Today is a big day for me. @PipeMovie is finally out in the world. Please give it a watch:

https://vimeo.com/476497366 

I'm going to use this space to thank so many of the amazing people who worked on this movie and gave their all to make it happen. So buckle up for BIG THANKS! 1/

First off @TheRealZoeBell who plays the eponymous hero. There are a million things to say about Zoë. Watching her fight and bludgeon people is one of the most entertaining things I've ever done, but honestly I was just astonished by her calm, her energy, and her joy.

Obviously no movie is worth half a damn without an excellent villain, so we obviously give it up for @traciethoms! She brought such casual cruelty and malice to the character of Bliss that you'd think she wasn't the nicest person in town. Also grade-A evil smirk game.

Next up are the shoulders on which this entire movie rests: @ehunteractress. Pup is the whole movie, she's what it's all about, and Elizabeth brought so much subtlety and tension to her performance that by the time she has to let out the big guns it truly shocks you.

A quick Elizabeth story in the middle of all this: Pup was originally written to be a boy. Jackson, Collin, and I had talked a lot about how this was a story about the ways in which we hand toxic traits to young boys and raise them poorly.

Good theme. We put out casting calls.

I saw probably 20 or so boys for Pup. Some were really good. Then I got a call from Elizabeth's manager, and he told me she heard about the movie and wanted to read. She didn't care that the call was for a boy. She wanted the part.

So yeah, why not?

I went in to the manager's office and there she was like she already had the part, understanding Pup, the movie, the whole kit and kaboodle. She was awesome, like no shit amazing! I cancelled the other auditions and called Jackson and Collin to let them know Pup was a girl now.

On to poor Pup's father, the ever afraid, ever brutalized Brewer. I have never worked with an actor who was as excited to be beaten up on set as Jeffrey Nicholas Brown. Just pure joy at every fight, every new thing he could learn from the experience. Injected energy into us all.

One quick note on Jeffrey. He is an old school member of Blue Man Group. Most of the skills learned there didn't have much direct use in shooting Pipe, but there was one: spitting!

Poor Brewer gets hit so many times, and if you watch you can see the skill with which Jeffrey shoots blood out of his mouth.* Truly a thing to behold.

*honestly very hard to do, and the man could get an easy 6 foot spray.

Now to our nasty gang of Red Dogs.

Let's start with @RoyalTnoY. LeRoyal is Spider-Man. The man can fly through the friggin' air! We had him literally jump off a bar, across a room, get smashed out of the air, and then flung into a table, and he barely blinked. Superhero!

Next up @andi_norris! Andi (unbeknownst to me at the time) does a ton of mocap work, which now makes sense because her ability to change how her body moved in order to create a new character was truly uncanny. This photo does not represent such a transformation.

Hey, it's @leodottavio! Sometimes you are confronted with the awful truth that kindly giants exist. Leandro is a big man, and when he wants to look mean it works! Too bad he's also super nice and mellow.

The last of our gang is Rusty Locke. I'd worked with Rusty before on some music videos and I knew he'd be able to bring some gravity gruff to his role. He didn't disappoint. Never does.

Time to shout out the insane crew that made this movie happen. Let's start with the unsung heroes of short films: production.

Let me tell you one thing before I start, producing a short film pays diddly squat. You do it because you care, or you've been snookered, or both. Both.

First off I need to thank our EP @malielfman. Without Mali, no movie. Mali has been a champion of budding genre filmmakers for longer than I've known her, and it is truly a blessing. She does the work, hustles hard, and never bullshits. Basically perfect producer.

THANKS MALI!

Next up @Jacobbrum. Jacob dedicated himself to this thing a year before shooting and all the way into post. He dealt with a ton of my weird and unreasonable ideas, and found ways to make them work. The man knew exactly how to make it happen, and did it with a smile. Unreal.

Hey, what about co-producers? Well, we got em! @DaughterandSons is run by absolute gents. Back when we shot Pipe we shot at their sound stage, and they gave us so much love and logistical support I honestly don't know what we would have done otherwise? Shoot in a bunker? Sure.

The last piece of our production crew is our UPM, @lifeinanutshel. Alex has produced a lot of things I've directed, and that's because she's the best. She is calm, organized, focused, but most importantly she is happy. She makes you happy to be there, and that is priceless on set

One other thing of note is that @lifeinanutshel also doubled for Zoë in one scene. One particularly brutal, head-crunchy scene. For those of you who were wondering, her aim with 3' of steel pipe is surprisingly good.

Here's someone I owe my life to: Alex Jacobs, our AD. An Assistant Director's job is thankless. You have to keep the shoot on schedule (IMPOSSIBLE), manage every personality on set, and make sure nothing falls apart. Most people are bad at this job. Alex is very good at it.

What about creative departments? We got 'em in droves! Let's start thanking them and telling embarrassing stories! ( I have few stories)

First off Evelyn Ellias, our Production Designer. Evi is an old friend, like since we were 2 years old, old. She knows me better than I know myself. That helps when her task is to bring my dumb brain ideas into reality, and make them awesome. Evi whips ass at that. (bad picture)

I want to point out that every interior in this movie is a built set. Like, wood and foam and metal and blood, sweat, and tears. Evi made that happen. She made weapons, walls, windows, other W words! And they all looked amazing.

Just such a joy!

Obviously have to throw thanks to the rest of the art department: @EllyGlitch, @PocketGina, Zach Carver, Kristina Gallegos, Elijah Flores, Joseph Salcedo, and Henry Kulesa.

It takes a village to make part of a village. Also secret Kristina doubling Tracie is too good to ignore.

Director of Photography @sdixon2_8 is a wonder. I mean yes, obviously he is very good at his job (watch the movie!), but Shaun planned with me, reworked scenes with me, tirelessly and endlessly went over this thing again and again, just to make it better. Also, huge hip-hop head.

Additional camera! 1st AC Alicia Varela was pulling shit off that had no reason to work. 2nd AC Jorge Gomez literally keeping us on schedule by being that ahead of the curve. And have to thank @laurasaurusrex and Jacqueline Castel for their additional photography. SAVED. MY. ASS!

Amanda Wing Yee Lee is my favorite goddamn costume designer! A) She's down to think sideways about things. B) She has excellent taste. C) She has a gross sense of humor. All necessary in my book. We've worked together a lot, and I can only hope she'll continue to put up with me.

@AkahonAudio was a gift. Sometimes people show up and they're there to work, but sometimes they GET it. Rob GOT it, and he was down. Pipe sounds like a dream, and I thank Rob every day for that. Also, we talked about horror a bunch, and that's excellent.

Blood. Blood. Blood. And bits of sick.

That's basically what I told our Makeup Head, Julia Hapney. She was more than happy to oblige.

Wanna know something about me? When I first got into film (literally half a lifetime ago) I started in animation. I wasn't cut out for it, but it taught me the value of story boards. And I'll be damned if I don't board like a mother!

The absolutely amazing Preston Spurlock boarded this whole movie. Hell we even made an animatic out of those boards, and boy howdy did I learn some stuff about how I wanted to shoot this. A lot changed, but none of it without that first visual representation.

You know who else drew a bunch of amazing stuff? Our concept artists @leetal_weapon and @danmarshallart! They were probably the very first people to actually show me what this world was going to become. Damn these are good! Like...DAMN!

Here's another person I would have crumbled without, our Stunt Coordinator: @PeterGreathouse! Peter choreographed every fight, every jump, every tumble. He kept us safe, looking cool as hell, and made it all work. This is a burdensome job, safety is key, and he made it look easy.

Time to thank some unsung heroes, our Grip and Electric team! First, our Gaffer, Josh Coffman. There are easy shoots to light, and there are hard shoots to light. Guess which one Pipe was.

The interplay between shadow and light in this movie is so lovely and sculpted. Happy Max.

Next our Key Grip, Anthony Barrese. I had worked with Anthony in NY on some truly thankless jobs, and it was a total surprise when he showed up on set. I knew we were in good hands right then. Also, I watched him drive a scissor lift through a doorway, which is impossible.

Anthony passed away about a year after we wrapped production. He was an excellent guy, bold and capable and self-assured. Although it's wildly insignificant in the scheme of things, I'm sad I never got to show him the movie he helped make happen. Fuck cancer.

To fill out the rest of that tireless crew, thanks go to Inho Kim, Eric Salgado, Walter Orsini, and Erick Vizcaino Quintero! This team gave life to our world through movement, light, shadow, and cinema trickery. Badasses every one.

They avoided the BTS camera like the plague.

I must also thank the rest of our intrepid makeup team: Key Makeup Artist, Ruthie Hernandez, and Assistant Makeup Artist, Katheryn Fernandez. They were hilarious and goofy as hell on set. And when you're dealing in that much gore, you better be!

Obviously must thank the person whose job it was to keep me honest, Script Supervisor @geekpowers. This picture pretty much sums up what the job entails, but if you don't know she was in charge of continuity, keeping track of changes we made while shooting, and general fuckups.

Holy cats, we're down to the last two people to work on production, The Kevins! Our Kevins, our lovely Kevins who did so much for so little in return. Kevin Rainsberger and Kevin James were friends, roommates, and our unbelievable Production Assistants. Thank criminy for these 2!

Next up, the man whose photos you're looking at. The man who called me on Day 2 of shooting and said "Do you have a BTS photographer?" and when I said "No." he said "I'll be there in 20 minutes, you jagoff." @rick_baer is the only reason there's a record of this production. Fuck!

In the world of this thread Rick uses words like 'jagoff'. Just bear with me here, I don't remember it verbatim. It was probably closer to "Thou rogue, thou vile cretinous filth!" Something like that.

OK, post production time! Betcha didn't think it took this many people to make a short!

Our Sound Designer/Mixer @NoWeakPoints has been foundational to the success of everything I've made in the past 8 years. We've done WEIRD shit to get the right sounds, lemme tell you!

We smashed bottles in his parking lot (weird looks from many neighbors), we've squished lots of fruit and veg, heck one time (different movie) I had to fake a 3 minute orgasm. Will gets my brand and it's just pure joy getting to design and mix with him.

But what's a movie without some music? (No Country For Old Men notwithstanding). @SevenWheelSound and @steven_gizzi created beautiful music for this movie. I asked that everything sound broken, and they gave me a shattered world full of pain. I'm the luckiest boy in town!

Speaking of music, we had an opening credits song, with lyrics and everything 'O Thresh'. We wound up only using the cello, and not the vocals, but Joy Adams (who did both) came up with something truly haunting. I'll upload the lyrics version at the end of all this. Good lullaby.

You may be getting the pattern that a lot of prep and weird ideas went into this movie. Well they sure did! We wanted to experiment with what we were doing, and it's a wild privilege to have so many amazing collaborators who are down to get weird with you.

Editors. Holy! Shit! Our! Editors!!! Look, I'm just gonna take a second to hold off on these two because it's insane. I had no right, I mean NO RIGHT to have editors this good. No movie without them, none. Seriously. I mean maybe talking and pictures and shit, but not a movie.

@morganfaust, my sister, who is now more famous for writing on hit TV shows, cut her teeth as an editor for years. She cut Sundance winners, SXSW winners, TV shows, everything good. It's a blessing having her in my life, and doubly so when crafting story. Thanks bro.

And @chellstephen, who is an exponentially better director than I, also deigned to sit with me and do me the preposterous solid of cutting this puppy into the tight 12 minutes you've clearly already watched. Her sense of timing, playful editing, and kineticism is second to none.

The takeaway here is twofold:

1) Work with more talented people than yourself. Your work will look better for it.

2) If you want to have a good story sense, learn to edit. It's the end product after all.

Wait...3) Snooker Morgan and Chell into helping you when possible.

There's something we often forget in post, because we're wrapped up in our edit for a billion years...Color! @Joelides is an excellent colorist, like bonkers good. He has taste and a deft hand, and like many on this list he's been my go-to for years, and with good reason.

There are some shots (not many) in this movie that we couldn't entirely pull off on set. For those you need @Grant_Olin, compositor extraordinaire. I won't point them out (gunshots) but if you pay extra close attention (bleeding cheek) you might find his work (bleeding head).

Remember like 1,000,000 tweets ago when I mentioned the animatic? Well I needed actors for that! And once again my friends come and save the day. Endless thanks to @enthusiamy, Jon Cahill, @PocketGina, and @findarete for being the foundation everything else was built on.

Well, that's almost everyone. Now we're just down to the last two people, the two guys who've been working with me on this since literally day 1. Two dear friends and collaborators who have watched me be weird and nitpicky, demanding, aloof, thankful, excitable and mad.

You'd be hard pressed to find two better. There are very good stories about them coming through in the clutch on this one, namely involving one line of dialogue that needed a speedy rewrite, them being at @emeraldcitycon (I think), and a posse or comics writers.

They were hundreds of miles away, working - like comic convention working (brutal) - and they sat down, grabbed a brain trust, and rewrote that shit with like 5 alts in no time flat. Text to Alex, Alex to me, script adjusted, and boom, we're shooting. Insane!

But eff all that. Speedy writers who can get you amazing shit remotely in minutes is old hat. I'm talking about two guys who saw this through with me, and were truly partners. It's our movie, and I couldn't be more proud. I hope I did them justice.

@JacksonLanzing and @cpkelly thank you for your time, your energy, your vision, and your friendship. It's a little movie, but it's the bedrock we'll use to make bigger ones. From three drunk ding-dongs in an apartment in Queens, to here seems like an ok start.

Here's some bonus shit, just for fun.

For anyone who made it this far, here's 'O Thresh', the unused opening song with lyrics. It's our take on the traditional 'O Death' or 'A Conversation With Death'.

It's upbeat. https://vimeo.com/479132506 

Well, that about settles it. Endless thanks to my cast, my crew, and my collaborators. You're the best people in the world.