Sticks

"Go play outside." It’s a command every kid has heard and every kid has dreaded, but for Sticks, I wanted to peel back the curtain on what happens after the devices are taken away. This story is deeply personal to me, stemming from stories my mom told me about her own childhood, a time before devices, when a simple stick could be a sword, a wand, a scepter - endless possibilities. I wanted to juxtapose that nostalgia with the modern reality of Scout and Noah, two digital natives born into the era of technology forced to reboot their imaginations.

Visually, we aimed to bridge the gap between reality and fantasy, similar to the worlds found in Bridge to Terabithia and Moonrise Kingdom. Working with my Director of Photography, Kenobi, and the incredible sound design by Enzo, Max, and Yareli, we tried to build a soundscape where rustling leaves sound like the hum of something magical and a backyard brawl feels like a cinematic climax. Sticks is my attempt to capture that fleeting moment where the real world melts away and the imaginative adventure begins.