BEHIND THE SCENES
A Short Film
The Cinematic Arts program at Liberty University offers students the opportunity to write, direct, and edit my own short film using the school’s equipment. I entered the program in 2018 and I wrote a story about a man trapped in space: NESO. The film was completed in September of 2020 and is still in the process of making its festival debut.
Concept art for the escape pod. The first drawing created for NESO.
This project occupied most of my life two years. Due to its visual nature, I had to create piles of artwork in multiple mediums. The entire process stretched my brain in every direction, which I found to be a good thing. I have never been a key part of any project this big, and seeing everything work together in the end is the greatest reward. The process started off with a script and an illustration (above). From there it went to story boards and concept art. Once filming finished, visual effects were added and marketing graphics were created. The entire process can be seen below.
Concept art for the interior and exterior of the ship.
These graphics were created as placeholders before the final visual effects could be added to the edit.
FILMING
Each animation displayed on the computer screen prop was designed before filming.
Construction of the set began two months before filming. My dad and I built the whole interior of the space ship in the garage. The set would be transported by minivan and took around 2 hours to set up. I was very lucky to have a remarkable team that worked together so well at planning, decorating, and finding creative solutions to difficult problems. We shot the entire film in three days in a classroom. It was an incredible experience with some incredibly talented people.
These were the visual effects used in the final cut of the film. I used a mixture of After Effects, Photoshop, and Premiere Pro to create this animations.
The talented cast of NESO included Hunter Kurpier (Jonas Fisher), Stefania Smith (The Stranger), and Delaney Walsh (The Computer). Hunter was the life blood of the film and most of the camera angles are on him. Stefania and Delaney provided excellent support in their roles; Fisher would have never survived on his own without them. The crew of NESO worked tirelessly to make this film possible, but Josiah would like to recognize the people that stood out as irreplaceable. Josiah’s parents, David and Wendy Knuth put in countless hours and money into this project to make it possible. The three brains of this movie, Daniel Carrai (Cinematographer), Dillon Black (Producer), and Jacob Harding (Assistant Director) thought through every scene and camera angle before the filming process even began. On set, Daniel was the master camera operator and bringer of light; we could not have survived without his expertise and perspective. Dillon was a beacon of hope and joy when the long days grew into even longer nights; he picked up all the slack and worked on anything that needed to get done. Jacob was our schedule master mind and helped all of us keep our heads on track when the chaos of the set ensued; he was our guide. Courtney Dean (Editor) sifted through the hours of footage, scanning for anything interesting that the director may have missed, and used what she could to create a stunning edit with precision and mastery of her craft. Hannah Wells (sound editor) (now Hannah Knuth) was the rhythm that pushed through the final edit, despite all of its chaos; she created the machinery soundscapes and voids that surrounded Fisher throughout his time on the NESO Pod.
