In May 2001, filmmaker Mark Ruppert came up with a crazy idea: To try to make a film from concept to completion in 48 hours. He enlisted his partner, Liz Langston, and several other filmmakers to join him in this experiment, and the 48 hour Film Project was born. Since that day, nearly 40,000 people have made 3,000 48-hour films in 80 cities worldwide.

The 2011 48 Hour Film Project comes to San Francisco this weekend for a wild and sleepless two-day bonanza of writing, shooting, editing and scoring movies. The completed films will then be screened at the Lumiere Theater later this month, with the winner going on to compete against 48-hour films from around the world.

To date, the smallest filmmaking team has consisted of only one person, and the largest team clocked in at 116 people and 30 horses.

Registration is still open for this weekend's project.  On Friday June 10th, participants will get a character, a prop, a line of dialogue and a genre, all to be included in your movie. Forty-eight hours later, the movie must be complete.

Premiere screenings will be June 16th-June 23rd at the Lumiere Theater 1572 California Street, San Francisco, 94109. To see a trailer of the project, click here.