Mannie Jones
Featured Films
DIRECTOR'S NOTE
ALICE IS REAL
Alice Is Real, created in April 2025, was the product of a weekend short film challenge at Morehead State University. In one weekend, our group, Morehead Munchkins was tasked with including a ghost story theme, the line “i shall heft lamb forthwith,” and a board game within 10 minutes. With this information, we wrote the entire thing Friday night and shot the entire thing by 3 a.m. Sunday morning. I then woke up to edit this film and found out that the film was corrupted. The footage was not only muted, but it was in slow motion due to a setting on the camera. I thought about quitting the entire challenge, but I promised my team that they would see themselves on a movie theatre screen so I got to work. For the next 17 hours I built the film up from scratch. That included: speeding the video up, VoiceOver work, and background sound work on top of basic editing. I then submitted my film with 30 seconds left to spare. The version you see below is what I came up with for the film challenge. Our group placed 3rd in the challenge overall and we had a chance to experience it on the big screen. This became my most memorable film ever.
THE SHORTCUT
The Shortcut, created in March 2025, was the product of a project for class at Morehead State University. This film is "Based on a True Story" so let me describe the story. One rainy night around 10 p.m. I decided to walk 25 minutes to a fast food place. During this walk I kept sending videos to my friends with the audio "What if I get kidnapped?" I later encountered a car that slowed down beside me asking if I needed a ride. I accepted due to it being extremely cold and rainy and took the ride from this stranger. While getting a ride to the fast food place, the stranger ends up passing the restaurant. I immediately thought that my life was in danger and spoke up. He says that it was a mistake, turns around, and drops me off at the fast food place. While walking back to my room I thought to myself, "Why not turn my trauma into a short film?" This is the story behind The Shortcut.
TUNNELVISION
Tunnelvision, created in April 2024, was the product of a 48-hour film challenge at Morehead State University. We received a list of rules: mention the name Taylor Tilverson, Make it Superhero themed, and to Use a Juice Strainer. This was my first shot at a real short film. My group and I decided to write this story about a lady who figures out that she is able to look into the future and we built on this idea. Shooting with my personal camera for the first time came with complications, but in the end I overcame these obstacles. The turn around time for completion was extremely quick so I was not able to do certain edits that I had in mind. After editing, I showed up to the premiere and won the first place prize in the short film challenge. I was completely shocked by this considering that I had just switched my major over from Theatre and that this was my first film that I directed. This was my motivation to continue.
Films
The Shortcut (A Short Film)
The Shortcut (A Short Film)
