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Young �ilmmaker makes a hit in 2 hours
BY ALEX GALLAGHER Progress Staff Writer
immy Howard hadn’t set foot on the campus of Scottsdale Community College in almost eight years, but as an aspiring �ilm editor, he kept looking for opportunities to show off his skills. Then he discovered a short �ilm contest he could enter as an alum.
The contest, held for the seventh time publicly since 2019, allotted contestants two hours to write, �ilm and edit a brief �ilm that meshed with an assigned title and ended with a joke. “The magic of the Two-Hour Film Challenge is that it requires letting go and living in the moment. There’s no time to scrutinize or overthink choices,” said Danielle Stallings, a full-time residential faculty member, Head of Foundations for the Scottsdale School of Film and Theatre and the creator and producer of the Two-Hour Film Challenge. “Participants must trust their intuition and just play the game.” Intrigued by this, Howard registered.
“I entered a year ago but my team didn’t win,” Howard said. “I missed the second show but I realized the next one came on one of my days off.” In his �irst shot at winning the twohour �ilm challenge, Howard met Kimmie Companik-Warner, a coach at The Second City in Chicago – a legendary ongoing improvisational theater troupe that has produced big-name comedians and actors – and knew she would be a key player the next time he took a shot at the competition. “She’s awesome, quick and good at brainstorming, plus she’s very encouraging,” Howard said. Howard and Companik-Warner were paired with Duane King and Christy House and sat in a Zoom meeting for 30-minutes waiting to be assigned a title.
An alien played by Jimmy Howard, left, commands Kimmie Companik-Warner, Jimmy Howard, Duane King and Christy House to take pills that will transform them into animals in a short fi lm titled “The Taking Season” that won the SCC two-hour fi lm challenge. (Special to the Progress)
The team was given the working title of “The Taking Season” and from there began brainstorming a concept out of the intriguing title.
Then came the idea of somehow incorporating pets into the �ilm.
“Duane said he had a turtle, Christy had a horse and Kimmie had a dog and we �igured that since we each had an animal, we could do something with our pets,” Howard said.
The idea then morphed into a concept where the quartet was part of a cult overseen by an alien-like leader that convinced followers to take pills that would transform them into animals and teach them a lesson.
Howard used an alien puppet and devised a cryptic voice for the character. “I knew we needed the alien to introduce himself, tell everyone to take their pills, see that it’s working and then I came up with a voice while wiggling a puppet that ended up sounding like a leprechaun,” Howard said. He then added vocal effects to make his voice sound stranger in all scenes except for the �inal scene as he ran out of time to make that edit.
Another challenge for Howard and his team was the �ilming.
However, this is where the improvisational skills of the team came in handy. “When we all took the pills, we did not plan the moment when we began transforming,” Howard said. “We all started to pretend to choke and freak out, which was completely improvised.” The team’s improvisational skills also shined as they recorded voiceovers for the footage of their pets.
With footage and audio compiled, Howard got to work rendering the �ilm and realized there was one thing missing. “Near the end, I called Duane to �igure out how to end the �ilm with a zinger,” Howard said. King worked with Companik-Warner and produced a new layer to the �ilm. In conjunction with the title “The Taking Season,” Companik-Warner created the idea that seasons for aliens could be northwards of a century. Since King’s pet was a tortoise and tortoise lifespans can last over a century, depending on their species, King produced the zinger. After Howard spoke the line “don’t you know what a season is, I’ll be back in 110 years” King improvised the line “I’m going to be the only one still here.”
Howard admits that he still had plenty of work to do as the 6 p.m. deadline approached and wound up using every minute of the 15-minute grace period following the deadline to submit his �ilm.
Following his submission, Howard’s heart was pounding out of his chest in anticipation of �inding out whether or not his team had won the competition and describes his emotions of hearing his �ilm’s title being named the top �ilm as pure elation. His �ilm also impressed the competition’s creator.
“Every year I’m blown away by what these talented artists are able to produce on such short notice,” said Stallings, “The constraints bolster creativity and silence that inner critic. There’s no time to second guess yourself. The stories that have come out of years past have been funny, heartfelt and moving.”
Howard also felt so inspired by the �ilm that he hopes to create an extended version. “I think it would be funny to convert this to a six-minute short �ilm with a higher production value,” he said.
