The race against the clock started with an all-night writing session.
Dakota Taylor and Caleb Wallace had a little more than two days to write, shoot, edit and finalize a short film with a team of other Indiana University filmmakers. The Center Grove High School graduates found out the parameters of the prestigious Make Your Mark film competition on Aug. 24, and immediately got to work.
Fifty-one hours of frantic typing, rushed filming and deliberate editing, and they submitted their work, “Anodyne,” with a minute to spare.
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“Legitimately, we had one minute,” Taylor said. “We almost weren’t even here.”
Despite the last-minute submission, “Anodyne” proved to be a success. The film was chosen as one of 10 semifinalists in the Make Your Mark contest, sponsored each year by the Producer’s Guild of America to identify up-and-coming filmmakers and test their ability to work quickly.
Next weekend, Taylor and Wallace will be in Los Angeles at the premiere of the semifinalist films, where they will find out if they won. They are the only group outside of New York and Los Angeles that was named a semifinalist this year.
“It’s every student filmmaker’s dream to have one of the biggest and most important and influential audiences in your industry be watching your movie,” Taylor said. “The whole point of this competition is to make your mark and launch your career. This isn’t an easy industry to launch your career in, so we knew this was a really good opportunity to be seen by people way more important than us.”
Every year since 2011, the Producers Guild of America sponsors a short film competition that tests the ability to put together quality production in a short amount of time. Make Your Mark is an opportunity to discover talented producers who have yet to make their big break.
Participants are given the parameters of the competition all at once. Once they learned the themes, settings and props that they are required to incorporate, they have 51 hours to assemble a filmmaking team, put together costumes and props, shoot on location, edit and submit their final film.
This year, the competition honored the work of producer and director Sydney Pollack, who created such films as “Out of Africa,” “Tootsie” and “Cold Mountain.” Organizers of Make Your Mark asked that participants weave some of Pollack’s signature features into their own short films.
The setting of the film had to either in a law firm, a train station or any post-war era. Filmmakers had to use props such as the front page of a newspaper, a wig, eyeglasses or a mirror.
Each film subject had to examine either human nature in public, through a corporate or political thriller, or human nature in private, in the form of a personal history retold or re-invented.
For Taylor and Wallace, the parameters and limited time to work meant they had to rely on each other to seamlessly create a coherent story. Their close friendship made that easy.
Taylor and Wallace have been close friends since they were 2 years old, and both graduated from Center Grove in 2014. Not only did they share a love for movies, but they were compelled by the same types of filmmakers working in the industry.
“It makes it easy, because we know so much about each other already. To go from growing up together to getting to work together, it’s been rewarding,” Wallace said.
Taylor had gone to school to earn a degree in business. But one day, sitting in one of his classes and looking around, he felt that wasn’t the path he wanted his career to go down.
“I was looking at entire classroom of people wearing suits, and I knew I could do more in the world if I was a storyteller instead of someone sitting behind a desk,” he said.
Shifting his educational focus, Taylor started taking more classes in Indiana’s film school, in addition to studying and researching the field on his own. He read books and watched tutorials on YouTube. More than anything, he got involved with regional projects through Pigasus Pictures, a Bloomington-based film company.
During the 2017 filming of “Ms. White Light,” a feature starring Judith Light, he was a production assistant. That showed a completely different side of filmmaking than he was used to.
“Being on set, seeing how a real film operates. It’s very organized and structured,” he said. “Learning the process of it, the positions of a film crew. Instead of wearing 20 different hats trying to make a short film, I was wearing one hat, working with a group that was way bigger than themselves.”
Wallace grew up with a passion for film, though he was never sure how to go about putting that together. Once Taylor entered film school, he was able to absorb some of the technical lessons, and the two of them were able to move more seriously into projects.
“He could teach me a lot of what he learned, and he pushed me to go towards what I wanted to do,” he said.
The first film they created together was more an experimental piece; they don’t show it to people, and acknowledge that it was a learning experience. On their second project, they found more of their rhythm. “Probie” focused on a rookie firefighter and the difficult decision he must make.
The movie won best director at the Campus Movie Fest held at Indiana University, and was nominated nationally for best director and best drama. Though it didn’t win, “Probie” was featured on Amazon Prime and allowed them to gain much more exposure.
“Anodyne” was their next project. The chance to get their work in front of the Producers Guild of America, the major organization representing producers in film, television and new media, was too good to pass up.
“We’re still pretty early in this. But we’re getting our films out there,” Taylor said.
The film — the title of which is a word describing painkilling drugs — focuses on a nurse who served on the frontline of a war. When she returns from overseas, she finds out a painful truth about what she had been fighting for.
“The night they gave us the parameters, we just wrote the story then and there. We had to gather up our resources, and try to create the highest production value we could,” Taylor said.
Prior to the release of the prompt from the Producer’s Guild of America, they had lined up actors and a potential location to shoot the film. Taylor is the president of the Indiana Student Cinema Guild, so he assembled his team using connections from that group.
“A lot of students put a lot of trust into us,” Taylor said.
Taylor, who wrote and directed the film, and Wallace, who wrote and produced it, stayed up all night to write the film, then immediately transitioned to filming at a local hospital. Filming took about 12 hours, at which time Taylor and Wallace handed the film off to their editing team.
After catching up on some sleep, the pair woke up and put the finishing touches on it.
“We’ve been working towards this for a few years now, just to see something pay off, it’s definitely worth it,” Wallace said.
After being named a semifinalist in mid-October, Taylor, Wallace and other members of their team prepared to travel to Los Angeles to attend the competition awards show on Nov. 10.
The top three winners of the competition receive prizes aimed at helping produce their next project, including mentoring sessions with Producers Guild of America professionals, equipment rentals, post-production services and distribution packages.
Taylor and Wallace are realistic about their chances of landing in the top three. But just to be involved in the competition should prove to be a boon.
“We’re not going in thinking we’re going to win. If we do win anything, that’s great, but really it’s just being able to go there and make connections, to push on, and when we get older, make something that you could see in the movie theater,” Taylor said.
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What: "Anodyne," a film by Center Grove High School graduates Dakota Taylor and Caleb Wallace, was chosen as one of 10 semifinalists for the Producers Guild of America’s Make Your Mark competition.
What is it about: "Anodyne" is a short film about a frontline nurse returning from war only to discover the truth about the nation she was fighting for.
About the filmmakers: Taylor and Wallace both graduated from Center Grove and have best friends since they were 2 years old.
What happens next: The 10 semifinalists will be judged by the Producers Guild of America. The top films will be awarded production packages to help in future film projects.
When will they find out who wins: Awards will be given on Nov. 10 during a ceremony and screening in Los Angeles.
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