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There's a particular kind of freedom in making something just to make your friends laugh. Carlos Torres and his collaborators Karen Torres and Nic Few remember it well β the high school media class days when the point wasn't a career, it was the room cracking up. Playground Director is a deliberate return to that feeling, built with everything they've learned since.
The film follows an eccentric amateur director and a curious bystander who embark on an imaginative journey at a playground, turning reality into cinematic wonder and rediscovering the joy of play, creativity, and connection. Shot with natural light and a skeleton crew over three days, it's a small film with a big argument: that less, handled with care, can be more.
Key Takeaways
- Written, shot, and fully post-produced in three days β the team's most ambitious timeline yet.
- Natural light and a stripped-down setup let the actors genuinely play, with the crew laughing between takes.
- A comedy about the loss of imaginative play, made as a love letter to the joy of building worlds in your mind.
Below, Torres talks about roots, restraint, and treating a film set like a team sport.
Interview
What drew you to make this film, and why this story, why now?
Karen and I had our own individual goals, which ended up perfectly meeting in the middle. Being the ambitious creative that I am, I wanted to make something highly cinematic. Karen, who is really good at keeping me grounded, wanted to create something simple yet punchy. Then we had the aha moment of saying, why don't we do both?
Playground Director stemmed from a conversation we had with Nic one night about the loss of imaginative play one tends to have as they get older. We thought back on the days when we were in high school making films for our media class and the immense joy it was to create them as much as share it. At the time, we had no intention of becoming filmmakers. Our goal was simply to make our friends and classmates laugh, even if it meant not following our teacher's instructions!
Now, as professionals in this industry, we felt it was important to go back to our roots and make a film that felt like a high school project, but with all the skills we have learned as professionals. We hoped that it would remind all of us the fun we had when we were younger of building worlds in our minds and giving into the imagination, to keep coming back to it, and not let that joy in our young selves fade away. In a world where there is so much chaos, we need to keep it alive.
What surprised you most about the filmmaking process, on set or in post?
We ended up making the film in three days total. Karen spent one day writing, one day for filming, and one day for post-production. To this date, it's our most ambitious timeline yet.
What surprised us the most was the fact that simplifying our approach to how this production would be filmed ended up being the most important and probably the best quality of this film. Everything was natural lighting and natural light bounces from the park in daylight. Having just the camera and sound allowed us to move really fast and, most importantly, it allowed Karen and Nic to truly just play. I've worked on larger comedy films before and there's so many components to the filmmaking process that after cut is called, there's no time to laugh even if the scene was really funny β that's because sets move so fast! With this film, we cracked up after each scene and that helped us create space to adjust shots on the fly.
What was the hardest creative decision you made while making the film?
Since we only had one day for shooting, we were running out of daylight so we had to cut a scene. At the time, we were bummed but it ended up being a blessing in disguise. We're very happy with how punchy and straight to the point it currently is!
What moment in the film feels most like you, or like something only you could have made?
The film feels like Karen, Nic, and myself because it hits all elements of who we are in real life. We're funny, energetic, explorative, and just want to have a good time even if it's all in the imagination!
What is the greatest strength of independent filmmaking, and how did you lean into it here?
I came up playing sports so I treat filmmaking very much like a team sport. We all had our titles and roles while making this film but it was extremely collaborative. Since we were literally playing at a park, every crew member shared funny ideas or previous experiences that inspired new ideas. I'd say there's a piece of every crew member in this film in some comedic way. The best breakthrough I can share is don't let titles close you off from creating fun collaborative experiences for the entire crew! Have fun when there's opportunities to have fun!
How has this film shaped or shifted the kinds of stories you want to tell next?
This film really showed us what we're capable of creating with very little. I think it's important to experience creating films in both a small and large scale. Having the experience of both allows us to determine what serves the story we want to create best rather than always aiming to create the largest production possible no matter what! I personally love the characters Karen and Nic have created and would love to tell more stories in their worlds!
What does it mean to have your film selected for HollyShorts, one of the world's premier short film festivals?
We're seriously honored. Kind of reminds me of the book The Little Engine That Could. At the end of the day, we knew it made us laugh and we just hoped it would be given the opportunity to make others laugh with some film industry jokes and imagination! We're kind of letting the audience take the wheel and seeing where it ends up. All I know is we're excited to find out what's next as well.
Main Cast & Crew
- Carlos Torres β Director, Editor, Director of Photography
- Karen Torres β Director, Actress, Writer (IG: carebearcarin)
- Nic Few β Actor (IG: nicfew)
- Maritza Ramirez β Sound Mixer, 2nd AC (IG: maritza.mra)
- Daisy Acosta-Campos β BTS Photography, PA
- Andy Yeganegi β End Credits Composer
- Produced by CutFocus
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