It’s six hours until the end of the world. What would you do?
Time to Pay is a short thriller written and produced by Derek Parsons and directed and edited by Ben Grace.
The film follows Joe, a young man carrying a dark secret who has reached the point where he believes he has nothing left to lose. With the apocalypse approaching, Joe sets out to settle an unfinished score. For Michael, however, the end of the world may be the least of his problems.
The film was conceived around a demanding technical challenge: to tell the entire story in a single uninterrupted shot. Following a full day of rehearsals with the cast and crew, Time to Pay was filmed in one continuous take, requiring precise choreography between performances, camera movement, blocking and technical departments.
The single-take approach creates an escalating sense of tension, with no opportunity to cut away, reset or hide behind conventional editing. Every performance, camera move and technical cue had to work perfectly in real time.
Time to Pay is an early example of Ben’s interest in using formal and technical constraints as a creative tool — turning the limitations of production into part of the storytelling itself.
AWARDS
ReelheART International Film & Screenplay Festival 2017
Best Short Film (Nominated)
Hollywood CineFest 2017
Best Short Film (Pending)
Southampton Film Week 2016
Michael Fuller Award for Best Film
Winchester Short Film Festival 2016
Longlisted