The meter was already running on the Grand Cinema's 72-Hour Film Competition when Erik Hanberg, the Grand's managing director, explained the rules to 40-plus participants gathered at the theater.

He made it quick: Films had to be five minutes long, had to incorporate an image of a Tacoma bridge, had to include the line "I have a feeling someone's deceiving us" and had to be turned in by 10 p.m. Sunday.

Props were handed out at random. The team to make best use of their object, such as a box of Milkduds or a wooden spoon, would receive a $50 gift certificate.

The judges were Grand Cinema artistic director Shawn Sylvian, NFI Models & Talent owner Noreen Hobson and Stadium Video and Buzzards CDs owner Marty Campbell.

Hobson offered a pool of professional actors willing to appear in the short films. She and Sylvian are members of Film in Tacoma, a volunteer group focused on bringing film-industry happenings to the city. She thinks this contest can only help.

Dave McGuire and Ryan Kam of Team 1A sat in the Opera Alley office of NFI Models & Talent. Headshots of actresses were spread on the desk in front of them.

McGuire is a former insurance adjuster who dreams of writing a sitcom. Kam works at Best Buy and sees a future in directing. As they left Hobson's office to scout downtown restaurant locations, she offered a dose of inspiration for the road.

The Praxis Imago team picked the wooden spoon from Hanberg's prop box and ran with it. "The film is about one man's addiction to a spoon and his journey to the underground world of spoons," said Matthew Philbrook.

He and the other members of Praxis Imago are University of Puget Sound students active in the school's filmmaking organization of the same name.

Philbrook, 17, lifted the boom microphone overhead and from behind the camera, Tim Linnemann, 21, gave Brian Moore and John Espey, both 19, the go-ahead to start a scene. In it, the pair rendezvous behind the Wheelock Student Center after making off with handfuls of cafeteria spoons.

Studio MP consists of a group of friends in their 40s who attend a weekly screenwriting class. The first-time filmmakers entered the competition to get a taste of the other sides of the creative process, said Rosanna Menck of Olympia.

"There's so much involved," said Hofner, a Puyallup homemaker. "The actors were being really funny in one scene and I forgot where I was and laughed. They had to redo the scene!"

"It's not about being good or bad," said Grand Cinema employee Peter Lynn as he accepted film submissions on Sunday night. "It's about the fun of it."

Lynn, 23, also participated in the competition with Shoshana Farber as team Farynn Films. Their mockumentary follows an overzealous Grand volunteer.

"I bought a camera awhile ago, with the idea that I wanted to make a movie," Lynn said. "But this competition is what inspired me to get going. I've been carrying around the DVD of our film with me, it's so amateur, but it's so great. I'm proud of it."

When the Grand's clock turned to 10 p.m., all films were in. A few teams hung out in the lobby and chatted away the last bits of their three-day cinematic rush.

"If we win, we'll go out and celebrate," said McGuire of Team 1A. "But we'll celebrate anyway because we'll have seen our movie on the big screen."

Films were screened at The Grand Cinema on Thursday. An encore screening is set for Wednesday at 6 p.m. Admission is $5 general, $4 for Grand Cinema members.

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