Tell me about your day in 140 seconds. Go.

Pitt alumnus Jon Hill recounted the day he met a… Tell me about your day in 140 seconds. Go.

Pitt alumnus Jon Hill recounted the day he met a stranger, Dana Buning.

It was Nov. 30. Hill was dumped the night before and unemployed, he said. He went to a café to draw a picture for a friend who was on her way to visit her mother who had cancer.

He asked a complete stranger if she liked the drawing. Her name was Dana Buning.

“We ended up spending seven hours together. We started talking about life and how she was having a bad day, too,” Hill said. “[Dana] was just getting over cancer and her cat died.”

Hill, a 26-year-old freelance filmmaker living in Los Angeles, used this day as the inspiration for his short film “I Met a Girl” — but he had to keep it at 140 seconds.

Hill submitted the video to a national film competition sponsored by the Nikon camera company. Competitors must film a day in their lives in 140 seconds or less.

As of last night, the film ranked fifth in the competition.

“I read about it on Twitter … You can be funny. It’s whatever you do or don’t do in a day,” Hill said.

Nikon uploaded the top 50 submissions to its website, nikonfestival.com, where viewers can click on rating stars, casting votes for their favorite videos. Voting ends at midnight.

Nikon will give out two awards. One $25,000 prize will go to the most popular video. The second prize of $100,000 will go to the video picked by a three-person judging panel.

Among the judges is Rainn Wilson, most known for his role as Dwight in the NBC comedy The Office. Wilson Tweeted about Hill’s video Monday night: “Holey Moley! Another beautiful one! So much HUMANITY!”

Hill will find out how his video compares to other submissions when Nikon announces the winners of its competition Thursday.

Hill said he decided at the last minute to enter the contest.

“I was in Vegas and lost a lot of money,” he said. “I still didn’t have an idea. Then one night, it was pouring rain, and I was listening to this song by Under the Influence of Giants, driving back from a comedy show. It just hit me that I had this magical day with a complete stranger.”

Hill said the experience felt therapeutic.

“A complete stranger is like talking to a psychiatrist because I may never see them again. I can say anything. With roommates and friends you have your shields up,” he said. “You don’t want to say to people how vulnerable you are. It’s a weird kind of therapy.”

Hill said that after his dad died, he felt responsible for the rest of his family.

“You can’t tell them you’re scared,” he said.

Buning had a similar experience. Their lives paralleled each other’s that day.

Filming the day was far harder than experiencing it. Hill had less than 40 hours to shoot, edit and submit his film if he wanted to make the Dec. 15 deadline for the competition.

“I don’t do dramatic. I do silly comedies,” Hill said. “I got the chance to work on a different scale. To be able to tell a story in two minutes is pretty challenging.”

First, he had to find his cast. He told Buning he wouldn’t film the project without her. She hesitated at first. She wasn’t a good actress, she said.

Then there was the awkwardness that came with filming the last scene, in which Buning and Hill kiss.

Hill said he couldn’t find an actor who resembled him, so he decided to perform in the video himself. He shot the kissing scene seven times, only to wind up using the first take.

“We used the first one because we had no idea what was going down,” he said. “People’s reactions are real the first time. [In the take] I did this weird wave after I kissed her. I didn’t know what to do.”

He later decided to edit out the wave.

Hill said the video covered most of the pair’s day, except for an adventure at an ice cream parlor.

“A month ago, I went to a Vampire Weekend concert. I bought like 40 popsicles from an ice cream man,” he said. “I asked Dana when the last time she had free ice cream was. I asked to buy her ice cream.”

Buning, a 32-year-old freelance TV producer, said recapping the day she met Hill was “an amazing experience.”

“I had a wonderful day with Jon. To have a project that reflects that day and our life experiences is really cool. What better way to wrap up a year than to celebrate with a complete stranger?”

If Hill wins, he plans to use the money to start a new project. He then wants to visit his widowed mother in Thailand, her home country.

“I read Rick Warren’s book — well, just the first page.” Hill said, referring to the self-help book, “The Purpose Driven Life.” “Warren said it’s not about you. I agree with it. I didn’t create this life, why should I feel that people owe me? I’m trying to use this to be humbled. Vote or don’t vote for me. I just want people to watch.”

When Hill thinks about this video, he remembers his days at the Creation Station, the days before he graduated from Pitt or met Buning.

Hill said Creation Station was based on the fourth floor of the Cathedral of Learning, and he and his friends would often sneak in there after hours to do extra work on their projects.

“We used to sneak out at 3 a.m., crawl under the gate at the Cathedral or go through the automatic door that faces Bigelow,” he said. “We used to be able to pry it open if you were strong enough. Then, we’d quickly run to the basement, take the elevator to the wrong floor to fool the security guards and run to the fourth floor. We did all these crazy things and I built from that. Everything we did was teaching me. Having nothing gives you the opportunity to be creative.”

Hill said he learned everything he knows about filmmaking from his experience at the Creation Station.

“This is the truth,” he said. “When my crew and I showed up at the café to shoot ‘I Met a Girl,’ the café didn’t know we were shooting. I learned everything from Pitt — editing in 40 hours, sneaking and espionage.”

Follow Hill’s progress on his blog, www.everydayjonhill.com.