Development  

The idea for Vital came naturally to then 17 year old Sam. "My friend Jared was a pizza delivery driver and I knew someone that owned an EMT business so I wrote a story around those elements."says Robles. The short film was part of a high school project competition for architecture class. I built a snorry cam rig out of PVC pipes in order to pass the "architecture" portion of the project. 

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Locations

Sam was able to get filming permission from an EMT business owner in exchange for one thing. "I had to clear out the entire storage garage because they were going out of business."say Robles. It took Sam 2 days to clear out and load a truck with medical supplies in order to start filming. "I took advantage of the empty space and added a scene with a freezer full of bodies." For the exterior scenes Sam filmed in the parking lot outside of the business overnight.  

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Set Design

"Everything you see on screen is the real deal, from the stretcher to the ambulance, aside from the gun being fake even the blood and the organs were real."says Robles. Sam used real pig organs from the local meat market for the transplant scenes.

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Wardrobe

Sam used the real employee uniforms that the nurses and EMT's would wear for the film. "I took advantage of anything and everything that would add production value."

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Production 

Vital shot for 1 day overnight in Houston Texas in the winter of 2011. "

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Film Festivals

The short film was submitted to the high school competition and won. It went on to compete in the state event. Sam was unable to attend due to his job waiting tables at the time. Due to unfortunate circumstances the professor had forgotten to bring the dvd along with him to the competition and the film never made it to screening at the state level. Sam went on to submit Vital to the Lone Star Film Festival and won "Best Horror" against college level film students.