Nathan Price initially gave up on his newest short film during the COVID-19 pandemic when his dog, Milo, knocked his hard drive off a table, destroying its contents.
He had accumulated hours of footage after shooting a script he wrote out of boredom that then became a personal project. When his hard drive fell victim to his German shepherd’s bushy tail, Price says he got the message. Demoralized, he abandoned his own project but kept working on other filmmakers’ sets. He still longed for a film of his own.
Three years later, his old script came to mind. He shot the film in a few weeks with close friends and uploaded it to YouTube in March. He submitted the short comedy to the Lone Star Film Festival at the last minute and, to his surprise, it was accepted. “Dave is Indecisive” will be screened during the upcoming seven-day gathering that gives up-and-coming filmmakers an opportunity to network and spotlight their projects. The eight-minute film follows a man’s agonizing overthinking as he tries to find love through the internet.
If you go:
What: “Dave is Indecisive” at Lone Star Film Festival
When: 2:15 p.m. Oct. 30; find complete festival schedule here
Where: Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, 3200 Darnell St.Admission: $10 per screening; $175 movie-only pass; $300 all-access pass
No money was spent on the film’s production other than for the music at the end — where a gag is tucked into the end credits. Price and his small production crew borrowed camera equipment and shot the film in a kitchen for about six hours.
The inspiration for his film came from Price’s own overthinking when sending text messages, he said.
“When I’m messaging somebody, the amount of distrust I have with myself and second-guessing myself is pretty immense,” Price said. “You can’t help but narrate in your head, and my thought was, ‘What if (the film’s narrator) was just as unhelpful as my own personal narrator?’”
High school memories of “war room” sessions between Price and his friends crafting texts to send to girls inspired the Fort Worth resident to focus on dating apps in the short film.
Price is one of five filmmakers based in Fort Worth to be featured in this year’s festival. He has attended and applied to festivals before, but this is his first film to be accepted.
Although the thought of screening his film at the Lone Star Film Festival is nerve-wracking, he finds comfort that it is being shown in a place he knows, he said.
Originally, he never intended to submit his film to the festival, he said, as it didn’t receive much attention after it was uploaded to YouTube.
But a friend, Michael Ryan, hounded Price for weeks to enter the festival.
Price submitted his film close to the deadline after Ryan connected him with Chad Mathews, the festival’s executive director.
“Nathan is a very creative guy, his short was really funny and he was satisfied with that,” said Ryan, a part-owner of Fort Worth video marketing firm Four 3rds Creative. “Nathan wasn’t looking to get it out there into a lot of festivals, and I was like, ‘You can’t miss Fort Worth because you live here and this would be a great place to showcase what you’re capable of.’”
Price acknowledged his short was different from others, and hopes his film stands out.
“If one person who’s seen a bunch of shorts is like, ‘Man, there’s this really good short, and this really good short, but that Dave one was weird — that one was different,’ I’d be very happy with that,” Price said.
John Forbes is a reporting fellow for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at john.forbes@fortworthreport.org.
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