Overthinking (2-hour short film challenge)
A few days ago I wrote, shot, and edited a short film in 2 hours as part of a 2 hour short film challenge. It's not award-winning by any means, but I enjoyed making it.
My friends and I do this challenge where we try and make a short film in 2 hours every few months. April's prompt was "Disaster".
I came up with the idea and wrote the script one late night while I was on a Discord call (i.e. peak productivity lol.) And then shot and edited it with Kadin a few days later. Honestly, I hated it with every bone in my body till I stopped caring and in a last-ditch effort filmed a few shots with 8 minutes left on the clock. Those few shots make it 'watchable'. It's still not great... but hey - it was much worse. Trust me.
My key takeaways:
- Don't take 45 minutes to write the script on the first day when you only have 120 minutes in the challenge.
- Write a shootable script, not a feature-length action movie. (I know, sounds obvious.)
- 2 hours is not much time but you can have fun:)
So, here is the (very silly) made in 2 hours short film aptly entitled 'Overthinking':
Hope you enjoy it.
Though this is humiliating, below is my very rough screenplay... if you can call it that. Last-minute, changes were made while filming JUST so that we could make it work logistically. Normally I try and write with the sky as the limit but it's good to ground things for a change. Turns out reality is pretty real. Gotta go and touch some grass.
Anyhow, I have a very busy week of freelancing ahead of me... probably not going to hear from me for a bit, but till next time... Enjoy the journey.
INT. STUDIO - DUSK
JEFF looks at his screen. A wave of horror passes his face.
MAIN CHARACTER
It's now or never.
CLOSE UP of TIMER on desk. It gets wound to 10 minutes.
CLOSE UP of STICK NOTE. It reads DUE 5:00 PM
In the background the sun starts to set. JEFF looks past the camera. Takes DEEP BREATH.
MAIN CHARACTER (cont'd)
You can't be cringe.
You can't be corny.
Or...
INSERT SHOT of clock. It reads 4:50. Nope! -- NOW 4:51.
Jeff looks at a small crumpled up paper in his hand.
MAIN CHARACTER (cont'd)
I better do this.
TITLE CARD: The Disaster.
MAIN CHARACTER (cont'd)
Roses are red.
Jeff paces the room. Pen in hand.
MAIN CHARACTER (cont'd)
Violets are blue.
He stops. Shakes his head. He knows it's not working. He crumples up his paper. Throws it across the room.
INT. STUDIO - MOMENTS LATER
Jeff turns a dim lamp on, then sits on a couch.
The sun is almost set. Time is nearly gone. He sighs in deep frustrated at his lack of creativity. It's getting to him.
To his side are a heap of crumpled papers.
SUDDENLY, HE FREEZES, then gets up. He has an idea.
DESK - Jeff sits down. GRABS PEN. Hunches over to start -
The pen is dead.
MAIN CHARACTER
Noooo! Okay -
He looks down PULLS out a drawer in a frenzy. It BREAKS APART. He furrows his brow.
RUSHES TO COMPUTER. STARTS WRITING. POWER GOES OUT.
BEEP - BEEP - BEEP - BEEP.
MAIN CHARACTER (cont'd)
NOOOOO!!!
What is the start: I'm doing X and - Insisting Incident: External event happens and makes me realize something internally.
What is the problem? I panic and don't know which choice to chose. Both options aren't good. We have a dilemma: the 2 bad solutions.
Theme: Trust God, not yourself.
Personification of theme: Choose the road less traveled.
