Sundance Shorts
Studying 15-minute narrative economy. Every frame must earn its place in the timeline.
REEL 01
A KENNESAW STATE PRODUCTION
ANSUL PATEL
Finance by day. Film by heart.
I study balance sheets at Kennesaw State and story structure everywhere else. I'm building toward a career where those two things stop being separate: production work that runs on real numbers, and stories told with real discipline. This site is the reel so far.
Now showing: Sophomore year
CONTENTS
ELEVEN PAGES, FIVE REELS
WHAT IS IN HERE
- REEL 01Title Sequence1.
- REEL 02The Filmography3.
- REEL 03The Acts5.
- REEL 04Off Screen6.
- REEL 05Intermission10.
- End Credits11.
skip to the game, I know
REEL 02
THE FILMOGRAPHY
SELECTED WORKS
REEL 02
THE FILMOGRAPHY, CONT'D
AND THE REST
REEL 03
THREE ACTS SO FAR
THE STORY IN PROGRESS
Open an act to read the scene work. Nothing here is finished, which is roughly the point.
act three is the fun partFull script (PDF)
One page, same three acts, fewer adjectives.
REEL 04
OFF SCREEN
RECURRING MOTIFS
The part that is not a resume: what I watch, and what I keep circling back to when nobody is grading it.
Now Showing
5 on rotation, rated in reels
01Whiplash
Directed by Damien Chazelle/2014
Rated 5 out of 5
Pacing is so tight it functions like an action film disguised as a music drama. Masterclass in editing momentum.
02Margin Call
Directed by J.C. Chandor/2011
Rated 4.5 out of 5
The best finance movie because it focuses on panic, human self-preservation, and late-night spreadsheets rather than excess.
03The Social Network
Directed by David Fincher/2010
Rated 5 out of 5
Sorkin script + Fincher precision = non-stop narrative propulsion where deposition rooms feel like battlegrounds.
REEL 04, CONT'D
Now Showing, the rest
04Drive My Car
Directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi/2021
Rated 4.5 out of 5
Three hours that feel like ninety minutes. Proves that quiet restraint and rehearsal scenes can carry massive emotional weight.
05La La Land
Directed by Damien Chazelle/2016
Rated 4.5 out of 5
Ending sequence is a masterpiece of alternative narrative structure. Romantic ambition meets hard reality.
REEL 04, CONT'D
What Keeps Showing Up
4, taped to the wall
Screenwriting Craft
Building scene tension, subtext in dialogue, and clean three-act architecture.
Narrative Design
Structuring user flow and portfolio pacing like a director cutting a film trailer.
Personal Finance & Valuation
Long-horizon allocation models, multi-stage DCF, and capital efficiency.
REEL 04, CONT'D
Director's Statement
Filed under: what happens next
“
I study balance sheets at Kennesaw State and story structure everywhere else.
Six or seven years out, I want to be the person in the room who can say both that a scene is two pages too long and that a slate does not clear its negative cost. Right now I am much better at the first one. Closing that distance is what the coursework, the models, and the script drafts are all for.
Ansul Patel, director's statement
REEL 05
INTERMISSION
REASSEMBLE THE POSTER
The one-sheet for a film that does not exist got cut into tiles. Drag them until it stops arguing with itself.
the intermission has a leaderboard of oneMoves
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Time
0:00
Best
not set
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