In Production: Seeds of Anxiety

I’m currently shooting a short film with Alex Mercado. He’s a friend and a talented director.  This is our first project together since the Supawave video, Left Shoe.

We’re adapting an exerpt from a manga he loves, ‘Fuan no tane’ into a short film. It’s a passion project and he’s been trying to adapt over the years. Seeing a ‘Man from La Mancha’ situation I jumped in to help him take down his white whale.

We decided to go with a cinematic 2:35 aspect and very formal camera work. We had conversations about inspirations for the look, drawing from Japanese horror, Fincher, and the source material. 

The project has been a fantastic collaboration. The lead in the project is Will Hue, creator of the webseries ‘The Streets’. A Chinatown gang drama.  EDIT: The Streets is being recut into a feature, which is going to be titled "Lucky Boys" and as such it is off youtube.

The other lead is Isaac Haldeman. Isaac is an actor, director/producer. His production company Helmset. His mission and content mirrors my own interests in terms of diversity and representation in film.

Jasmine Romero is our supporting actress.  She’s an extremely accomplished and talented actor and singer. Her previous work includes Sesame Street and being on stage performing the Will Rogers Follies. 

Many of the photos from this post come from Norman Lam. He’s been our ace in the hole in terms of crew. He’s been our set photographer, First AC, Sound guy, and Location manager. He’s a talented DP in his own right