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.
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. 