Feb. 25 BOSCPUG: Sundance Filmmakers Joe Oxford & Bradley Stonesifer, Ben Consoli

– A Conversation with Director JOSEPH OXFORD and Cinematographer BRADLEY STONESIFER of “ME + HER” (Official Selection, 2014 Sundance Film Festival)

Cinematographer Bradley Stonesifer (Left) & Director Joseph Oxford (Right)

A Don’t Miss! We welcome both director Joseph Oxford and cinematographer Bradley Stonesifer for a special conversation on DIY Filmmaking and screening of “Me + Her,” a live action fantasy short where all of the main characters and sets were built out of standard cardboard boxes on a one fifth scale – and shot using the Blackmagic Cinema Camera and Pocket Cinema Camera.

Bring your questions on storytelling, DIY Filmmaking and festival screening process for Joe and Bradley to engage with you – there will be plenty of time for questions!

ME + HER. A Cardboard Love Story: When Jack and Jill of Cardboard City are separated by Jill’s torrid illness, Jack must think outside the box to assure they will be together again.

The 12 minute short film took 18 days to shoot and was shot in RAW using 10 terabytes of footage in all. Once initial shooting was completed, footage was transcoded to ProRes Lite for editing and then back to RAW files for color correction using DaVinci Resolve.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT:

“The very first “Jack” puppet was made in late 2007. He was quite a bit cruder, but the central design changed very little between that and the final version of him we shot in the summer of 2013.

Jack didn’t start out as “Jack,” the main character in ME + HER. He started out as a vague idea for a music video that never happened. He sat on my desk, staring at me as I rendered out animation sequences for another failed music video (I started and never finished a multitude of music videos), and I began to envision the world he would inhabit and crafting his story.

In early 2008, I left Los Angeles to work as a PA in Connecticut, then Northern California, then New York, working on Jack’s story all the while. I returned to Northern California for Christmas 2008, decided I would stay there, finish this short script, build all of the sets and characters, and shoot it. I estimated the whole process would take me a year. Maybe two tops.

I was off by a couple of years and a few dozen crew members.

I had built (and, in a lot of cases, rebuilt, and re-rebuilt) the majority of our puppets and about 60% of the sets by early 2013. In March, I moved the operation from Sacramento to Los Angeles (the birthplace of Jack). Budgetary constraints made it impossible to have all of the sets erected at the same time, so build/shoot schedule was broken up over a 7-month period.

The first block of shooting took place mid June, the next block in early September, two days in early October, and the final block at the end of the month: 18 shooting days in total.

I joked a lot about how “if I knew it was going to be that much work, I would have never started.” Which isn’t true. It was ambitious. It was frustrating. It strained my relationship with a lot of loved ones. The end result is something I’m truly proud of and could never have accomplished without the support (and tolerance) of my friends, family, and a great deal of talented crew members that believed we were making something special.

Reflecting from the finish line, I can only hope that the rest of the collaborators view the complete film as something special to them as well. We all poured ourselves into the process and am forever grateful and humbled.” – Joseph Oxford

ABOUT JOSEPH OXFORD

Joseph Oxford moved from Northern California to Los Angeles to pursue a career in filmmaking after graduating college in 2007. Since then he has worked on sets in a multitude of capacities ranging from production assistant to art director. “Me + Her” marks his directorial debut.

ABOUT BRADLEY STONESIFER

Bradley Stonesifer was raised in a small agrarian town in central Maryland. Born into wide open space, his love for the outdoors resolved early on as staple of his intrinsic character, learning right away the indispensable knowledge of self-sufficient living from his mother and father.

Growing up as one of four children, he spent his school days immersed in athletics and art.  Finding respite in all things complex and technical.  Photography presented itself as the perfect medium through which to express his creative energy.

Graduating from Brooks Institute of Photography, Summa Cum Laude, his tireless hands-on approach to camera and lighting laid the groundwork for his generous work ethic, admitting, he never wanted to have a to ask someone to do something he couldn’t do himself.

He has been fortunate enough to have films premiere at some of the major festivals around the world.  “The Vicious Kind” at Sundance 09’, “Almost Kings”  at LAFF 10’, “Spork” at Tribeca 10’, “God Bless America” at Toronto and SXSW 11 & 12’, “Me + Her” Sundance 14’.   The Action comedy “Hit & Run” opened to over 2800 theaters in Oct. 2012.

His Favorite kind of project is the one that is presented with a world of inconceivable challenges, always seeing the beauty in the process. Electing to construct his own circumstance and opportunity in a challenging industry, Bradley is tickled every time he has the favorable moment of spending the day with a camera in his hands. 

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