first place (2025)

FIRST PLACE (2025)

South Texas International Film Festival’s 48 Hour Film Challenge guidelines asked participants to follow one concept, one object, and one film technique for our films. The concept was underdog, the object was a rubber duck, and the film technique was a match cut. For filming, I used my Canon 6D Mark II and attempted to use the Sunpak COB-40 which only lasted for one scene at the beginning. I quickly shifted to an Energizer flashlight attached to an extra tripod I had as my primary light source since I don’t have too much equipment with me at home. The concept was inspired by a feature I wrote in 2023 about a bakery murder mystery I never finished. I’ve been reading a lot about short filmmaking and learned that if the goal is a three minute film, the story must start and finish within those limits. A short film is not an excerpt of a longer story, it should feel complete which was something I was unable to accomplish last year. I made screenwriting my priority this year to avoid the same fate and only thought of cinematography after the screenplay was finished. When I began filming, I had outlined color theory for the entire project but quickly changed my mind in post production to black and white. A couple of my inspirations was Psycho (1960), Three Colors: Blue (1993), Companion (2025), and Chungking Express (1994).