I was honored to participate in my first (and maybe last!) 24 hr. film festival as a shooter and editor. We managed to be a finalist in the Orlando 24 Hour Film Festival 2011 with an action/comedy entry called White Collar Crimes, Baby!

Strong comedic dialog and great acting really pulled the bit together. Of course, there were a couple of disasters, most notably the first serious rain we've seen in two months, but every team had that same handicap. Besides a 9AM to 9AM time frame, we also had the following conditions for our entry (other teams got different elements):

• We got to chose from Action or Romance for the genre.
• We had to include three items from a prop list and ended up using: owl, dice, $100 bill.
• We had to use the line "Sorry, I just fell asleep while you were describing the most boring thing ever."

I was very impressed with the competition too: there were some fantastic shorts. I loved going to the screening of all the finalists and seeing them on the big screen in a real theater. Apparently, they are also scheduled to show on PBS in town, although (a) I don't receive television and (b) the local PBS station was recently purchased by a mega-church ministry out of Texas.

References:
http://www.izonorlando.com/2010/05/24-hour-film-festival/