Dead Girls | A Short Film

This short film began as a passage of a short story that I then adapted into a short script, because I thought the dialogue — including the numbers metaphor — would work well as a spoken conversation. It went through five drafts before we settled on a shooting script, including some edits after we had begun planning production.

We faced plenty of challenges before shooting day, including difficulty finding locations (the film originally took place on a roof, then a playground, before we settled on the open field setting at the last minute). We shot overnight on May 5, 2024, using friends’ houses and locations on the Syracuse University campus. Plenty of things we figured out on the fly, including the logistics of the tracking shots while Jane rides her bike and the blocking of the conversation by the tree, the bulk of the film’s runtime.

This was one of the most fun experiences I have ever had working on a film, and I can’t give enough thanks to everyone who helped make Dead Girls a reality. Special thanks to my parents, Kurt and Rebecca Pahl; as well as Meg Craig, who lent us equipment; and the Syracuse University Early Education and Child Care Center for allowing us to shoot on their premises. Extra special shoutout to Sydney Worthley for letting us use her song “How Soon Is Now?” for the film’s opening sequence and credits.