Putting together a short film in just 48 hours is by no means easy.
Putting together a compelling short film is just 48 hours is even more difficult.
But that challenge was one that Queen Anne residents Peter Feysa and Sandra Lince were up for when they entered Seattle’s 48-Hour Film Horror Project in 2014.
“Horror’s not even my big genre,” Lince said. “I just thought, ‘What a good task.’”
The seven-minute flick that came out of that two-day span, “The Graveyard Shift,” is now receiving new recognition, after debuting on Dec. 1 through IndieFlix, a popular independent film distribution company based in Madison Park.
“For us, we’re so proud to say they valued us enough to show us on their platform,” said Lince, who co-wrote the film with Feysa and was a producer and production manager.
‘An absolute blast’
The film — which stars Kevin Deaton, Malcolm West and Rick Walters — follows a pair of friends and their boss on the night shift at a galvanizing plant.
“My desire was to create a variation on the relationship of the traditional vampire film by weaving in elements of classical drama,” Feysa said in a release.
While getting the volunteer cast and crew together, securing equipment and scouting and securing filming locations can be done in advance of the 48-hour timeframe, all creative work must be done within that span. That includes everything from writing the script and costume and set design, to rehearsing, shooting and editing.
And though Murphy’s Law — the idea that anything that can go wrong will and at the worst possible time — would dictate a production filled with pitfalls, Lince said things went smoothly: Ultimately, “it was a really magical sort of fun thing. It was an absolute blast.”
When it was finished, the film blew away its competition, taking home honors for best film, audience favorite, cinematography and editing, while West was named best actor.
After that success locally, the filmmakers decided to try the festival circuit. Since then, the film was named the Best Horror Short at the Berlin Short Film Festival and the Oregon Independent Film Festival. Recently, it won seven awards at Bleedingham 2015, including best film, best story and best editing, and screened at the Atlanta Horror Film Festival.
However, for every festival that the film got into, Lince said, there were two more that it didn’t. But to get in anywhere, with thousands of filmmakers also submitting their projects, was a blessing.
“To get picked at all, quite honestly, was a miracle,” she said.
‘The little film that could’
For aspiring filmmakers, Lince said the 48 Hour Film Festival is a great opportunity for anyone who has wanted to try their hand at their medium and that it demystifies a lot of the process.
“This is like the little film that could,” she said, “and it just goes to show that making art like this is more and more accessible to people.”
To watch ‘The Graveyard Shift’ on IndieFlix, visit indieflix.com/indie-films/the-graveyard-shift-46268.
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