We escape the confines of life by creating our own traps for plastic mice. These two young men and their false rodents must go head-to-head in a game of confusion, deception, and unparalleled thrill, all set to Michael Giacchino's brilliant score for Ratatouille. My fourth Sight and Sound film! Starring Harvey Kingsley-Elton and Peter Mancuso. Camerawork by Olivia Posner. A film by Brian Koch.
It’s Christmastime, but poor Ben finds himself no longer able to hear the seasonal music. His roommate insists there must be an explanation, so Ben sets out to discover what’s wrong with him. The answer is not what he expected. Starring Peter Mancuso, me, Harvey Kingsley-Elton Justin Chapman, Elizabeth Koch, and Guido the Reindeer. Cinematography by Olivia Posner and Harvey Kingsley-Elton. My final film for the semester! Most of these run 1-4 minutes, but for whatever reason, I decided to make a really long, ambitious, location-jumping piece, or as my professor would say, “a feature.” That’s probably because my next production class, Sight and Sound: Studio, is going to mostly focus on straight adaptations shot in one set, and after that, I’m not sure if I’m going to take another production class. So this was perhaps my last chance to make a fairly unrestricted film with NYU resources. Gotta go all out, right? I knew I wanted to tell a classic-feeling story about Christmas, but add something of my own to say. I decided to revisit the trope of a troubled man who simply can’t get into the Christmas spirit, until spiritual guidance swoops in to explain away his problems by pointing to a couple defining moments, sort of in the vein of A Christmas Carol or It’s a Wonderful Life. Love those stories, but I thought an interesting point could be made from the fact that a person’s problems can’t be explained by some bad things they either did or experienced in their past. You can’t boil down an entire life to a few defining moments. That’s just not actually possible. So I became drawn to the idea of someone just being sad, and having to realize it wasn’t about getting to the bottom of why they were sad, but just acknowledging the truth of the matter. The rest of the story then just sort of formed around that. Acknowledge your sadness. Don't give it an excuse.
This was my final film project from the NYU Tisch Summer Filmmakers Workshop. It was produced largely within the span of 2 weeks. It was a wonderful experience and I had the pleasure to work with some truly amazing people. Shout-outs go to my two leads, Kyle Leibovitch and Michael Murphy. They did a fantastic job on their one-day shoot. A super-special thank you is in order for Laith Zuaiter for being the best DP ever and doing a great job onscreen in the shadows. I'd also like to give credit to Nora Unkel and Elizabeth Koch for making the most out of their brief roles, and Erin McKeon and Martha Stevens for their additional support. Thanks to Pierson Andreas for being a really helpful TA, and Joel Kingsbury and Patrick Morgan for their vital tips in the editing lab. Finally, thank you to Professor Gay Abel-Bey for her guidance throughout the filmmaking process. Royalty-free music was provided by Kevin MacLeod of Incompetech.com. Two guys get caught up worrying about their social media stats as if it's a matter of life and death... and it turns out, it is. This film was produced in 2014. The online version is slightly modified from the Angelika theater screening.
A daytime talk show host is forced by her network to take over the late night slot. My final film for Sight and Sound: Studio class.