WAYNE — Whether their tastes trend toward monster movies, melodramas or mockumentaries, all aspiring Spielbergs are invited to get behind the camera for a filmmaking challenge this weekend.

The North Wayne Schoolhouse Preservation Committee’s second Make-a-Movie Weekend starts at 6 tonight, when teams will meet at the schoolhouse to receive a mystery prop they must use.

Then they’ll have until 6 p.m. Sunday to turn in a completed film. The results will be shown at a free screening and awards ceremony Aug. 6.

Only three teams took part last year, and schoolhouse committee member Betsy Bowen is hoping for more this time around.

“It was hugely successful. People were just very enthusiastic,” she said. “The showing was full of energy.”

Some teams come up with stories on the fly.

Last year, for example, one team put the mystery prop, a tennis ball, at the center of their film “Dog Meets Tennis Ball: A Love Story.”

Other groups prepare stories, characters and some dialogue, as one family did last year and has done so again.

“We’ve got our script fairly well written right now, but we have to fit the mystery prop into it,” Clinton resident Buddy Frost said. “Over the weekend the script will change tremendously, I’m sure.”

Frost, his children and nine grandchildren once again will convene on their family camp in Fayette to make a sequel to last year’s “Camp Nature and Nurture,” a comedy set at a summer camp.

“It means a lot to us, the movie itself,” Frost said. “So we’re doing it again.”

This year the children will be trying to hold on to a dog they found at the end of the previous film.

The screening will be at 6 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 6, on the second floor of the North Wayne Schoolhouse. The preservation committee turned the second floor of the building into a movie theater last year.

The Make-a-Movie weekend is similar to projects around the country.

It’s a way for families to spend time together while doing something a little out of the ordinary, Bowen said.

“Summertime ought to be a time when people get to do things they might not otherwise do,” she said. “We have a community around here that is creative and interested in doing things.”

Susan McMillan — 621-5645

smcmillan@mainetoday.com