Random Thoughts

An undaunted filmmaker searches for inspiration... and a bathroom.

2018, 7 minutes 20 seconds, 3600 index cards
Music and sound design by Cory Goldman



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Praise for Random Thoughts

"This year, we received over 5,000 short film submissions from around the globe and ultimately culled the final selections down to 63 films.... Your film was specifically hand chosen ... for its multitudinous artistic merit and cinematic singularity. We're absolutely thrilled to show your work to our eager Nashville audience."   ~Nashville Film Festival

"Glorious! Especially liked the abstract bits - like the intro and the circle sequence."    ~Bend Film Festival

"It has an incredible sound design that goes a long way toward keeping a lively and enjoyable energy and pacing. And the animation also has a nice rhythm and flow."   ~Bend Film Festival

Synopsis

Having recently completed a film made of circles and personal health problems, our hero ships his masterpiece off in a box to a film festival. As he makes his own way to the festival on foot, his thoughts reveal how inspiration can come to a creative spirit from anywhere, about anything, at any given time.

Upon arriving at the film festival, his first order of business is to find a bathroom, and it's a bit of a challenge, but he eventually succeeds and continues into the theater. We see our hero's film in it's entirety, followed by a Q&A, where he confidently answers questions from the banal to the bat-shit crazy.

After the festival, on his walk back home, the filmmaker feels super inspired and can hardly wait to start his next project - until, that is, he gets to his mailbox. Therein lies a rejection letter, ostensibly from another film festival. This disappointing and frankly rude lemon-colored deliverance is no match, however, for our hero's creative drive. He intends to make some proverbial lemonade!


Director's Statement

Random Thoughts was inspired by my experiences with and at film festivals. The idea for the film came to me while walking three miles in the rain from my hotel to the Michigan Theater where the Ann Arbor Film Festival screened my film Boomerang (Best Music Video Award, 2017). I did this walk every morning for several days, and had to buy two umbrellas: one because it was raining and I couldn't find my umbrella while packing for the trip, and another because I left the first umbrella at a late night after-party. Anyway, on my walk I observed pine cones that resembled dog turds, and lot of other visual treats.

When audience member #2 asks that crazy incoherent question, the first line of that question was asked of me as I stood in front of an audience at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. My answer, after asking her to repeat the question, was to tell her all about my solar powered studio where I do my animation; it seemed to satisfy her curiosity.

Rejection is real - my previous film was rejected by many festivals (and selected by a dozen), but one stood out because of the subject line of the rejection letter: NOTICE OF REJECTION. No kidding.


Credits

Animation
Steven Vander Meer
Original music and sound design
Cory Goldman
Voices
Dirk de Bruyn (filmmaker)
Rick St. Charles (urologist)
Isaac Beach (audience member #2)
Carol Vander Meer (umbrella sales lady and film festival hostess)
Steven Vander Meer (audience member #1)
Audio Mix
Tim Gray

Inspiration Credits

Identical Twins, Roselle NJ, 1967
Diane Arbus
Enso, the film made of circles
Timothy David Orme
Urologist (not really mean or evil at all)
Dr. Robin Zagone
"Lord I: The Records Keeper" is the film that took eleven years to make
Lori Damiano

Trivia


Stills

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