STALE FISH

STALE FISH EP. 18 SURVIVING THE LA RIVER

This was a project that started as an instagram sketch series with the two main actors. Will - the writer and one of the main actors - wanted to make something a bit beefier than the sketches and that's when I got involved.

The sketches were shot on iPhone, and that lo-fi aesthetic worked with the jankiness of the cinematic universe of the sketches. When I came on board, I took the iPhone and tried to max out it's potential with things like RAW recording and lens attachments, but I quickly realized it was too good looking for this project. There was an energy that was lacking from how it was being presented. That's when I realized we needed to go lower-quality and had the idea to shoot it on the classic skater-cam the Sony MiniDV VX2000. This made perfect sense. And all of a sudden every thing fell into place in terms of the tone of the short. Now I felt like I had the wind at my back.

There was only one other crew member in addition to myself, which was the sound person, and it's not the sound person that's on camera. And I did, in fact, hire a real sound person, full rate, to perform on camera and not record sound and for some ungodly reason. Racking my brain now, I simply don't understand why I didn't have the on-camera sound person actually record the sound and save myself the cost of hiring two sound people.

The first weekend we tried to shoot, we got through a few scenes and then the police kicked us out of the LA river and gave me a $1000 dollar ticket. Then we got a permit and finished it a few weeks later.

I love how weird this short is. I love that we titled it EP. 18 with no other episodes to speak of. I love that it's shot on the VX2. I love the visuals of the LA river. I love the soundtrack. I'm very proud of this film. I proved to myself that I could make something unique and I think the fuel that gave me is invaluable and its a fuel I'm still running on.