The rules of Hampton Road’s 48-Hour Film Project were simple:

• The character Ed or Emma Butler, a travel agent, needed to appear.
• The prop of a kite must be used.
• The line of dialog “When will she be back?” had to be said.

Check that. Sounded simple. But with only 48 hours to conceptualize, write, set, shoot, and edit the movie, you can bet by the end of those two days you had some directors with nerves as frayed as the ends of old shoelaces.

Following is the “Best of City” winning film, the thriller Sea of Trees, produced by Idyl King Entertainment’s creative team of Grayson Wolfe (director, editor, writer) and William Dresden (director of photography, editor, writer). The setting is Aokigahara, Japan, otherwise known as the Sea of Trees. Sitting at the base of Mt. Fuji, the forest is known for paranormal activity, suicides and, after this film, demonic teddy bears and sad/bad daddies.

For their efforts Idyl will represent the 757 at Filmapalooza in Las Vegas. And if they win in Vegas? Next up, Cannes.

Enjoy, but don’t pop too much popcorn: it’s just over seven minutes. You might want to mute the first five seconds to blot out the annoying sound test.

The Sea of Trees from Idyl King Entertainment on Vimeo.