A chance meeting in a Washington, D.C., bar has two former Severna Park High School lacrosse teammates working together in a dream job.  They just don't know when payday is coming, if ever.

     Travis Gray and Nick Panagopulos are making a movie.

     Mr. Gray and Mr. Panagopulos took quite different routes to the set of "Five Lines," the first feature film for both.  But those paths have so far proved useful to the project.

     Mr. Gray, who took a business degree from Colorado State University in Fort Collins after graduation in 1991, is using those skills, and experience gained from jobs with the Discovery and Learning channels, to produce the film.  Mr. Panagopulos, class of 1992, is putting his film degree from the North Carolina School of the Arts at Winston-Salem, plus experience directing corporate films and music videos, to use as director.

     After the chance meeting last summer, Mr. Panagopulos told his former teammate about the script he had co-written.  The next day Mr. Gray quit his job at the Learning Channel.

     Within a month the two put together a consortium of investors to foot the bulk of the total budget.  They are still looking for investors to help defray post-production costs.  The movie follows the stories of five strangers on different Metro lines who ironically die at the same moment.

     In essence, the film is five separate movies, each named for the five color coded lines of the subway system.

     Movie making has always been a passion of Mr. Panagopulos.  After getting his film degree he founded his own company, Brainbox, which makes corporate films and music videos.

     "But I always had my eye on making feature films," he said during an interview aboard an out-of-service train in the side yard at the New Carrolton Metro Station on Saturday.

     The set looks like many movie productions; the camera crew setting up shots, the director huddling with actors, and others huddling around the coffee machine in the trailer.  Then there are the cell phones, everywhere one turns there is someone on a phone.

     But the difference between big Hollywood sets and this one is scale.  There is one camera, and crew meals are not catered - pizza and fried chicken boxes sit on the table in the recreation vehicle that also serves as office, equipment trailer, and meeting room.

     And then the director's mom and dad show up as extras.

     Jerry and Kay Panagopulos, who now live in Crownsville, always told their son to find something he loves to do, and go for it.  "I remember his first video, it was a magic show," Mrs. Panagopulos said. "Then there were the army movies in the woods, and lots of Karo syrup and red food coloring to make blood."

     Travis Gray's parents, Calvin and Connie, are on board also.  In fact, Travis' mother is the film's still photographer.  Brother Calvin III, is a helicopter pilot and will be taking the film crew up for aerial shots.

     Unlike many small budget independent movies shot on a shoestring budget, "Five Lines" is being shot at more than 30 locations around the Washington area.  From the Iwo Jima Memorial to a fight scene under the Woodrow Wilson Bridge and Saturday's shoot in New Carrolton, the company recreational vehicle can be seen all over D.C.

     The logistics involved with the shooting schedule are daunting.  Dealing with state, county and local governments, Metro officials, meshing schedules, securing permits, parking and pizza are just some of the many details Mr. Gray has to juggle in order to have everything run on schedule.  "I have a lot of help, and I could not do it without them," he said.

     Both men said one of the attractions of movie making is the collaboration and teamwork it takes to get it done.

     "This crew has just been fantastic, working incredibly long hours for low, or no, pay, it is amazing" Mr. Gray said.

     Pat Burn, a location manager at the D.C. Film Commission, has been working with the "Five Lines" crew almost daily.  "We are encouraging independent films and have helped them secure permits they need," he said.

     "Five Lines" is being shot with new high definition video equipment and will be converted to film once editing is completed in two to three months.

     The next step is getting the film accepted at film festivals. The film makers hope to have a rough cut done in time to submit to the Los Angeles Film Festival in January.  With a lot of luck, "Five Lines" might be next year's "Blair Witch Project," the low-budget horror movie that became last summer's surprise hit.  "We hope it will pay for another movie," Mr. Gray said.