30 mins

30 Mins, directed by us at We’d Stare Too, was a proof of concept born from turning our usual Saturday date night into a mini romcom.

After tossing around ideas we hadn’t yet crossed off our notes app (yes, we know you have that notes app too), we decided to head to a national treasure of Melbourne: the NGV. But of course, that wasn’t enough for us. We just had to challenge ourselves.

So, we sat in bed and wrote a mini script. For two creatives, trying not to overcook things was a struggle, but we got there! (be proud of us.) After realising none of our cameras were charged, we looked at each other and said, “You know what? This is just for fun, let’s shoot it on your iPhone.”

While boarding the metro, I happened to open my favourite camera app, Dazz Cam, and discovered something huge. We can shoot in LOG. Every colour grading fanatic’s fantasy. After playing around with the frame rate and aspect ratio, we felt way more confident about shooting this thing.

We had also woken up at 3 in the afternoon after a crazy night out, so time was definitely not on our side.

We arrived at the NGV with 30 minutes to get everything we needed. One-take wonders were essential. After staying until the very last minute of closing, I suggested we head to the Shrine of Remembrance. Being Melbourne born and bred, I always knew it was there but never really thought to go. I had just so happened to stumbled upon it the other day with a friend, and imagined how beautiful the view would be at sunset.

I’m a big lover of cheesy romcom moments. Cam? slightly less into them than me, but still, we’re obsessed with each other, so it was easy to get creative angles that captured us just “playing around”.

We ended the night eating and drinking our favourite foods, excited to get home and start editing.For something that started with a baseline idea, a bit of dialogue, and the rest made up on the go, this is what came out of it. And we’re pretty proud.

As working creatives, it can be easy to feel burnt out and slowly watch your passions turn into work. For us, this was a great reminder to create not for the outcome, but for the joy of making something together.

If we can all bring a little more of that into our lives, we’re way less likely to get bored.

So here is the film. Shot and edited in 12 hours. We’re keen to see where this goes.