Chess.com member stars in Best Spy Film

My newest short film, The Delivery, has won the "Best Spy Genre" category in the 48-hour film challenge!!  The whole film was written, produced, shot, and edited in 48-hours!!  This is my best work on the internet so far.  I hope you all enjoy it.

See if you can spot the chess set that I slipped in.  There's 2 shots where you can see it, but you have to be looking for it.

http://www.filmchallenge.org/awards/the-delivery

Congrats!

Very good! Well done u must be very proud indeed to out do so many.

Haha oh man, I just watched it. Good fun buddy. It sucks to see you sniped like that, after having gone along with there scheme and everything. He did show you a picture of your family (which side of the bed DO you sleep on btw? haha), after all, so I guess you didn't have much choice.

The transition of pulling you into the room, though, happened a little unnaturally, in my opinion - you seemed to accept it too casually - ie. if someone pulled you by the arm into a room, I doubt you'd stand still without anxiety and regard them casually (either fighting or backing away would've been more naturalistic). Of course, that you do, in this case, forwards the story and has nothing to do with your decision making as an actor.

I also found it dubious that a secretive organization would have to use a sap whom they're willing to kill (!) over just barging in and taking the file by force. The file did not seem at all difficult to get at (accessible to a delivery man, easily openable on the second drawer), while at the same time it seemed paramount to the one group.

Disposing of a body & killing a man are much more difficult than accessing that file, in my opinion, but then again, I'm an incorrigible critic, trained to analyse every last aspect of everything.

I apologise in this instance - as clearly, it is exciting that my chess pal is succeeding as such. I congratulate you, it's extremely badass, haha. It was a short film, after all, and therefore storyline must be somewhat hurried.

But you acted it well, and it was excellent fun to watch, especially knowing you're a chess.com member with whom I've cooresponded.

All the best to your career, Billium!

Yeah, I forgot to mention that there were 300 films submitted.  I obviously had no idea how good any of the other films were since I hadn't seen any of them, but I knew that ours was good, and we had a real good chance at winning something!!  It's so cool that we actually did!!!

Wow, that was excellent!

I liked the camera work, dialogue, video editing, soundtrack, and all three actors did such a great job with their roles. It's cool you were able to find/assemble a set like that in such short time. A bit of extra work on the props might've helped--such as a government seal on the manila folder to help establish the spy's credibility--but overall an awersome job especially given the narrow schedule you had to work with. Keep it up!  :)

Congrats on the award! Well done film. The funny part is, I used to be a courier up in your area Billium, and I've made deliveries to the building you drive up to in the start of the film (can't tell if its the same one as that you shot the interior parts at). None of mine involved HS though. In fact, when I was doing it, HS didn't even exist. :-)

Okey. So I didn't see the chess board after watching it three times. Where is it?

That was cool, but what was in the file? Information on a gang member maybe? Why was it in that common looking office?

Since we only had 48 hours to make the whole thing, even WE didn't know what was in the file.    We wrote the script Friday night, we shot it all day Saturday, and edited it on Sunday.  That should explain a lot.  We don't even know what happens next.  My guess is that it wasn't as important that he get the info in the file as much as it was important for the file to mysteriously disappear from the office (possibly containing a vital piece of evidence).

Regarding the "And What have we learned from this," that was the line we needed to use somewhere in the script to be eligible for the competition, along with a flyswatter, and a character: Jamie Walsh, Clerk.  This way they have some control over the fact that the movie was really made within the 48-hour time limit.  It's interesting to go thru the list of other winning movies from this competition, especially when they also had the Jamie Walsh, Flyswatter, "And what have we learned from this?" requirements.  One of them was even in the same genre as ours, but such a completely different film.

The chess set just happened to be in the office that we were using, and I didn't actually think it made it into the film at first.  It's a glass set on a glass table, so it's real easy to miss.  In fact if you weren't looking for a chess set, you might not know that's what it was.  As I am grabbing the file, just before and after, there is a long shot where you see me going to/finishing up at the file cabinet.  Behind me, along the wall, is the table with the chess board on it.

Shot: I spil the water.

Shot: She gets out of her seat.

Shot: She walks around the desk, and I go up to the file cabinet.  This is the best view of the chess set.  Trust me.  It's a chess set. 

Shot: She's grabbing the paper towels (under the obligatory flyswatter that had to be visible).

Shot: Close up on the files.

Shot: I'm placing the file in my clipboard.  The chess set is behind me.

Shot: She walks back into the room.

Man! You're not kidding! I never would have guessed that was a chess set if you hadn't told me.

Now we need a sequel which shows it was actually you or someone hiding in the closet (your wife or daughter) who fired the shots, and the Homeland Security agent whose body crumpled noisily onto the floor. Then you spend the rest of the movie uncovering the secret(s) and (of course) catching the bad guys and saving the world and (getting "the girl"), (losing "the girl") and (getting her again).

Or, he fired the first shot and you fired the rest. You could have a brief but valient recovery from your wounds and find the clues to the great conspiracy (what's behind the green door) on the special chess board the woman had in her office. The pieces could be the keys to open the ancient tomb.

Or, since it is a glass chess set, the pieces could be arrainged in the order they are removed from the board; following the moves in the "Game of the Century" Fischer-Byrnes or was it Byrnes-Fischer?. Then a lasor beam shined through them reveals the great secret code.

Hey, that was pretty good man. I thought the secretary acted very well. I also liked the shot where you're walking along the corridor (just before being pulled aside), where the camera looks down to the floor as you would do if you were walking, a nice touch. Music was generally used to good effect, as well.

I liked the production on "Coffee Break" as well, even if it was a little bit over-sentimental for me. I was expecting something like a vignette from Jarmusch's "Coffee and Cigarettes", I suppose just because of the coffee. It had a good sense of atmosphere for something produced so quickly.

Nice one, didn't spot the chess sets though. :-(

I like this very much Billium248.It was very very good.It scared the living daylights out of me.That guy who pull you in to the room while you were in the hall walking,etc.,etc,.etc.I like to congratulates on you all on winning the Short Film Competition.It was tremendously very well well done..

Great job!!!!!!!

I especially loved the scarlet color shirt add some gray to it the next time.

The editing was top notch.

Just remember us small people one day when you get the little Gold statue from Hollywood.