Brandon J. Snyder and Ray Revello race across the duck pond with a single goal: be the first to punch Rich Castromayor in the face.
That’s it. That’s the race.
Behind the Scenes
Face Race is the only Dollars & Donuts production directed by Brandon J. Snyder, and one of the clearest snapshots of the group’s earliest filmmaking habits.
Conceived and shot in a single summer day at the duck pond in South San Francisco, the short grew out of the same basic method that defined a lot of the early work: come up with an idea, walk somewhere with a camera, and keep filming until something useful happens.
The premise was barely more than a sentence. Snyder and Ray Revello race toward Rich Castromayor, with the winner earning the right to punch him in the face. The surviving behind-the-scenes footage shows the group working through the bit in real time, with shouted directions, failed takes, laughter, and mounting impatience when something refuses to work.
A complete short could begin with one dumb sentence and exist by the end of the day.
There is very little polish in Face Race, and almost nothing separating the finished film from the afternoon that produced it. It captures the reckless, walk-everywhere energy of the earliest Dollars & Donuts years, when a complete short could begin with one dumb sentence and exist by the end of the day.