Brainfreeze:
a short-lived, intense pain caused by rapid consumption
of cold items, usually lasting 30-60 seconds.
My hardest project to date…
Brainfreeze is a musical short film that follows the story of a young-woman, Ashley, who loses her mother to illness. We see how the death affects her as she spirals in unhealthy habits. Eventually, a wake-up call from her roommate and her brother help to snap her out of the negative cycle.
The music as well as text cards help to push the narrative along and reflect the inner turmoil that Ashley goes through. The choice to make a silent film stemmed both from accident and creativity. I had originially planned on making a normal “talkie” film. I purchased a microphone and recorded all the audio necessary to make the film with dialogue as I had originally intended. However, the microphone quality at times, was lack-luster and I felt it could hold the film back. So, instead of rerecording everything, I thought back to my experiences in college, creating musical shorts with action figures. I realized that it would not only be an interesting creative decision but also a logical creative step in my journey if I continued this style of creation but this time with real actors and a proper script. It all fell into place really after that.
Brainfreeze — Official Trailer
I knew I was going to make a trailer for my short film from the beginning. This trailer was super quickly made and was really just a product of spontaneous motivation. In fact, I made this before even shooting the film. I was just that excited. It’s more of a teaser than anything and the goal was really to build mystery and anticipation surrounding the film.
Brainfreeze — Official Trailer 2
Since the previous trailer had no footage from the actual film, I wanted to make another one did. So, I made this trailer to show a sneak-peak of what to expect in the short film. This one is much more moody and atmospheric than the first trailer too which more reflects the tone of the final project.
Brainfreeze — Musical Short Film
After months of work - writing, planning, scheduling, shooting, editing, composing, etc. Brainfreeze was finally done, it has been my hardest project to date. There were times where I wanted to give up as the vision I had in my head simply wasn’t showing up on the screen. But I persevered through many vision changes and setbacks and moments of frustration and anguish. And now, I can finally say that I have directed something. So, please enjoy Brainfreeze!