In September 2019 I participated in the 48hr Film Festival in Shanghai, China. I teamed up again with Jud Willmont and Nicholas Z. Scott to create the film. We decided to do a combination of animation and live action to create something not seen before in competitions like these. It resulted in a chaotic and sleepless weekend but paid off with winning best film, best sound design, best acting ensemble and audience choice awards.

This project was a complete team effort in every way. We had 33 people total, including illustrators, DIT, gaffers, sound, composers, producers, colorists (crayons and colored pencil), scanners, runners, actors, makeup, costume, etc. Nearly everyone helped or participated on multiple departments, for example the music composer also helped manage the scanning of the colored frames and the actors helped color hundreds of pages. I shot the film with a Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro and composited the animation sequences with After Effects.

The film tells the tale of a short order cook who longs for love (and fresher ingredients) and sets off to save a princess from the evil villain Stale Taste and his henchmen Hot Dog and MSG.

Read articles by the team members and others.

Best of the 2019 Shanghai 48HFP – EastIndie

The 48hr Film Project – DikoKeepsOnWalking

Animation in the 48hr Film Festival – Crashdown Studio