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Have you ever had a childhood desire to be in movies? To act, direct, write and/or film? Thanks to Illini Film and Video, you can.

Very few underclassmen have probably heard of "IFV" - the abbreviation for the campus' premier filmmaking club, Illini Film and Video. If you were to ask the majority of this campus' upperclassmen, however, they probably either starred in or watched the production of one of their previous products, such as the infamous The University Of Illinois vs. A Mummy, or seen the equally infamous Robot Monster meandering around campus/Rentertainment. Since the completion of Mummy in early 2006, however, IFV's taken a less campus intense approach to filmmaking. They have focused more on orchestrating and facilitating various smaller projects and film competitions, encouraging new and old members to work together in order to create a steady stream of short films throughout the school year. IFV employs weekly meetings (7:30 p.m. Mondays in the English building lounge) and their online forum (www.illinifilmandvideo.com/forum) to network its members.

Various "classics" have been spawned through various competitions that IFV members have participated in such as, Interrogation and Why I Still Check Behind The Shower Curtain Before I Take A Piss (all of these are available for viewing online at www.illinifilmandvideo.com/films.php).

Amongst the various films competitions that IFV holds, the most popular is a fall contest known as the "weeklong film competition." Teams get one week to take three elements - a prop, a line of dialogue and a camera angle - and turn it into a film up to five minutes long. The results are always creative, diverse and all around hilarious.

This year IFV is doing things differently. First off, they're changing the time frame from one week to 49 hours. Thus, it is being dubbed the 49-Hour Film Competition. Secondly, IFV is opening the competition up to a broader range of people; they are advertising the competition to "anyone with a passion for filmmaking." IFV president, Joey Burgess, hopes to find more people who are interested in making movies on campus and is encouraging them to do so.

You do not even need your own camera to participate. With approximately 16 cameras at their disposal, IFV is able to support quite a few teams. Just make sure that you show up an hour or two before the competition officially begins to check one out. Of course, teams with their own cameras are encouraged to use them since that will allow more teams to compete.

So how do you get involved in the competition? All you have to do is go online and register your team at www.49hourfilm.com. Registration will start Oct. 19, and end Oct. 31.

The competition will start at 7:00 p.m. Friday, Nov. 2 and end 7:00 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 4 (don't forget to adjust your clocks for daylight savings time). Friday, Nov. 9, IFV will screen all the entries and pick a winner. IFV has not finalized the top prizes for the competition yet but it's sure to be something good.

For those who are interested in joining, but have no experience Burgess has some advice, "I'd say for now, [just] get a good team together but don't think too much about the movie you will make ... I personally like to see movies that really embrace and run with the elements."