BEHIND THE SCENES

With this project, I set myself a personal challenge: could I produce a short film entirely on my own? From development through production, I took on every role — acting, directing, camera work — as well as all aspects of post-production. It’s one of the most complex things I’ve ever done, but I truly believe projects like this help sharpen a wide range of skills and offer invaluable experience for more traditional short film work in the future.

I also wanted to create a piece that would bring together and showcase the full range of my skills and knowledge — drawing on over 10 years of combined education and professional experience in visual effects, photography, cinematography, graphic design, and marketing.

As the main focal point of this short film, the canvas needs to be able to perform a variety of special effects to sell the notion of being a haunted object. Because of that, I decided early on that the actual painting needed to be created entirely digitally.

The only real element that was shot is an old antique picture frame, which frames a green screen with tracking markers. This setup was necessary to achieve a proper object track across a variety of different scenes.

The picture frame itself is an actual antique I found at a local flea market. With some paint and distressing, I was able to make it look even more unsettling—honestly, it freaked me out for the first few nights. Finding an old, creepy painting and taking it home really is the perfect setup for a real-life horror story. But no worries: so far, the painting has remained well disposed toward me.

GEAR

Black Magic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K

Meike Cinema Lenses

SOFTWARE

Davinci Resolve for editing and pre sound mix

Reaper for final sound mixing

Blender for 3D assets

The Foundry’s Nuke for Digital Compositing