Violet Vendetta: The Hilarious and Gnarly Journey of Getting a Film Made

Ted Hayden’s 11-minute Violet Vendetta is a tongue-in-cheek action-comedy about the hoops two friends must jump through in order to make their first film. The hoops are numerous, the ground is on fire, and they have only one copy of their in-production film on a little hard drive. At least it has a safety case.

Luke (Brandon H. Lee) and Hunter (Hector Melgoza) are still hammering out the right way to do a bicycle kick in the middle of production when the very impatient piper—Oscar, their cartoonishly villainous investor—drives up in his cartoonishly ugly car to demand (via violence and a little robbery) payment. Which, to be fair to the man, is a better formed plan than Hunter’s was to borrow money with a lie to make a debut movie that has the responsibility to shoot its makers into overnight stardom.

Action-comedy or soul baring realism (sometimes the line gets thinner than aging hair), the plot shifts gears into “real” action once the “real” villains come in. Hilariously ineffective golf cart chases give way to smooth combat, including a three against one setpiece featuring pink unicorn golf clubs. The results are as engrossing as they are comedic as the film contrasts its dramatic camerawork and editing with the physical comedy of scenes like a katana wielding goon going after Hector, who literally cannot land a kick to save his life. In the same scene, the camerawork foregrounds Luke fighting to the death while Hector plays tug of war with the hard drive in the background.

Violet Vendetta is a feast. Every second of the narrative is entertaining—and likely painful to novice filmmakers, a feat great comedy aspires to—and the product of harmony between fight choreography, music, cinematography, and editing. The crowning glory is the performance of the two actors who have finetuned the combination of boyish ineptitude, goofy friendship, and the serious business of doing what you love until you hate it.

Watch Violet Vendetta Action Comedy Short Film Trailer