Sean Mannion

Tag: short film

  • 2018: Meme, Rubber Ducky, and It’s Normal

    2018: Meme, Rubber Ducky, and It’s Normal

    It has been a minute since I’ve updated this site. Between keeping Meme and 4MileCircus up to date I tend to forget to keep this one up. So, here is a quick look at my three projects for 2018. 

    Meme

    Meme is, of course, the biggest project on my plate for 2018 as it is my first feature. Post-production wrapped at the beginning of the year and in January we held a very successful cast & crew screening. This was then followed by the joys of the film festival submission process. As of the writing of this post Meme has been accepted to three festivals: The Underground FilmFest, The Art of Brooklyn Film Festival, and Cucalorus. 

    Meme has already screened at The Art of Brooklyn in June and they awarded the film Best Feature. It was a lovely festival and I tried to go to as many screenings that week as I was able to. The staff and volunteers were great. I’m looking forward to going back to it again, whether I’m screening or not, next year. 

    Meme will be screening on November 10th and 11th at Cucalorus in Wilmington, North Carolina. I’m currently preparing to head there for the long weekend. I’ve heard wonderful things about the festival and I’m excited to experience it for myself. 

    In addition to festivals Meme has also gotten a little bit of press. I did an interview with Spoiler Free Movie Sleuth, and then they had one of their writers review the film. It was a very positive review:

    “Meme masquerades as a common relationship drama, when in fact it presents a fascinating existential commentary that is perfectly tied up in a full circle approach”

    Tasha Danzig, Spoiler Free Movie Sleuth

    More news on Meme will be coming for 2019. In the meantime, here is the latest trailer: 

    Rubber Ducky

    Rubber Ducky is a short film I wrote and directed in 2017 during Meme post-production. I completed post-production for Rubber Ducky while waiting to hear back from festivals on Meme. I am currently submitting it to festivals. It had it’s premiere at the August screening of Congested Cat’s IndieWorks. Rubber Ducky is a fun odd little film I hope to share more widely soon. Here is the teaser for Rubber Ducky: 

    It’s Normal

    I started writing It’s Normal after the 2017 presidential inauguration. I shared the draft with Nicole Solomon, my business partner at 4MileCircus and she was very eager to make it. I worked with her on revising the script and she took on directing duties. The film is at its core about the normalization of fascism, but it uses vampires instead. We shot it in the spring of 2018 and finished a cut of the film just in time to premiere at the Ax Wound Film Festival November 10th. As I’ll be with Meme at Cucalorus in North Carolina, I won’t be at Ax Wound for the film’s premiere, but Nicole will be in attendance. I’m looking forward to hearing about the audience’s reaction to the film.

    Wide Poster for It’s Normal

    Nicole wrote a blog post about It’s Normal on the 4MileCircus blog.

    2019

    While 2018 isn’t over it is about the time to start working on 2019. There will be updated reels and more screenings and we’re looking forward to releasing all three of these films through platforms that will allow anyone and everyone to watch them. More updates to come. 

  • Time Signature Update

    Time Signature Update

    TimeSignatureImage

    It’s been awhile since I did a proper blog update. I have more planned for the next few weeks. So, let’s get that started off with an update about Time Signature, the short film I crowdfunded last year on Seed&Spark about Danielle, a woman who discovers her favorite musician is from the future and has traveled back in time to change Danielle’s life. I wrote about Making Time Signature last year. It was a really fun process and I am very pleased to have many of the same people working with me on Meme this year.

    I released Time Signature in April and its been doing reasonably well over the past few months. We are premiering in Manhattan at Indie Works’ July screening on the 8th. More about that on the Facebook Event. We have gotten some good press around Time Signature with an interview at Stoned Crowe Press and two reviews which featured the following quotes:

    This one is ten minutes of sci-fi with no special effects and more emotional stakes than most full-length flicks.

    -Joe Crowe, RevolutionSF

    and

    Everything about Time Signature very clearly suggests that if Mannion was given what he needs in the way of budget and resources, he could come up with something well worth watching.

    -Gabriel Ricard, Captain Canada’s Movie Rodeo

    This is not to mention the personal messages I’ve received from people that they loved it, that they were moved by the ending, or that it gave them chills. It’s great to hear the film get such a reaction from so many people and to have so many people reach out to tell me how much they enjoyed the film.

    I’m really pleased with what we’ve done and excited to participate in the Indie Works Q&A. If you’re in Manhattan on July 8th come on down and bring your tough time travel questions! I’m ready for them!

    Haven’t seen the film, yet? Well, here it is or you can go to time-sig.com. I have an update on Meme coming later this week and then next Monday I have a big announcement.

    [kad_vimeo url=”https://vimeo.com/120482379″ ]

     

  • New Short (and a Screening): The Box

    New Short (and a Screening): The Box

    The Box was the product of a challenge issued to me by fellow filmmaker Jeremy Berger. He suggested I should try to make a new short that was shot in one day, edited the following day, and posted online by day three. So, I decided to shoot a very simple story about a young woman looking for the spot her friend wanted her ashes spread.

    Then, I decided I was being too easy on myself and decided to add in a new layer of complication: animation. I decided to do animated titles and to shoot the frames of animation stop-motion style. The process for the animated portions was to take pictures and video clips run them through Photoshop’s photocopy filter, print them out, and then photograph them in sequence. For the video clips, I exported them from FCPX as a JPEG sequence, then deleted two out of every three frames before running them through that process. I’m pleased with the result. I like the feel of the animated titles. It’s a bit messy but I think it works. If I ever do it again I am going to get a better setup for shooting the animation frames, though. They were too often a little off and it works but it frustrated me a little.

    The music is by Brooklyn duo PS XO. They are awesome. Give them your money.

    I also experimented with creating a little GIF trailer for The Box. It’s only a three minute long video so a video trailer seemed silly.

    Gif-Trailer

    The day I released it I got a message that Nadine Marie, who organizes the Brooklyn Fire Proof First Friday art show, wants to include The Box in this Friday’s (March 1st) show. If you’re in Brooklyn, come and see The Box with me. It screens at 11PM. Tangible Absence