Are you getting ready to shoot your short film? You might have some really big ideas—several actors, multiple locations, a healthy smattering of VFX shots—and trust me, we’ve all been there in the development stage. It’s better to dream big and scale back to be practical because so many of us have to work with what we have on hand.
That means small budgets, DIY sets, and maybe one or two actors. This is where we can really get creative!
As we approach SXSW 2025, we’re going to have access to a slate of impressive shorts that should inspire and motivate us to keep at it, and will also serve as examples of what can be done with creativity and grit.
Director Bianca Poletti’s Video Barn is definitely one of them. Utilizing a single location (a nostalgic video store) and ‘80s horror conventions, the short creates a world and mythology that feels expansive despite its short runtime. Which is perfect, because this proof-of-concept is a story ripe for feature exploration.
Written by Allison Goldfarb, the short features two small-town friends who work in the store together. One of them mysteriously goes missing, and the other finds a strange VHS tape left behind…
We chatted with Poletti, whose impressive resume includes work on commercials, music videos, and other shorts, to learn the project’s secrets before SXSW.
How did they find that great location? How did this team come together? What if you need to license some very iconic horror movie footage to play in one of your shots?
Read on to find out.
‘Video Barn’Courtesy of SXSW
No Film School: Shorts filmmakers often have to come up with ideas that match the resources we already have. What did ideation and planning on Video Barn look like?
Bianca Poletti: The first thing we had to lock in was the VHS store, and in 2025, it was much harder than I had expected to find a working VHS store that looked like my Twin Peaks dream world. We had to shoot in LA because all of the crew was based out of LA, the actors were based there, and, in the end, it would just be easier and cheaper to shoot locally.
So, I asked my amazing scout to look into 1960s and 1970s structures that could serve as the bones of the VHS stores, we planned to build everything from scratch. Charchi (our location scout) found a fantastic 1960s record store in Pasadena, CA. I teamed up with an incredible production designer, Andrea Leigh, who created the entire world you see in the film.
We wanted the town of Kennedy and the VHS store to feel like they hadn’t been touched since the 1980s, even though we’re living in modern times. There are a lot of nods to the 1980s and 1990s, the neon lights, the design of the VHS store sign, and the VHS covers throughout, along with winks to bigger themes we’ll explore in the feature film version.
Cinematography-wise, I worked with my go-to DP, Corey C. Waters. He’s absolutely incredible, and at this point, we share a bit of a creative brain, which is really nice. There’s a lot of trust there. We talked a lot about films like E.T., Videodrome, Twin Peaks, and The Twilight Zone. Corey and I wanted to spend a lot of time in wide shots once things start to shift when Jules goes missing, so we could really capture that eerie, unsettling feeling of being alone in a vast space at night, in the middle of nowhere. That’s why we lean heavily into wide shots throughout the film.
Of course, this is a short, and we shot in LA (which is not cheap), so we had to be resourceful and scrappy. Luckily, I had a lot of very talented people who donated their time to make this film happen. We originally planned for two or three locations: a void world, the VHS store, and the woods for a search party sequence. But once we started breaking it down, it became clear that a company move wasn’t feasible, and we wouldn’t have enough time to capture everything I wanted inside the store.
So we decided to bring everything to the VHS store location. Andrea and her amazing team built the void world right there, and we shot all the dream sequences and the reporter scene in the parking lot of the VHS store in less than an hour.
All of this was done in just two night shoots, each eight hours long. It was tight, but I’m incredibly grateful for an insanely dedicated and creative team, as well as our talented actors Grace Van Dien, Reina Hardesty, and Andrew Bering.
Video BarnCourtesy of SXSW
NFS: These characters really pop immediately. How did you cast your actors?
Poletti: Thank you, that’s so nice to hear! I’ve known Grace Van Dien for a while now. We met when I was only doing photography and hadn’t fully transitioned into directing yet. We had recently chatted about potentially working together, and I had written the part of Jules with her in mind. So when the script was done, I had only her in mind for that role, and luckily, she said yes.
I met Reina Hardesty through Grace and had worked with her on one other short before this one. I was truly blown away by her talent, and she immediately came to mind for Hannah. It was really important to me that the two actors who played these characters were actually best friends or at the very least, very close, and Grace and Reina are best friends in real life, which I feel came through so seamlessly on screen. You can feel how devastated Hannah is to lose Jules, her determination to find and try to save her, and how scared Jules is to lose her best friend to a brighter future that Hannah is stepping into.
Andrew Bering is an actor I’ve also worked with before, and he is very talented. I knew he’d be able to balance the drama and dark comedy tones that our porn guy needed to hit in such a short amount of time.
Video BarnCourtesy of SXSW
NFS: Color and lighting play such a big part in the atmosphere here. What lighting were you using to get this neon-drenched look?
Poletti: Corey and I talked extensively about the lighting in The Place Beyond the Pines, Hitchcock’s Vertigo, and Spielberg’s E.T., along with influences from painting and Gregory Crewdson’s photography.
I really wanted to add subtle pops of neon throughout the store to evoke a retro, 1980s feel in the images, and Corey had a great idea of where to place them so that they resonated with Reina and Grace in the most cinematic way.
NFS: What was your biggest challenge on the project (at any stage)?
Poletti: Oof, we had a couple! Licensing the Texas Chain Saw Massacre footage was a challenge. It’s, of course, a cult classic and a very well-known film, but we knew we needed it, and I really didn’t want any other film to play at that moment.
My amazing producer, Stine Moisen, and her incredible team, Beverly Midon, and Shane Palmer, worked day and night to find the right person to speak to and secure approval for the few seconds of footage we used. After a lot of waiting and back-and-forth the day before the shoot, we finally got the final approval to use the footage. That was a very stressful moment, but I’m so thankful that Stine’s team made it all happen.
Another little hiccup was that a couple of days before the shoot (and there was no way to push the shoot because of everyone’s schedule), I had two impacted wisdom teeth. If I were to have them removed, I would have to rest and wouldn’t be able to shoot. So I showed up on set both days with an ice pack on my face, took a lot of Ibuprofen, and pushed through it. Definitely an interesting and fun experience, ha.
NFS: What lessons are you taking away from working on this short?
Poletti: Having a strong team of people you deeply respect and love is essential in making a film something special. I like to surround myself with talented creatives whom I trust deeply and enjoy working with not just as professionals, but as human beings.
I firmly believe that magic is created in films when everyone gels and is excited to be a part of creating and telling the same story. My favorite thing about directing is collaboration and finding your chosen film family.
NFS: Is there anything you’d like to add?
Poletti: Just to keep creating. The more you create, the more you learn about your authentic voice, and the more you practice, the stronger that voice becomes.
