Moment is now an online film and photography site. They sell all of the new cameras, lenses, drones, etc. But, for a long time, they were mostly considered a company that made lenses for smart phones. And in that spirit they began hosting an annual film competition. In 30 days, entrants needed to produce a short film, no more than 3 minutes in length, shot entirely on a smart phone.
After releasing STRINGBEAN in February 2019, I was feeling good, and the Moment prompts went out at the start of March. I had a hard time coming up with an idea for the project and was spending my nights listening to music as I failed to brainstorm. That’s when a drum track my friend Jack Murphy sent me shuffled on.
Jack and I have been making videos together since middle school, and anytime we collaborate it’s the best time. I didn’t have a concrete idea, but listening to that music track, I knew that if I could just get Jack on board, we would figure something out.
And that’s what happened. Jack and I spent two days hanging out and filming at his apartment in Buffalo, NY as he set up a drum set and recorded a track. We interwove it with his musings on manipulation of time and jokes about influencers.
Of any film I’ve worked on, this is the one that feels the most right to me. I think I like it because I know this is specifically something Jack and I would come up with, it feels free from pressure and influence. And Moment seemed to agree. We were accepted as 1 of 15 films, out of over 900 submissions, to the Moment Invitational Film Festival in 2019, where the film played to a room full of influencers who Jack was happy to poke fun at.