Rolling...and...Action! Shooting a Short Film in Two Days

What’s a better way to get into the Halloween spirit than participating in a class-wide take on a 48-hour film contest?

This is the making of FOR YOU, a dark comedy short for our Ghost Story film assignment in Digital Storytelling.

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Divide and Conquer

I worked with two of my peers Maggie Collins and Michael Davis to complete this short film project.

Together, we came up with the story arc — a stalker-victim story similar to that of the Netflix series You, with a bit of a twist.

Next, we created a shot list based on the three locations where we wanted to shoot on campus: the library, the chapel, and an apartment.

That was all of the time we had to do things together before class ended, but Michael wrote the part for his voiceover, and I worked with Maggie to finish up the shot list.

Lessons Learned

Here’s a list of challenges we encountered and a few lessons we learned in the shooting process:

• Leave ample time for equipment set-up — we rushed around to set up and do camera tests, due to inclement weather.

• Check the weather — rain was in the forecast for the day we planned to shoot, and, while we had a Plan B for if there was heavy raining for the outside shots, we still faced a few difficulties.

From my experience shooting this short film, here’s what went right:

• Have a detailed shot list

• When you import your footage, save and label your shots by number so that it’s easy to assemble them in the edit

• Finishing on-schedule

Overall, completing this assignment was an exercise in efficiency. Despite working within a tight deadline, it was a valuable experience to see how I use my skills when the clock is ticking. Editing did not take as long as shooting, so I will explore ways to be more efficient in the photography stage for future projects.