Scroll through this timeline to watch all nine short films and learn a little about their production..
A poker game gone wrong drags a man into the seedy puppet underworld. Created by Brian Hogan and Patrick Boberg. Master of Puppets is the very first Tiny Explosion film. Bored late one Sunday afternoon Pat called up Brian and told him they were shooting a film. Brian grabbed some puppets and the rest is ridiculous history.
No ever gets out. So what do you do? You run. A short filming Starring Brian Hogan, Andrew Stephen Pratt, Tim Denner - Directed by Patrick Boberg & Brian Hogan - Produced by Patrick Boberg With good friend and aspiring actor Andrew Pratt in town, Brian and Pat decided to produce a second short film. Shot in roughly six hours, The Chase Begins is the only Tiny Explosions piece that isn't a comedy (unless you count the ending).
"These are my balls! This is my life!" NSFW! Tiny Explosions long held secret and funniest film sat unreleased for over a year. It is more definitely. Films like Balls are what come when someone makes a gross joke late at night and someone else decides it needs to be filmed. Filmed in roughly 45 minutes.
The 2012 Interrobang film festival had the honor of being the first festival to screen any Tiny Explosions material. Both The Chase Begins & Master of Puppets screened at Noon on June 23, 2012. Sadly, no one from Tiny Explosions was available to attend the screenings.
Late night gluttony comes with a price... Waiting for Brian's band -Handlebar- to play a gig, Pat and Brian decided to film a completely off the cuff short film. The best backstory available is that the narrative wasn't set on until half the film had been shot.
Tiny Explosions entry in the 2012 Des Moines 48 Hour Film Project. Trigger Words won the Screening Group B Audience Award and Best Use of Character Award runner-up. For more from Tiny Explosions subscribe to this YouTube Channel or follow us at Facebook.com/tinyexplosions Character: Chris Samuels, a musician Prop: Coloring book Line of Dialogue: "Let's Do it" Genre: Vacation/Holiday Film - - - - - - The entire purpose of filming anything was to eventually enter a short in the 48 Hour Film Project. Trigger Words was a smashing success with its two awards and was a great deal of fun to shoot. While the team had only 48 to produce the film, no one needed to pull all-nighters as the film took roughly six hours to film and 9 hours to edit.
Team Tiny Explosions made its Des Moines 48 Hour Film Project screening debut on August 2, 2012. Of course it was a sold out audience and while it was nerve racking up to our films time on the screen, the audience absolutely lost it laughing to our film. It went on to take the audience award for our screening group.
Having taken the audience award for Screening Group B, Trigger Words was automatically pushed into the Best of City screening. While Pat, the team leader, wasn't there to enjoy it, the film won the Screening Group B Audience Award and Best Use of Character Award runner-up.
A night of games with friends takes a bizarre turn. Produced a couple months after Trigger Words, Game Night was the result of Brian's desire to film something with a googley-eyed sandwich. The script was entirely improvised and there is scads of unused game conversation remaining.
Just another day at the Franklin Plaza Barber Shop. - - - - - - - - - In December 2012 Brian purchased the Franklin Plaza Barber Shop. After a couple months of brainstorming, Pat and Brian decided to just wing it and film something. So one Saturday Brian told Pat to get a watermelon and bring it to the shop. Without access to a monkey, there truly is no better advertisement out there?
"Just a Few Tips" was Tiny Explosions entry in the 2013 Des Moines 48 Hour Film Project. It received the third place audience award in its screening group. Tiny Explosions pulled Romance as its genre and the required elements for the 2013 Des Moines 48 Hour Film Project were: Character: Jim Davis, coach Prop: stuffed animal Line of Dialogue: "Let's call it a day"
Just a Few Tips was Tiny Explosions sophomore effort in the Des Moines 48 Hour Film Project and received a very similar audience reaction to 2012's Trigger Words. While it did not go on to the Best of City screening it did take home the second runner-up audience award for screening group D
Riding the wave of DM48HFP, Tiny Explosions made a creature-feature starring the children TE's recurring leading man, Brian Hogan.
Following the 48 Hour Film Project screening of Just a Few Tips, this outtake mashup was released. Good times had by all.
The script and genesis for Tiny Explosions: Assemble was wholly formed via text message between Brian and Pat.
Having not produced anything in eight months, Tiny Explosions most eccentric characters start their hunt for someone weird enough to join them on a 48 Hour Film adventure.
Lost Soulmates is an outlier in our filmography as it was scripted, a planned location shoot with a prearranged cast, and involved basic CGI. Not a perfect film, but definitely something I"m proud we undertook.
"One hell of a blind date" ~ On his way to his first date in months, Nick Karras is unwittingly possessed by a demon disguised as panhandler. Nothing spices up a blind date like a possession.
Some of the Tiny Ridiculousness that went on while filming Lost Soulmates
For TE's third entry in the Des Moines 48 Hour Film Project, the team drew "Sci Fi" as its genre. A favorite genre of Pat's, the team came up with the story of a mysterious backpack which can be used as a teleporter.
As usual with 48 Hour Film Project screenings, Two Men and a Backpack premiered to a packed house at the Fleur Cinema. Similar to previous years the film garnered huge laughs and a lot of applause.
Two Men and a Backpack was one of the 15 lucky films to be selected to the 2014 Best of City awards. The film screened one more time to a packed house and the team walked away with the award for "Best Use of Prop." In the end, a very successful year.
The only thing standing between two men and making it to a wedding is a mysterious backpack. Tiny Explosions entry in the 2014 Des Moines 48 Hour Film Project. Winner of the Best Use of Prop award. Runner Up Group D Audience Award. Character: Alex Simpson, real estate agent Prop: Backpack Line of Dialogue: "That's liquid gold." Genre: Sci Fi
Outtakes, bloopers, and behind the scenes fun from the filming of "Two Men and a Backpack."
Following a quiet year from TE, for the 2015 DM48HFP the team pulled Thriller/Suspense as its genre. After a packed house writing process, the team came up with a film revolving around a deadly dinner.
Culling of Heirs screened second to last in Screening Group C. As it is a little darker and more mysterious a film, the screening wasn't filled with belly laughs. That being said, it seemed to be received quite well.
Drinking soup for six hours while making a movie will give you the chuckles.
Six estranged siblings come together for one last family dinner before they can inherit the family
After considering forgoing the 2016 Des Moines 48 Hour Film Project, Tiny Explosions re-upped with possibly our best film to date. At the kickoff we pulled Western or Fish Out of Water for our genre, and after a writing session focused mostly on Cowboy, we flipped and went with Fish out of Water. Saturday was a dangerously hot day, but I was determined to make a film set outside. Thankfully Almighty Haul was produced in the quickest order to date. Shot on the banks of Beaver Creek in Johnston, in roughly four hours A.H. was in the can. Filmed in sequence on my DJI Osmo x5 in sequence, editing went super fast and the team watched a rough cut around 7pm. As soon as the rough was in, I knew we had produced another fun film, but as an added bonus it was the most unique looking film we've produced to date.
After considering forgoing the 2016 Des Moines 48 Hour Film Project, Tiny Explosions re-upped and turned in maybe our best film to date.
"Almighty Haul" made its 48 HFP debut on Tuesday, August 2 in screening group A.
Almighty Haul was lucky enough to advance to the awards round of films. Ended up being a big night for Tiny Explosions taking home Best Film, Runner-Up award and Best Use of Prop. Obviously a huge year for Tiny Explosions.
Two feuding criminals are caught off guard by a baptismal congregation. Tiny Explosions entry in the 2016 Des Moines 48 Hour Film Project.
With every project there are bits left on the cutting room floor. For Almighty Haul those bits are hilarious.
Brainstorming for the our 2017 film Snap Back mirrored our 2016 experience. Leave kickoff, meetup at the Hogan's, brainstorm and kill ideas for a couple hours before our film emerges. Good times.
Besides being hot as blazes, we had a great time filming Snap Back. Chuck provided a sweet ride to serve as our films car and we shot the hell out of it, plus a lot of fun roadside stuff. Filming with a car includes a lot more obstacles then you might consider; matching background with cuts, timing, engine rumble, physical space for camera operation, hundreds of U-turns. I now understand why film crews get permits to cordon off a road and put cars on flatbeds. All in All a good day. In the end the film was no sweat to cut together and beat the deadline.
Snap Back hit the big screen in Group C. We had a pretty good reception with a fair amount of laughs. Not our most raucous crowd but they definitely enjoyed it. We ended up being runner-up audience award winner. Pretty pleased with that because the film that won, "The Stepfather" took Best of City and deserved to win.
Once again our film was fortunate enough to screen at Best of City. It was a fun night, albeit humbling. Coming in second in 2016 made a few on our team a little grumpy when the night ended and we received zero awards. Some couldn't hide their displeasure. My personal issue was being part of the Best of City but having no discernible reason for our inclusion as nothing in our film was recognized as outstanding or "best of." Oh well, learning experience and in the end we enjoyed the film. That is what is important. There are things I would change, but such is the case with everyone's work.
Four friends out for a joy ride get trapped on a mysterious road.
Once again we had a ridiculous afternoon making a short movie.
2018's writing experience was similar to the past two years however before the event Brian and I did a little more leg work to get locations. We had roughly a half dozen top notch locations and so our story ideas came with a lot more agency.
Once filming was wrapped at the bowling alley, a handful of people descended upon Jordan Mayland's basement to solidify our musical score.
Palle was our smoothest production to date. Audio was hooked to the video and our location was rock solid.
Palle Amorevoli debuted at the Fleur Cinema & Cafe at 7pm on August 2, 2018.
On Thursday, August 16 "Palle Amorevoli" screened at the 2018 Best of City event.
With a slightly pared down crew, Tiny Explosions quickly came up with the premise for our 2019 48HFP short film. Our genre pull was either Politics or Romance, we went romance in the most ridiculous way imagineable.
Filming "red flag" was probably our smoothing production to date. We had Eastview Community Center entirely to ourselves, all the AC we could handle, and a LARGE cast ready to produce some silliness.
"red flag" was a complete and total crowd pleaser. We won our audience award and sitting in the theater you could tell we deserved it. Biggest laughs and loudest reactions of any film we've ever made.
Once again, our film made it to Best of City, and for the third year in a row, we didn't win any awards other our audience award. The difference this year we anticipated that our gross out, absurd comedy was going to go home un-lauded. Comedy rarely receives accolades and films like ours NEVER are recognized for their wit or intelligence.
Who doesn't love a blooper reel. Plenty of laughs while making "red flag."
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