Hard to find shortcuts making "No Shortcuts"

Well it took 10 months but FINALLY..."No Shortcuts" is in the can. A one-man band short film I undertook in Winter 2021 to give myself a creative project when I had practically no free time is shot, cut, colored, scored, and ready to be submitted to a few festivals. Now looking back, I gotta say it was much more work than I was ready for.

No Shortcuts has practical effects, computer generated effects, sound effects, compositing work and color touches that all together make it happen. Most films require a lot of post work, but science fiction requires an additional layer of care to make them work and not turn an audience off. Much of my efforts worked well, some will be nitpicked. But that's okay, I wasn't going for perfection. I was simply going. I will say I learned a lot about my tolerance for imperfection when tired and/or cold. I also cemented my belief filmmaking is meant to be a collaborative endeavor. Not only to produce a better end product, but get a greater sense of accomplishment. This was fun, but not the same feeling as creating something with other people.

When I conceived No Shortcuts I knew there would be a fair amount of post, but given I only had 30-60 minutes here or there to work on the film, I was not prepared for how long this post run would be. It could've been shorter but being an involved parent, enduring a pandemic, and moving really slowed the whole thing down. On top of that, I never worked on the film before 9pm. Many of the times I tackled the post work I was just exhausted and didn't have the gas to really get moving. But dang it, I cut the film and I have a 14 minute short and a 55 second trailer to show for it.

So what now? Well, I've entered the film in a handful of film festivals, made an IMDB page for it. I know it will get into some and will most definitely get rejected from a couple of the bigger ones (Fantastic Fest... pretty please?), but that's okay. This film was about doing something creative for myself in a year that was slammed with responsibility and very little "me time." 

No Shortcuts is not a Tiny Explosions short film. It doesn't fit that mold and since it was only me, it doesn't seem right to throw it under that banner. With that in mind, I've decided to put it under my freelance nom de plume, Responsibly Wild. Eventually it will live on that YouTube channel, and hopefully one day there will be other Responsibly Wild films, but No Shortcuts is the first. Click on over there and subscribe & click the bell to follow along.

When can you see it? At this point, I'm not sure. I would like to see it on a big screen at least once before I throw it up on YouTube for good. In the mean time, the website for the film still exists and I will eventually add more to that. Here's hoping I can see it at least once in a theater before the end of 2022. Cheers.