We produced an award winning short film in 48 hours ‘The Last Chronicles’
After seeing how much fun the entrants had last year we couldn’t wait to enter this years DV Mission 48 hour film competition. It was a new experience for us and it was important to assemble a strong team to deliver a competitive film and have a laugh whilst doing so.
From left to right: Jason Clark (Story board visuals and sound), James Taylor (Drone pilot and sound), Brad Davies (Writer/Director and post), Andy Gatenby (Actor), Finley Hughes (Actor) and Michael Woods (Drone pilot, cam op and post)
Fun was the key ingredient to working on this project and we all thoroughly enjoyed the process. From waiting for the film brief to arrive in our inboxes on Friday 3rd March to frantically working together on post production, we had a right giggle!
The brief we received for this two minute short was:
Genre: space opera
Title: The [insert your idea here] Chronicles
Dialogue: “don’t lean on me man, you can’t afford the ticket”
Additional Obstruction: no trailers, no behind-the-scenes, no excerpts, no expositional voice of god voiceover, no expositional rolling titles aka Star Wars, just a space opera in 2 minutes with a beginning, middle and end!
Our first thought was, what’s a space opera? A quick online search revealed the answer and we started planning immediately.
✅️ Brief received at 1700 on Friday
✅️ Location permit sorted by 1720
✅️ Cast confirmed within the hour
✅️ Pitch deck, Storyboards and script by 2230
✅️ On set at 0530 the next day
✅️ Wrapped at 1400
✅️ Proxies created and files backed up same day
✅️ Editing commenced at 0900 the next day and film submitted at 1630
We were all excited to have two actors confirmed, well known Andy Gatenby, best known for his role in the crime film Nemesis and a debut film for Finley Hughes who is a natural on camera.
The Queen Elizabeth Country Park served to be the perfect location for our film. An overcast and dry day treated us well throughout filming too. We utilised our RED Komodo for filming and our DJI Wireless Transmission as a directors monitor. Utilising both traditional Line of Sight drones and First Person View drones added production value and we had a lot of fun chasing the actors through the wooded areas! Having a drone crew who understand story telling with visuals, composition and painting with light is important.
At the end of the shoot we retreated to the cafe on site and enjoyed talking about the highlights of the project. Finley thoroughly enjoyed himself and Andy was nothing short of inspirational, and is evidently a great role model for aspiring actors.
We named our film The Last Chronicles. For us, it was the beginning and by far the end. Working on this project has left the entire crew feeling they want more and are keen to make the ‘full film’. Time was spent creating a visual interface for the tablet and 3d modelling the space craft that are yet to be seen. You can watch The Last Chronicles Below.
Super proud to announce that our film was nominated for Best Film and Best Story and that we took home an award for Best Actor. Jason, James and Brad were able to attend the Pompey Oscars and were thrilled to take home the award.
We’re used to filming for corporates, small businesses and being hired in as a drone crew but this was our first short film production. It’s been a fascinating learning experience and we’re looking forward to working on set more frequently. Much gratitude to everyone involved in the production.
Interested in hiring a drone crew? Head on over to meet the team and connect with us. Here’s 50 reasons why you should hire a professional drone company.
