It was the summer of 2019. I was heading into my senior year, and still racking my brain on what I’d do for thesis. And almost like a little mini-miracle, my dad, Todd, recounted a story that happened to his father (my PopPop). It was in that moment when I knew EXACTLY what my thesis was going to be.

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My dad has always told me bizarre stories from his childhood - they were freakish, violent, insane even, and yet, they were so dryly hilarious and entertaining. I love his stories to death, and even though the experience wasn't his, I feel this film is a love letter to how wonderful those stories are.

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There was never an actual script - the film evolved orally, using my dad's telling as the basis. The more I told the story, the more kinks got ironed out of it, the more I could pinpoint certain moments for humor and for tension. So by the time I actually told my class, it was more or less what you heard on screen.

 

My teacher was Jake Fried, and his mantra was more or less “fail quickly, fail often.” By the time production actually started, I had about six or seven full animatics. For me, that’s where the film is - story and the characters are the core, and if that core is good, everything else is gravy.

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I knew that I wanted the film to be mixed-media - I loved when the Fleischers' would do the technique, and I had explored the live-action animation concept before, so it’d be thematically appropriate and eye-catching in context. My dad’s designed the sets for many of my student films, so I knew he was the guy for the job. I was genuinely surprised at how fast he constructed them - he banged out the whole thing in about a month's time while I storyboarded, and I couldn't have been happier.

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I'm truly happy I can call the film a family affair - not just with my dad, but also with my grandfather, James, providing the narration. To use the actual man involved I hope lends a level of naturalism to the story. Combining something that feels real with cartoony visuals was what I needed in order to make the tone shifts believable, especially in a four-minute runtime.

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I shot all the sets with the Dragonframe VOLO Motion Control camera - one of only about 25 or so on Earth. Combining live-action with animation was achieved through tracking the motion of the camera in After Effects. I'd apply the green-screen, some color correction, play with filters and lighting effects, and we were able to achieve the look we wanted for the movie.

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Once it was all in the can, I hoped that it’d play some festivals and do well on Vimeo. Never did I think it’d garner the support of Vanishing Angle. Natalie, Ben and Matt have really help shepherd the film to being the best it can be, and have always been helpful and welcoming when it came to any concerns and thoughts I had.

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For me, “Put A Stick In It” contains a lot of autobiography. Not just in making it with my family, but I feel it’s my way of describing what I aim to do. Storytelling at its core is the ability to use your experience to (hopefully) make someone else understand how you view the world, maybe even make them think twice about it too. Even if folks don't read that hard into it, it's still a goofy little cartoon where kids get shot, and for my money, I did my job well.

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