot.

I've already started lining up a crew, and thanks to Greenbelt Access Television, which loans out prosumer cameras and equipment to members, I actually might be able to get some good-looking footage.

I attended GATE's annual meeting on Sunday. I expected it to be a Mickey-Mouse organization, and man, was I mistaken. They have two Sony VX2000s, a Power Mac G4 with Final Cut Pro and DVD Studio Pro, and a very active and knowledgeable membership base, including people who actually get PAID to do film and video. One of the members demonstrated the new Panasonic camera that shoots in 24 frames per second--the same fps as film. (Standard video in North America is 30 fps--actually 59.94 fields per second, but let's not get too technical.) And afterwards, she offered to help with the 48 hour project, and more importantly, offered me an editing gig.

Things be looking up, they be.