Courtesy Actors Gabi Walker (from left), Rick Carrillo, and Nikki Young face an unknown terror in ‘Four Minutes Till The End.’

It took Bryan Ortiz two days to complete his latest short film.

That sleep-deprived weekend earned the San Antonio filmmaker a chance to compete in a national contest for filmmaking.

“Four Minutes Till the End,” a science-fiction thriller written and directed by Ortiz, won Best Film honors at this year’s 48-Hour Film Project, earning Ortiz the chance to represent San Antonio at the project’s national competition later this year.

The 48-Hour Film Project challenges filmmaking teams to produce a short film in two days. The teams must incorporate common elements — a prop, a character and a line of dialogue — into an assigned genre chosen at random by the filmmakers.

Ortiz, a 2007 graduate of the University of the Incarnate Word, said he’s glad he picked thriller as his genre because it allowed him to “open up creatively.”

Ortiz shot “Four Minutes Till the End” in a single, continuous shot, which created quite a workout for the cast, who described the filming as a day of “running, running, running.”

Film Classics Productions, the production company Ortiz formed with friend Michael Druck in 2006, produced the five-minute film. It stars Rick Carrillo, Nikki Young and Gabi Walker as a family threatened by a mysterious force invading their neighborhood.

Besides winning top honors at this year’s 48-Hour Film Project, the film also won for best sound design and best directing and tied with Nosferatu’s “Back Up” for best acting. It also was picked as one of two audience favorites when entries for the 2008 48-Hour Film Project were screened Aug. 13.

If “Four Minutes Till the End” wins top honors at the national 48-Hour Film Project competition, Ortiz and the film will advance to the international competition.

Melissa Rentería | 210SA contributor