Our Best Short Film winner will receive our custom Global Shorts statuette which we ship anywhere in the world, free of charge. The award is manufactured by Society Awards, the same awards company that manufactures the Golden Globe and the Emmy. All winners will receive our Global Shorts Winner laurels in black, white, and gold.
Title: Heel’D
Runtime: 7 min
Country: USA
Director: Kyle Kauwika Harris
Placement: Honorable Mention
Competition: September 30, 2017
Synopsis: Three glamorous female bank robbers flee in to a vacant building while being pursued by two good-humored U.S. Marshals.
This short was part of the OKC 48 Hour Film Challenge.
GS: What was the inspiration for your film?
KH: This film was part of a 48 hour film challenge in Oklahoma City, OK this past summer. I included my team in the contest and we drew an action genre, character a waitress, Line of dialogue “Can you keep a secret”, and prop was a marker.
From there I decided to write this short because I love the modern western type genres (Hell or High Water, Wind River, etc.) and had this location as availability through the city. I had lots of fake gun props and my hair and makeup person had a bunch of wigs and I took inventory from my team of what we had at our disposal should we need it and from there I wrote this film in about 2 hours and then we went and made it. We shot two cameras all the time for time purposes and one I shot using frame rates and the other at a standard frame rates to choose from in the edit room but I wanted to have this kinetic energy about the film and with the frame rates I was able to achieve this goal.
GS: When did you conceive the idea for your film and how long did it take before it was realized?
KH: The day of the contest. I had no prior knowledge to what I’d be writing because I could’ve drawn horror or comedy or fantasy etc…Luckily I drew action.
GS: What was the most challenging aspect of working in a short film format?
KH: The time limit was everything in this case. We had 48 hours to write, shoot and edit the film.
GS: What was the most challenging aspect of your production?
KH: Editing. We had a lot of footage to go through and sound effects to add luckily we stayed up for two solid days to get it right.
GS: Do you have any advice for first-time filmmakers?
KH: First time filmmakers. Get on a film set and observe everything. Become a master of all departments or at least familiarize oneself with them. Write everyday and rewrite the next. Elevate everything. Always thinking of how the story stays connected throughout. Visualize it in your head. Every frame and make it come to life through the lens of the camera. Communicate your vision. Don’t be afraid to engage people and open up to people. I have seen a lot of great filmmakers sort of hover around the line of “so-so” when they could be great but they lack communication skills and would rather stay shy. In this industry you have to break down barriers in all aspects and communication is key.
