Operation Y2K,
Short
Writer, Director, and Producer
Portland, Oregon
Original Narrative Short
Portland, Oregon
Original Narrative Short
Operation Y2K is a finalist for Best Picture in the Houston Comedy Film Festival in October 2025.
Interested in viewing the full short? Get in touch via email at dawsonmadness@gmail.com for distribution.
Interested in viewing the full short? Get in touch via email at dawsonmadness@gmail.com for distribution.
About the short:
Operation Y2K follows Dolph, a self-serious, naïve burnout, and Mitch, a varsity athlete who lost his scholarship, as they float through their mundane, middle-American lives while the calendar approaches the year 2000.
Convinced that Y2K will bring about the collapse of technology and the downfall of civilization, the two plot a heist: rob the video store where they work on the night of the new millennium, while the security system is down.
Operation Y2K follows Dolph, a self-serious, naïve burnout, and Mitch, a varsity athlete who lost his scholarship, as they float through their mundane, middle-American lives while the calendar approaches the year 2000.
Convinced that Y2K will bring about the collapse of technology and the downfall of civilization, the two plot a heist: rob the video store where they work on the night of the new millennium, while the security system is down.
The process:
Operation Y2K was conceived and written in late 2019, just before principal photography on Pig began. With the nature of the short being very visual and kinetic, once the script was locked, I storyboarded every frame of the project giving us a visual reference for what each department needed to accomplish every day on set, and saving us time by avoiding unnecessary coverage.
While I was alive during the Y2K scare, I was too young to remember the pandemonium that arose from the fear that all technology would fail when the calendar turned over to the new millennium. I'm fascinated by newsreels of shopping carts filled with supplies and non-perishables, and was excited by the idea of a person who truly believes the world as we know it is about to end—and has a plan to take advantage of it.
When Pig wrapped, many of its crew members, now close friends, joined Y2K, and we began pre-production.
Because the project is a period piece and I wanted the viewer to be immersed in the perspective of our characters who fully believe in the upcoming apocalypse, I felt it was important to curate the film’s art direction so that there wouldn’t be any recognizable brands, logos, or film titles.
I worked with our designers, developing moodboards and production design. They then created hundreds of posters, VHS covers, fake university merchandise, and brands. This built an atmosphere of nostalgic unfamiliarity, the way memories often feel, and subtly suggested to the audience that, in this world, maybe the power really will go out…
The characters work at a video store and are obsessed with over-the-top macho action heist movies. The Director of Photography and I studied the genre meticulously, as we wanted the visual tone of the short to feel as though it were in the head of the characters, who imagine themselves as their own Schwarzenegger and Stallone.
Principal photography took place overnight at the former “Just In Video” in March of 2020. On our last day of shooting, we stepped into the parking lot at sunrise to the news that COVID-19 lockdowns had begun.
The team reunited four more times over the next two years, flying actors back in from across the country for each shoot. Meanwhile, I worked closely with my editor to cut the project together. It was finally completed in early 2024 and has been making its initial festival rounds since.
I’m incredibly proud of the hard work and dedication from everyone on the team. This is the kind of project that could have been sidelined by a global pandemic, but it was finished with teamwork, love, and care.
Operation Y2K was conceived and written in late 2019, just before principal photography on Pig began. With the nature of the short being very visual and kinetic, once the script was locked, I storyboarded every frame of the project giving us a visual reference for what each department needed to accomplish every day on set, and saving us time by avoiding unnecessary coverage.
While I was alive during the Y2K scare, I was too young to remember the pandemonium that arose from the fear that all technology would fail when the calendar turned over to the new millennium. I'm fascinated by newsreels of shopping carts filled with supplies and non-perishables, and was excited by the idea of a person who truly believes the world as we know it is about to end—and has a plan to take advantage of it.
When Pig wrapped, many of its crew members, now close friends, joined Y2K, and we began pre-production.
Because the project is a period piece and I wanted the viewer to be immersed in the perspective of our characters who fully believe in the upcoming apocalypse, I felt it was important to curate the film’s art direction so that there wouldn’t be any recognizable brands, logos, or film titles.
I worked with our designers, developing moodboards and production design. They then created hundreds of posters, VHS covers, fake university merchandise, and brands. This built an atmosphere of nostalgic unfamiliarity, the way memories often feel, and subtly suggested to the audience that, in this world, maybe the power really will go out…
The characters work at a video store and are obsessed with over-the-top macho action heist movies. The Director of Photography and I studied the genre meticulously, as we wanted the visual tone of the short to feel as though it were in the head of the characters, who imagine themselves as their own Schwarzenegger and Stallone.
Principal photography took place overnight at the former “Just In Video” in March of 2020. On our last day of shooting, we stepped into the parking lot at sunrise to the news that COVID-19 lockdowns had begun.
The team reunited four more times over the next two years, flying actors back in from across the country for each shoot. Meanwhile, I worked closely with my editor to cut the project together. It was finally completed in early 2024 and has been making its initial festival rounds since.
I’m incredibly proud of the hard work and dedication from everyone on the team. This is the kind of project that could have been sidelined by a global pandemic, but it was finished with teamwork, love, and care.
