Andre Hyland’s Funnel is one of those classic examples of a film shot in one day for $80 by an essentially self-taught director that went on to premiere at Sundance and a slew of other renowned festivals. Furthermore the film is a comedy – notoriously one of the toughest genres to get right in a short film. That said, Hyland is no stranger to the comedic world. His films and live performances are a regular fixture at LA’s alternative comedy venues and he has created and starred in two Comedy Central television pilots, one of which was co-created with Bob Odenkirk. Just taking a quick look at his YouTube page is a testament to the art of using the internet as a platform to experiment with new ideas and characters.

The short is, in his words, “a fantastically mundane adventure of walking across a frozen urban sprawl wasteland to replenish a broken-down car with some kind of automotive fluid”. It’s the act of embracing the low budget medium and the banal nature of the environment that allows the film to stay focused on performance and story. Although at first it may appear rambling, the story has a definite structure – a beginning, middle and an end – and this is what lifts it from a sketch-like experiment to the fully-fledged standalone film that it is. The clever editing drives the pace and the character is so well developed you could probably guess what he’s going to eat for dinner (I’d guess a hot dog!). From an industry perspective, it’s extremely rare to see a short film selected for a film festival purely for it’s high production values, however I’ve witnessed many low budget shorts selected for their storytelling craft and well-developed characters. Which (echoing Mark Duplass’s SXSW keynote speech) is certainly a reason to get out there and focus on honing your craft and not to get too hung up on perfection.

“I wrote the outline for it and a handful of parts for it while I was at Christmas service”

In a conversation over email, Hyland revealed that he conceives and develops characters “by just from people watching wherever I go. I take lots of walks, riding the subway, just interacting with random people in general”. And on the inspiration behind the concept for Funnel – “Well it’s based on life experiences, but I’ll tell you about when I came up with the idea. I go to church once a year, but I’m not really religious at all. My family goes to Christmas service each year, but all of us sort of get bored with the service, so we just end up doodling on the programs, and that’s sort of what we do to pass the time. That’s when I wrote Funnel. I wrote the outline for it and a handful of parts for it while I was at Christmas service”.

Although largely self-taught, in an interview with UC Magazine, Hyland cites the creative freedom he was given during his time in the Fine Arts program at the University of Cincinnati as a driving force to this approach “It was pretty much you propose a project, and then you were basically graded on if you could pull that off or not, which I thought was really good because it left everything to your own devices. With any creative endeavor, if you don’t do it, it’s just not going to get done.”

Funnel has already lead to new opportunities after The Lonely Island comedy group saw the film last year and came on board to produce a new half hour TV pilot created and directed by Hyland which has just finished production. Hyland is currently working on a feature comedy he wrote which he will also direct and star in. Stay tuned for more news on that coming soon!