Over the course of a recent weekend, co-directors Daniel Irving and Josh Aries slept less than two hours before they jumped up and continued to film — they had to complete a short film within 48 hours by Sunday night for Vancouver's Run N Gun film competition.
Everything was happening at the same time. Filming was going on while editing was on site; music was being composed while sound design and colouring were in the works.
“The pressure was on,” Aries told Vancouver Is Awesome. “We always felt that time was against us.”
“I would never forget the last 30 minutes when eight people in our crew were standing around one computer watching [our teammate] rendering as fast as he could, putting it into the drive and submitting the film,” Aries added. “It was so stressful.”
Irving and Aries have participated in Run N Gun for four years in a row as a co-directing duo for three years. Run N Gun's 48 hours, as they described, were “stressful” yet “electric.”
Established in 2015, Run N Gun, Vancouver’s 48-hour film competition, is now touted as the city’s largest indie film competition. It gives filmmakers only 48 hours to write, shoot, edit and complete a short film of under four minutes and 30 seconds. Each film must include “three surprise elements.”
This year, the three elements were an urban legend, an object (a shovel), and a line of dialogue: “That’s the stuff ____ is made of.”
“Each year we both decide that would be the last Run N Gun we’re gonna do, [because] it was way too stressful. But then each year we both find ourselves doing another,” said Irving. “It’s just the most fun competition in Vancouver for film!”
As old hands in Run N Gun, Irving and Aries have been trying to push their boundaries, experimenting with different elements each year and making films that could make audiences laugh and love.
The team’s action comedy for Run N Gun this year, Shovel Lovel, is a “crazy feat,” as they described — integrating various elements, including dance, rap, fighting, and AI-generated animation.
The film was a big success, sweeping Best Film, Audience’s Choice, and Best Editing awards at the competition.
“We had so much fun doing it,” said Irving. “We were smiling practically the entire time and even without the success this year, we still would have been happy just having that experience.”
Benjamin Buckley, a first-time Run N Guner also had chaotic fun over the 48 hours. As an animator, Buckley joined the competition by himself and made it all the way to the final screenings with his animated short film Brainworms.
“Making animated films is a very time-consuming thing,” said Buckley. “But at Run N Gun, I could make a film in a way that forces me to get it done in 48 hours.”
In a time crunch, Buckley wrote the script and did the animation, voice acting and a beatbox song at the end of the film.
“There were a couple of panic moments,” said Buckley. “There were moments I thought I was never gonna make it on time.” But Buckley ended up being one of the first to submit — around six hours before the deadline.
At the screenings, when the audience saw the credits being only one person’s name, the whole crowd erupted.
“It’s 48 hours, it pushes people right into being creative. You don’t have the time to second guess yourself or make it as perfect as you want,” said Aries. “It’s about being open to all weird mistakes or even weird best things that come along the way of filming something like this.”
Run N Gun: Building an inclusive community for emerging filmmakers
Now in its sixth year, Run N Gun has become a playground for filmmakers to play and be creative, but also mingle and compete against whoever wants to join the industry. It welcomes anyone with all levels of experience to join and everyone’s film gets played.
“The vibe of the festival is very effervescent and punk-rock,” said co-organizer Joel McCarthy, who is also an independent filmmaker. “We really try to make an event of it and make the local filmmakers feel like rockstars at least for a night.”
Last year, Run N Gun debuted an entry waiver program to encourage filmmaking from under-represented groups. “Persons with disabilities, Indigenous, Black, Trans, and Non-Binary filmmakers are given entry waivers with the hope this would remove one barrier of entry into filmmaking,” according to a statement on their website.
"Run N Gun gave me a community to grow up in,” said Aries. “There are so many beautiful colours out there. Just being able to see them express themselves through film is beautiful. I’m really proud to be a part of that community.”
