I'm sharing my teaser for Higgsfield's Action Contest.

Originally this was supposed to be a short film. The first half focused on the military action. The second half went microscopic into the operation theatre after the crash, showing the trauma inside his brain. The idea was to weave a story around two neurons, where one neuron tries to keep his neighboring neuron, named Pip, alive as Pip begins to fade.

I ended up generating close to a thousand video clips while building this.

Eventually I pivoted and decided to make a teaser instead, focusing just on the military side with the emotional hook of the pilot also saving his brother, who is among the POWs.

For editing I used DaVinci Resolve. I kept it pretty traditional. Mostly J cuts and L cuts, with a bit of audio panning where it made sense. There’s obviously room for improvement in both the audio and video, but I’m pretty satisfied with what I was able to pull off given the time constraints.

I used Cinema Studio with Premium Large Format + Classic Anamorphic settings throughout. I shoot anamorphic in real life too (two GH5s with a full Sirui set), so that look was a natural choice for me.

If anyone is curious about the process and challenges, I’m happy to share more. I also have unused scenes from the microscopic action inside his body. That whole sequence with the neurons and their dialogue could honestly be a short film on its own.

Best of luck to all of you who submitted to this contest.

How I made my teaser for the Higgsfield Action Contest