Short Film

"HELLO" Online Premiere

Here it is, Christina's short "HELLO," shot back in March 2015. We've finally premiered it online!

A lonely soul attempts to make a connection with a visiting stranger, but her intentions don't quite match his interpretations.

Read about past screenings, Coney Island Film FestivalAx Wound Film Festival & Macabre Faire Film Festival

See behind the scenes and the making of HERE.

Director Statement
For two years, I was an Instructor for a mobile film workshop, which meant spending one week out of every month in a hotel room. I was always very aware of how alone I was despite being surrounded by strangers in other rooms. I was never personally lonely, but there's a certain loneliness to hotel rooms that you can just kind of feel. People pass through, never settling in, never making it a home. I often found myself thinking about all the stories that passed through; all the strange, unsettling, hopefully sometimes wonderful memories made there, and the potential 'ghosts' that lingered. This combined with my tendency to wonder about my room possibly being haunted led to the inspiration for "Hello."

One night after a long day at the workshop, when I couldn't sleep and found myself paying very close attention to the silence, the almost eerie silence of the room, I started freaking myself out with the possibility of not being so alone after all. In an attempt to appease my growing trepidation, I started pondering about ghosts; what would make them linger, what they could really want from a living person. I started entertaining myself with the notion of a ghost simply being lonely & bored -- especially having to watch all the people pass through the room they may haunt, and just wishing to make a connection with someone. As a huge horror film fan, I thought of all the cliche things that often happen as signs of a haunting and tried to find a funny, sweet or mundane explanation for them on the part of a ghost. Soon I was writing the script; and though I didn't get any sleep that night, I started the next morning very excited about this new script I had just written. I shot the film on no budget two months later and am very pleased with the final product, thanks to my small but mighty team of talented collaborators.

"We Had Plans" Online Premiere

We've finally released one of our new short films, "We Had Plans" online. Watch it now and let us know what you think (or feel!) in the comments. 

See the Recap of our NYC PictureStart Film Fest Screening HERE.

Read about the making of this film HERE.

See the Recap of our Queens World Film Fest Screening HERE.

See BTS Photos HERE.

FedUp (Teaser)

Here's a teaser for my recently finished short film, "FedUp."

 

If you'd like to find out more about the film, you can check out my previous post about it HERE

For now, I'm playing the waiting game to see if it gets accepted to any of the small festivals I've submitted it to. I'll keep you in the loop about its progress in the coming months.

Achoo Meow,

-Ryan

 

FedUp: Ryan's CongestedCat Directorial Debut

Back in March of 2014, we shot my short film titled FedUp. It was a great learning experience as it was my directorial debut with CongestedCat Productions. It’s a simple premise of two friends who are constantly woken in the early morning to their new roommate’s packages that get more and more out of hand. It’s part absurdist and part stoner humor. 

Starring David Mangiamele & Jason Zednick as the leads with Michael Lester (S.K.A.) making a special appearance. 

After completing principal photography, one of the AC’s expressed his interest in editing, so I reached out to him after the shoot and we began to cut the film. Unfortunately, just a few cuts away from picture lock, he fell off the face of the earth. He was completely unresponsive to any emails, calls or messages on social media. This certainly threw a curve ball into my plans to hit certain deadlines for festivals. That’s when I reached out to a good friend and constant collaborator, Sean Mannion. He’s worked on various shoot’s of Christina’s and he was interested in cutting something together, utilizing his graphic skills and creativity.

For the most part, the FedUp shoot was a fun-filled environment and my first time dealing with dialogue, multiple characters and even some improvisation. Although there were ups and downs, both in the production and post-production process, everything is starting to come together now.

I’m proud to say that we’ve finally hit picture lock and we’re throwing in the last few finishing touches before submitting it to fests.

Here are a few stills from the short. Hope you enjoy them!

- Ryan