Toronto-based director Greg Kouts (previously featured here) offers a unique take on an epic outdoor adventure in this charming short created while in lockdown.

Great mix of visuals in this video for James Vincent McMorrow by director Tom Speers of SMUGGLER. Composed of portraits, time-lapse photography, and Super 8mm footage, “Headlights” evokes a surreal, dreamlike depiction of the artist and his daughter. The video was directed remotely with Speers and executive producer Elizabeth Doonan devising a production approach that involved James’s wife Emma shooting at their home in order to allow a more intimate and authentic glimpse into James’s life. Speers provided Emma with a detailed shot list to appear alongside pickup shoots by Speers and Eoin McLoughlin exploring secondary themes of memory and the passage of time. As Speers explains, while working on a project in the middle of a pandemic had the tendency to make him fixate on what wouldn’t be possible, he challenged himself to think instead of what might actually be improved by the physical absence of a director:

“I remembered my dad saying that his favourite photo of himself was one that I had taken of him when I was about 9. By his own admission, he often looks self-conscious in photographs, but not in this one. He attributed his expression in this particular photograph to the fact that it was me taking it, and that he was effectively looking beyond the lens at me, with a feeling of love.

So by the same principal, having James’s wife Emma film this (and given they were in isolation) it was perfectly suited. I asked that they shoot long conversations and then send me the video with no audio, so that what they said to each other would remain private. This was particularly important because if they could trust the process then the visual authenticity of what happened between them on camera would shine through.”

Check out the results above and see credits below!

Production Company: SMUGGLER
Director: Tom Speers
Producer: Lucy Bradley
Exec Producer: Elizabeth Doonan, Patrick Milling-Smith, Brian Carmody
DOP: Eoin McLoughlin
Additional Footage: Emma McMorrow, Tom Speers
Edit & VFX: Dan Hawkins

This video was submitted by SMUGGLER and selected by our team. Click here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!

Love this animated short written, directed, and designed by Daria Dedok (previously featured here). “A Boy I Never Knew” is about a person who has lost the ability to feel, told through a series of vignettes based on all the things they no longer have feelings for.

A fun and relatable short by writer-director Eli Shapiro. “That Friend You Hate” follows a young man who attempts to ‘break up’ with his best friend after a disastrous night together. Paying homage to Kevin Smith’s Clerks, the film was shot in black-and-white on a shoe-string budget with real life friends improvising in NYC and Shapiro’s hometown in Jersey. Watch above and see credits below!

Starring Sean Brannon & Will Cooper
Written & Directed by Eli Shapiro
Produced by Julianne Augustine, Eli Shapiro, Candice Kuwahara, Kurt Csolak
Assistant Director: Mike Cheslik
Director of Photography: Casey Stein
Assistant Camera: Michelle DoCampo, Spencer Forgham-Thrift, Zack Block
Production Sound Mixer: Miki Benyamini
Boom Operator: Yoni Benyamini
Production Designer: Kelly Cipriano
Costume Designer: Auri Jackson
Gaffer: Bernard Zeiger
Key Grip: Andrew C. Griego
Grip & Electric: Harry Tarre, Jayesh Hariharan, Erin Trout, Chris Kappel
Script Supervisor: Chelsea Hooper
Return Crew: Joe Testa, Scott Gallopo
Editor: Eli Shapiro
Sound Design & Re-recording Mix: Bobb Barito
Foley: Mark Lukenbill and Hollie Bennett
ADR Engineers: Dennis Hu, Mark Lukenbill
Colorist: Zachary Gobetz
Titles: Carlos Flores
Visual Effects: Brian Magarian
Special Thanks: NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Professor Susan Seidelman

This video was submitted by Eli Shapiro and selected by our team. Click here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!

Great energy to this short dance piece by London-based director and choreographer Jamie Neale. Starring Magnus Westwell, “Isolation” explores the difference between loneliness and being alone through the movements of a young man in search of a void that envelopes him.

“Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is richness of self.”

Direction and Choreography by Jamie Neale
Cinematography by Kiefer Passey
Talent: Magnus Westwell
Music: ATMO (Giulio Donati & Simone Donati)

This video was submitted by Jamie Neale and selected by our team. Click here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!

Nice look to this multimedia project by musician, actor, filmmaker Kaelen Ohm aka AMAARA. “Awake” follows AMAARA as she wanders through New York City, dancing in empty spaces, floating across the Brooklyn Bridge and getting hit by a subway — all in an analog, psychedelic wonder. Shot on 16mm by Shawn Hanna in October of 2019. VFX by Shelley Field.

New York City-based filmmakers Soren Nielsen and Taylor Antisdel capture the surreal state of their city in this beautiful collaboration with composer Rowan Spencer and sound designer Rafal Smolen.

“‘A City, Paused’ is a personal project that Taylor Antisdel and I have been working on throughout this quarantine. It’s our attempt to portray the feeling of being in New York City over the past two months.”

A Film by Soren Nielsen & Taylor Antisdel
Composer: Rowan Spencer
Sound Designer: Rafal Smolen
Director of Photography: Soren Nielsen

This video was submitted by Soren Nielsen and selected by our team. Click here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!

A heartwarming sci-fi short by London-based filmmaker Magali Barbé. Starring Timothy Spall and Jessica Ellerby, “This Time Away” tells the story of an elderly man living as a recluse until an unexpected visitor disrupts his lonely routine.

Writer & Director: Magali Barbé
Producer: Russell Curtis
DOP: Gabi Norland
Music: Azel Phara
Co-Producer: Debbie Crosscup
Production Designer: Felix Coles
Editor: Ed Cheesman @ Final Cut
First AD: John Burns
Casting Director: Kate Evans
Wardrobe: Grace Snell
Location Manager: Nicolas Cousin
VFX Supervisor: Andre Bittencourt
Storyboards: Mehdi Leffad
Concept Artist: Ronan Le Fur
Second Assistant Director: Ross Campbell
First AC: Jon Mitchell
Second AC: Ines Duarte
Camera Trainee: Holly Lucas
DIT: Ewan McFarlan, Ashley Hicks
Gaffer: Josie Williams
Electricians: Max Hodgkinson, Matt Bohun, Luke Greenan, Carmen Pellon Brussosa
Art Director: Luis San Martin
Set Decorator: Shean Caisley
Property Master: Porl Matthews
Makeup Artist: Bethany Swann
Colour Grading: Felipe Szulc
Sound Designer: Sam Cross @ Gramercy Park Studios
Sound Producer: Richard Donaghue @ Gramercy Park Studios
Music Mix: Pascal Boudet
Second AD (dailies): Joshua Gan
Trainee AD: Frank Hammond
Casting Associate: Rowena Pointer
Sketches Artist: Antoine Birot
Production Assistants: Guy Trevellyan, Macarena Gaset
Visual Effects: Passion Pictures
VFX Producer: Steven Riley
VFX Coordinator: Suzanne Forward
Art Director: Christian Mills
CG Supervisors: Simon Brown, Dave Walker
Animation Supervisor: Aldo Gagliardi
Animators: Stuart Doig, Oscar Malet, Wesley Coman
Previz Artist: Rhiannon Evans
Layout Artist: David Burtle
Modeler: Ian Brown
Riggers: Giovanni Simonato, Lorenzo Argentieri
Texture Artist: James Nardelli
Compositing Artists: Flavio Kawamoto, Matheus Lacava
Visual Effects: Absolute
Visual Effect Producer: Belinda Grew
Visual Effects Artists: Chris Tobin, Elliot Platt,
Lora Nikolaeva, Jack Kennedy, Zdravko Stoitchkov
 

This video was submitted by Magali Barbé and selected by our team. Click here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!

A timely meditation on finding beauty in chaos by Los Angeles-based filmmaker Matthew Palmer (previously featured here). Set to the poem written and read by Polish poet Adam Zagajewski, “The Mutilated World” features a compilation of images shot over a year ago and finally edited together during lockdown:

“Having the luxury of being home, editing this piece (the footage of which was shot a year ago), while others around the world are suffering in ways I can’t imagine, gave me pause. Add to that the bleak nature of the images and it often just didn’t feel right to put it out there. But I kept returning to the message of the poem… even in dark times, even in a violent and messy reality, there can be hope and beauty. In re-reading the poem as the world around me got scarier and more chaotic due to COVID-19, I thought not of global warming or politics — my primary concerns of a few months ago — but of quarantine and health care and those daily, hourly glimpses of unity, hope, and beauty. Maybe that’s worthwhile.”

Directed & Edited by Matthew Palmer
Shot by Taylor Zann
Drone Footage by William Dorrien-Smith
Color by Persephanie Engel @ Neptune Post

This video was submitted by Matthew Palmer and selected by our team. Click here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!

A delightful animated short for UK-based charity Live Life Give Life by illustrator and animator Daniel Stankler (previously featured here). Released to coincide with the changing regulations around organ donation in the UK, “Let Love Live On” gave Stankler an opportunity to adapt his animation style and visual motifs into a more commercial context for the first time. As he shared with us:

“It was important to us to tell the story focusing not on the individual life that is saved, but the love, and the emotional ties, that are saved when you save a person by organ donation… I spent a lot of time coming up with a concept for the film that I felt successfully meshed these two needs, and came up with something quite weird. The client was super open minded and loved it and I’m happy with the result.”

Direction & Animation: Daniel Stankler
Creative Direction: Roydon Turner
Produced by Awesonova
Sound by Zing Audio

We love branded content when it’s engaging, funny, innovative, beautiful or anything in between. Consider participating here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!

A lovely self portrait of self isolation by Vancouver-based director Evan Bourque. During quarantine Evan and his girlfriend had no contact with anyone else for a month. “Now And Then” offers a brief glimpse into their lives, composed from the bits and pieces he filmed along the way.

Featuring Sarah & Evan
Created by Evan Bourque
Coloured by Sam Gilling

This video was submitted by Evan Bourque and selected by our team. Click here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!

Great mix of visuals in this video for Miyagi and Andy Panda’s track with TumaniYO by Moscow-based director Igor Klepnev. Produced by FMT JETLAG and shot on 16mm film by cinematographer Anatol Trofimov, “Brooklyn” pays homage to the spirit of old school hip hop by re-imagining Broolyn as a borough of Tbilisi.

Produced by FMT JETLAG
Artist: Miyagi & Andy Panda feat. TumaniYO
Artist Management: Batraz Pukhaev, Konstantin Bagaev
Director: Igor Klepnev
Executive Producer: Arseniy Zyabbarov
Producer: Vladimir Ivanov
Assistant Producer: Victoria Sobchenko
Cinematographer: Anatol Trofimov
1AC: Konstantin Oskerko
Production Designer: Alexey Yandovskiy
Style: Polina Nomore
Production Assistants: Stepan Dalnev, Tengiz Demuria
Edit: Vladislav Yakunin
Color: Yerlan Tanayev
Title Design: Anton Reva

This video was submitted by FMT JETLAG and selected by our team. Click here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!