Instructional videos on how to survive an active shooter attack send a paranoid man into a self-fulfilling spiral. Dylan Redford directs “Emergency Action Plan,” a layered satire and personal essay film which explores emergency readiness drills ranging from Redford’s childhood to the present day. After being advised by his employer to come up with a plan should the office ever be attacked by an active shooter, Redford becomes obsessed with preparing for the worst. “Run, Hide, Fight” is the theme he discovers when researching online videos for a general approach — he plans exit routes, hiding spots, and trains for combat. While burrowing deep into emergency preparedness, he begins to experience paranoia with regard to his recent google searches (“what guns do active shooters use”) and online purchases for firearms, bulletproof vests, etc. Redford’s film is a sign of the times rendered with a dry sense of humor and anchored with stylized recreations of earthquake drills and absurd visualizations of (im)possible outcomes.

Director, writer, editor: Dylan Redford. Producer: Olivia Lloyd. DP: Ben Cary and Wayland Bell. Production design: Lucila Garcia de Onrubia. Colorist: Sam Gursky. Sound mix and design: Joel Hernandez. Cast: Dylan Redford, Coe DesMarais. Intro titles: Harisson Fishman.