Directing a zero-budget short film with no experience
At the end of my fourth semester as a Digital Media and Design major, my class was tasked with releasing a film as a final project. The film needed to be at least five minutes long, and we had five days to deliver the final cut.
I had three other classmates on my team: an actor, a producer, and a PA. We spent a day scripting and getting together a shot list, but didn't have time to find any extras or scout the locations we wanted. We spent the next few days running around to shoot at local settings, heavily revising the script and shot list as we learned more about how much was feasible within our time frame.
Editing was an eight-hour marathon before the midnight deadline. I ended up trying to score certain scenes with a synth I made in FL Studio because I didn't have time to search for non-copyright music. The pace of the cuts, the color grading, and the VFX were all much more rushed than the other parts of the production.
If I could go back and start this project from scratch, I would definitely spend less time shooting and more time planning. We bit off more than we could chew with the original script, and were way more focused on catching impressive visuals/experimenting with camera techniques than communicating and capturing a well-paced story.
As rushed and crazy as this ambitious project was, I had so much fun bringing the final product back to my team and class. Looking back at the film weeks, months, and even years later, I still appreciate many scenes and elements that we were able to accomplish with our restrictions.
Feel free to check out our film below!
