How We Made a Mission: Impossible Short Film in 8 HOURS

Your mission, should you choose to accept, like, comment, and subscribe. Welcome to Backseat Directing. We are setting out to pay homage to the Mission Impossible franchise and the one and only Tom Cruise. The only problem? We have no budget, no time, and only a crew of three people. Mission Impossible Final Reckoning had a crew of over 1,200 people, took over two and a half years to make, and cost around $400 million. But like any good indie filmmakers, we couldn't let that get in our way. Come with us on our action-packed journey to filming our own Mission Impossible scene in just one day. Three, two, one, action. We'll be right back. We started out by doing some research. We quickly realized this was gonna be harder than we thought. We couldn't do the halo jump because the weather wasn't right. We couldn't do the shot from Rogue Nation because I didn't wanna put those contacts in my eyes. And we tried to reach out to the Burj Khalifa, but the outside was already booked. And that's when we realized, what's a classic Mission Impossible sequence that's in every movie in the franchise? Running. With the concept nailed down, we move down to pre-production. Ideas, writing, and planning. I'm actually going to zoom in on you reading it off the phone and put that on screen. Ideas. Ideas. Aaron had the idea that we could film in Tampa. It's only an hour from where we live, and it could add great production value. Going to Tampa was a great idea. Had big buildings, aesthetic sets, bunch of extras in the background, and then we throw Andrew in a suit and we have him running around the city. Next I had to get working on the script. By creating our own story for our running sequence, we could add personal flavor and stakes to the actual running shots. So we came up with a concept. A mysterious caller reaches out to an agent. He's going to blackmail him with his kidnapped wife. Naturally, I was a camera operator. And I will be the talent. When making a film, typically the actor has a stuntman. That way, production doesn't stop if the main actor gets hurt. Why don't we have a stuntman? I don't have a stunt double. I don't have a stunt double. Somebody please get this man a stunt double. Stuntman! While Andrew starts working on the script, I'm going to start storyboarding, since we have a concept. Agent gets package. Agent runs with package. Agent drops off package. Time to get our gear ready. Camera, gimbal, haze, and we went to a friend's house to pick up a zoom lens. The gimbal uses gyroscopic technology that helps stabilize the camera. It helps give us a bigger budget feel I feel on a lower budget. Budget. Shoot. A longer lens allows us to get more zoomed in shots with clarity, and it adds more depth of field because of the compression. This means there's a sharper contrast between the subject and the background. All right, Aaron's been talking for long enough. While I was away, the initial story got finished. All that was left to do is shoot. We packed the car, started driving. Our day started at 8 a.m. and since Sierra had to get to work, we had to be done shooting by 2 p.m. It was a race against the clock. Little did we know the day was going to be full of issues. GoPro's down. We are five minutes into this adventure. Right? We didn't think about that. Did a classic cameraman mistake, a double click. And stop recording at the start of the scene so we didn't catch that take. The problem is, is that you're getting too close to me. I'm going to have to run beside you more than we were originally thinking. All up in the camera. Almost ran into the car. We've got a nine minute walk to our next location in the making. Tampa, Florida sun. That's insane. Because I've run 4.3 miles. All right, the gimbal's battery died, so we're just going freestyle. No gimbal, no shirt. So we were filming right here, and then we got kicked out because apparently this government building is private property. We're 35 minutes past our budgeted original schedule time. Cut to the future where it is executed perfectly. We had one hour drive to Tampa, and we started by stopping for coffee. And there, that's where we found our first location. Now, we decided to shoot our hardest physical sequence, our long, straight run, first. That's how they do it on Mission Impossible sets, and if it's good enough for Tom. It's good enough for us. We are starting in classic mission form with the biggest stunt in the film. The sequences like the halo jump can take up to a year planning. Our sequence, however, had virtually no planning. So we had to use whatever good usable locations we could find. Man, going to Tampa was such a great idea. After lucking into this location, the first thing to do was set up the camera equipment and costuming. We decided to put our star, me, in a suit because it naturally creates unease when you see somebody running in formal wear and adds an element of professionalism to him being a spy. But again, if it's good enough for Tom, good enough for us. After a bit of setup and a few test shots, we went ahead and did things at full speed. Well, Andrew's full speed. It took us a bit to get the timing right. We had to sync up between Sierra, our driver, Aaron, our cameraman, and me, the running talent. If the car moves too fast, then Aaron won't be able to keep me in frame. But if the car moves too slow, I'll run right past the camera. Eventually, we found a sweet spot of somewhere between 12 to 15 miles per hour, and we got this shot. Wow! What makes Mission Impossible running scenes so epic? The variety of camera movement, camera angles, Location and the story. I was going to say the best actor in the world, but we don't have that. The franchise achieves this with huge sets, tons of equipment, and tons of crew. They use dollies, tracks, helicopters, and more to get their shots. And so do we. Actually, we don't have any of that. We barely even have gas to get back from Tampa. But to try to mock a crane shot and get some elevation and level change, Aaron did climb into a tree. That did ultimately prove fruitless, pun intended. Worth a shot. Yeah. Worth a shot. To get this climactic part of the run we used up a large chunk of our time from 9 a.m to 12 30. This only left us with an hour and a half of remaining time in our original intended schedule that was meant to end at 2 p.m. Is that a foreshadowing? And after about three hours of intermittent sprinting I was feeling fantastic. You all right? Oh I'm excellent. We got a long way to go. It's hot as a ************ out here We are. Less than an hour in, we've done, what, four runs, five runs? How are you feeling? Just like dead. Amen. I feel great. Alright, on... Not like I'm going to puke or anything. I feel like a trained endurance athlete. I imagine this is exactly how Tom feels, just endorphin high, runners high. I wish we could do the next one sooner, honestly. Yeah, well, we're going to take a rest because the camera needs rest. The camera's overheating, and he feels like it's going to vomit. and needs some water Definitely not you, though. I'm good. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I feel strong. That's it. I feel great, too. By the point of us leaving this location, I've completed about three total miles of sprinting for, like, three shots in the film. Because we did so little planning for this film. We just drove to downtown Tampa to find our locations. We found a bench for our opening dialogue, which was right by a park. This would be ideal to run into in order to transition us from the city area into the more urban residential setting for our long running sequence. As if we planned it. But we didn't. Shooting entirely out of order was difficult, but we need you to trust us one last time. I need you to trust me one last time. The opening shots are pivotal because it decides whether or not people are going to continue watching. For the shots at further distances, I used the long lens. When we wanted shaky cam, he used a handheld camera. When I wanted the shots smooth, I used the gimbal. And for locked-off shots... Tripod. Why couldn't I think of the word tripod? It's right in front of you, too. We tried our best to maintain continuity on clothing, hair, and sweat. While Andrew was focused on the continuity of his fit... I was focusing on the shot continuity of the running, that way when he is turning left from one location he doesn't just turn right into the next frame. We needed to maintain all of that while the clock was still steadily ticking down to zero. We only had 30 minutes left and we just barely were able to get the final shots of the drop done in time. But we weren't done yet. We wanted to get some connecting shots. Actually, they were pretty important to the film. And with us really past our budget on time, we thought of one crucial idea. What if we just made Sierra late to work? Yeah, it's just work. We're making movies. So these last two shots that we needed to get were by the water, and we desperately needed the gimbal. The gimbal behind you, dead already. It's taking a nap, but it was dead, but we were able to charge it in the car to nine percent. So for our final shots of the film, we had about one take with the gimbal. It was a highly dynamic moving shot and we got it just in time, set down the gimbal and it died on the table. True Mission Impossible style for that one. So now we finally wrapped. We were about an hour over our budgeted amount of time. And we did about a 10K of sprinting. I did about a 10K of sprinting. Whoa, I worked hard, too. Man, maybe a quarter of that. When I was running, I had to run with my hands on the gimbal. My job was way harder. I had to keep you in frame. I kept running faster than you. Forget about that. You couldn't keep up. After a whole day, seven to eight hours in the baking Tampa Florida sun, we went home to shower, eat, and get ready to edit. As soon as I got home, I uploaded the footage to the computer and into Final Cut Pro. From there, I organized the clips into the timeline. Teamwork makes the dream work. Friendship! That's true. Now that the timeline's roughly in order, it's time to add music, sound effects, and color grade. With all of that wrapped and the final product in place, there's only one thing left to do. Sit back with some popcorn, Tom Cruise style, and enjoy the film. Five, four, three, two, one, action! Bravo Echo 1-1, go ahead. Andrew, I'm sorry. It's going to be okay. Ah, now you know the stakes. I swear to God. Precious little time to waste on threats. Go ahead. Very wise. There's a watch in the bag. Did you choose to accept? In time, these things go. Name, location, time, and what's on the watch. Man on the corner of 3rd and Main. Three minutes. That's something I want the man to have. It's almost a mile away. Then you better start running. This message will self-destruct in 15 seconds. Aaron, I need directions to Main and 3rd. Shortcuts if possible. On it. Finding the fastest route now. Turn right. Cut through the park. Running out of time. You need to hurry up. Running as fast as I can! Well, run faster! Here, take the bridge. Left, left, left! Ready, you're gonna take another left, heading back into the city. Now. You're almost there. Aaron, Aaron. Andrew, something's happening. Aaron. Impressive. You must really like her. Let her go. I can't be.