70 MIN / COLOR / FRANCO-ITALIAN + ENGLISH / SURROUND

 NOMOTOPOWELL  explores unnamed histories around a village in Florida. Structured as a travelogue, and combining landscapes with abstracted archival texts and voices, the film summons the spirits that haunt a shape-shifting territory, reflecting a violent national residue without ever leaving the village.

AWARD NOMINATIONS

Grand Prix of the International Competition (FIDMarseille)

Premio a la Mejor Película de la Competencia Internacional de Largometrajes (FIDBA) 

Premio NOVOS CINEMAS á mellor longametraxe da Sección Oficial (NOVOS Cinemas)

Premio XURADO NOVO á mellor dirección da Sección Oficial (NOVOS Cinemas)

Premio da CRÍTICA ao mellor filme das seccións competitivas (NOVOS Cinemas)

Premio do PÚBLICO (NOVOS Cinemas)

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INQUIRY

NOMOTOPOWELL [a] GMAIL 

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CREDITS

A film by
Brent Chesanek

Cinematography
Owen Levelle
Brent Chesanek

Original score
Chris Zabriskie

Narration
Alessandro Magania
Daniel B.C. Powell
Wendy Kay White
Krysta Wallrauch
Ana M. Beranek

Re-recording Mixer
Kevin T. Allen

European Festival Poster

 

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WEAR & TEAR

&& (Ampersand Ampersand) hired me to direct the launch spot for their Wear & Tear modular synthesizer. In their own words, &&'s work lies “at the intersection of boolean operators and jokes.” The Wear & Tear module takes a clean audio signal and outputs anything “from the gentle flutter of tape warble to the gritty charm of a forgotten attic tape collection.”

The idea was to emulate but subvert the iconic Maxell Blown Away Guy spot, emphasizing the analog low-fi aesthetic produced by the Wear & Tear module.

Low Fidelity

Mickey-mouse gloves, tuxedo t-shirts, and visible puppet strings informed the overall approach. The spot blends high concept promotion & product design with handmade effects & analog signal distortion. In the final piece, we wanted to achieve the same level of practical effect mastery as the original, but also to retain evidence of our on-set trickery.



Lampshade, tie, chain, and wine flute all needed to move at different moments. The puppeteers each had unique cue-points to remember. Dan Keezer was the lynchpin keeping everyone in sync with the timings required to match the original inspiration. We did not have a megaphone. The leaf-blower was very loud.





Despite the seams-and-all aesthetic, the spot still required some level of post-production cleanup and compositing. Limitations in stage square-footage ($$) required us to shoot the wide shots in pieces. In post, I stitched those pieces together, removing distracting grip equipment, rearranging the speaker prop, and creating camera movement, eventually matching our spot frame-for-frame with the Maxell original.

FLOG 2 RCA

Once we locked picture, I brought the spot to Chris Zabriskie, who would create the final visual touch. Chris ran the 4K video signal through various SD video processing devices to give the image a suitable low-fidelity visual treatment, complimenting the audio possibilities of the Wear & Tear module.

Wet & Dry

I left Chris’ studio with 40 minutes of glitchy video.  Back in my own studio, I combined various takes of SD distortion with the original 4K image to produce a distinct wet/dry look of hi + lo-fi visuals.


Thank you Jason & && for having me ✌️ 📼 🍕, & thank you to everyone who worked so hard to make this happen. 

 

Directed, Edited, Composited & Color Graded by
Brent Chesanek

Produced & Creative Direction by
Jason LaFerrera

First AD
Dan Keezer

Talent
Thomas Graft 
Jason LaFerrera

Puppeteers
Weston Ulfig
Molly Baker
Jade Nakabayashi

Voice Over
Rob Milton

Video Signal Processing
Chris Zabriskie

For Loyalkaspar (also compositing, animation):

For FujiFilm (also Creative Director, graphics provided by client)

For Showtime Networks.

Using their pre-existing animation pattern, these spots contain a single line of dialog and only eight shots, with the purose of encapsulating an entire season within fifteen seconds:

These spacers for Showtime Networks are built from key-art elements, which I animated and edited. 

30s Launch Spot for && Wear & Tear (also Director): 







Trailer for my film City World (also Director):

Music videos I directed, edited, and animated:




For Haitian Initiative (also Creative Director)

Music videos I edited for Saline Project:

 CITY WORLD  is an investigation into the whereabouts of an unseen child narrator, set in the lifeless suburbs around Orlando, Florida. Told by mixing documentary footage with fantasy elements, the boy's tale slowly swivels from a possible theme park ride into his own harrowing familial reality.

69 MIN / COLOR / ENGLISH / STEREO

RENT OR PURCHASE ON VIMEO
RENT OR PURCHASE ON DOC ALLIANCE
PURCHASE INDIVIDUAL OR INSTITUTIONAL LICENSE

AWARDS

BEST DOCUMENTARY - CINEMA AT THE EDGE (2013)

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NOMINATIONS

DOX AWARD - CPH:DOX (2012)
NARRATIVE GRAND PRIZE - IndieMemphis (2012)

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SCREENINGS

CPH:DOX (Denmark)
Seattle International Film Festival (USA)
Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montreal (Canada)
DOXA Vancouver (Canada)
IndieMemphis (USA)
Denver Film Festival (USA)
Big Sky Documentary Film Festival (USA)
Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival (USA)
Cinema At The Edge (USA)
Southern Alabama Film Festival (USA)
Hammer To Nail Screening Series (USA)
Cinema Zuid (Belgium)
Visions.MTL (Canada)

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CREDITS

A film by
Brent Chesanek

Produced by
Yvette Granata
Justin Strawhand

Original score by
Chris Zabriskie

Narrated by
Sean Kaufman

Edited by
Brent Chesanek
Stacey Foster

Sound design & mix by
Steven Dressler

Casting by
Zan Ludlum