New Zealand cities are being overrun by film crews this weekend.
The annual 48HOUR film-making competition is a " a cinematic bootcamp", with teams having one weekend to make a short film.
In its seventh year, the competition has attracted a record 700 teams throughout New Zealand. Teams were given one of 12 genres to base their film on last night , when the competition kicked off.
The genres include family, romance, horror, and some news introduced this year; real-time, nature runs amok, parallel world and politically incorrect.
There are teams in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, Gisborne and Hamilton.
Competition creator Ant Timpson said it was going well so far.
"We haven't heard of any drama or trauma yet. People are embracing the stormy situations throughout the country."
Mr Timpson said there was a wide range of teams, from amateurs through to people from big film agencies and TV productions. "Basically every single actor is pulled in for duties," he said.
Performers for the New Zealand International Comedy Festival, also on this weekend, were taking part too, he said.
The 48HOUR manager for Wellington, Dan Slevin said all the teams were worried about the weather last night, but Saturday turned out to be fine. "It's a classic 48 hours shoot day."
Daniel Hodson of the Wellington group The Sunday Night Dinner Club said his team was given the Nature Runs Amok theme. His team of 18 was making a film about rats taking over Wellington City.
"The hardest thing was deciding on the story and making sure that people get enough sleep," he said.
His team was finding the challenge enjoyable, but hectic.
Auckland competitor Joseph Harper's Team Busker Entertainment was given education and is making a documentary-film about drinking energy drinks.
The event was stressful, and team members were starting to doubt what they were doing. He expects some members will not sleep tonight.
The competition ends at 7pm on Sunday, and the best films are screened on C4 later in the year.
NZPA