Hollywood is a wild and crazy place, and the politics of getting a feature film produced are complex to say the least. Rather than shopping a completed script to possibly interested parties, director Ross Ching and writer Bill Balas took a shortcut: They simply made a three-minute version of their action movie.

Their violent short is called Already Gone , and you can watch it exclusively above (language NSFW). The filmmakers might just be on to something big with this approach, which takes the “teaser first, movie later” concept a step further: This is a very streamlined way to get their story in front of audiences before the full feature has been completed. Think of it as a pilot for the feature film yet to be bought.

Set against a ticking clock, Already Gone packs as much action and implied story as possible into three minutes of kick-ass action. The one-day shoot in a Los Angeles warehouse focused on the story of a man with cystic fibrosis named Jude Mulvey (played by Shawn Ashmore, Iceman from the first three X-Men movies). In order to take control of his mortality — and wanting to die anywhere but a hospital bed — Jude becomes a fearless and effective criminal full of misplaced rage.

The twist is that he points that criminal activity at other law-breakers, robbing their hangouts and drug dens with his partner in crime, Scott Lee (Harry Shum Jr., who plays Mike Chang on Glee ). At some point they cross the wrong bad guy and the adventure begins.

Balas’ Already Gone script was found by producers Don Le and Peter Katz through a contest for new writers on screenwriting site Fresh Voices. Along with executive producer Joel Mendoza, they brought the project to Ching to direct, hoping this three-minute action film sparks enough interest for a feature treatment.

Already Gone is the second short film from director Ching. The previous one, 3 Minutes , also featured Shum (as well as Stephen “tWitch” Boss). While 3 Minutes was not intended as a feature film pilot, its intense lightsaber battle in an old storage yard made for some pretty kick-ass viewing. In fact, 3 Minutes might have a similar future as Already Gone , which, if everything goes according to plan, we may see turned into a feature-length film at some point.