While making the hardest decision of his life, Jared has a chance encounter at a traffic light with Tommy, a man desperate for connection. Things turn when Jared learns Tommy isn’t who he says he is and their encounter wasn’t by accident.
WRITTEN BY EMMANUIL MORARI
HELLO CRAZY
DIRECTED BY JORDAN LARSON & STEVEN CLEAVLAND
With the decision of Jordan Larson playing the lead as Jared, Steven Cleavland was able to direct on set and balance the delicate tones in the film. The approach allowed for the exploration of direction from both in front and behind the camera.
This film is about how authentic friendships matter. When a stranger reaches out just to have someone to talk to, it’s enough for Jared to delay his immediate plan of killing himself. The short is all about exploring these kinds of moments and it’s what attracted Jordan Larson and Steven Cleavland to direct.
When the production team began talking about making Hello Crazy, they knew they wanted to create something that felt dark and gritty. They looked through a lot of reference materials like: Good Time, Super Dark Times, and Fruitvale Station. Good Time excited them most. Hello Crazy is this single day basked in dark tension and the cinematography was a key factor in amplifying that sensation to the viewer.
The cinematographer, Kyle Kadow, played with a lot of sodium vapor and off-greens to give that gritty city vibe. The camera lived with a Soft Black Mist filter and No. 1 Ultra-con filter which added that real sense of bleakness to that world. They worked with a skeleton team of different friends throughout the production that allowed for a very real and freeing sense of collaboration.
One of the mottos that emerged in the process that ended up influencing the cinematography choices came from the directing duo: “if it’s weird, non-traditional, and off-putting, that’s the move.” The goal was to make the audience feel uncomfortable even during seemingly harmless conversations and Hello Crazy accomplishes just that.
DP - KYLE KADOW
