The story of a man-boy who lives in a corner market, still waiting for his mom to come pick him up.
Director Biography – Christopher Hall
Christopher Hall has directed videos for major brands like AT&T and Amazon, as well as digital networks like YouTube Red. He co-created and directed three seasons of the horror webseries, FIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, which was one of the most successful shows in the first years of YouTube Red. He also directed over 25 different branded spots for Fullscreen’s AT&T-backed series SUMMER BREAK, which ran five seasons and won the Digiday Video Ad of the Year in 2016.
After getting a degree in theater at Kenyon College, OH, Chris started out getting coffees on set of THE SOPRANOS in his first real job out of college, and then went on to a variety of unique posts in the traditional features and tv world. He spent two years at Tippett Studio in Berkeley, CA learning VFX on major movies like MATRIX: REVOLUTIONS. He was assistant to director Breck Eisner (THE CRAZIES), helping develop projects for all the major networks and studios. After that he decided to go digital, becoming an in-house director/shooter/editor on Executive Producer Billy Parks’ team at Fullscreen, a major digital production company.
This project started from just a couple guys struggling in the obscurity of LA’s content machine, wanting to do something different, something that could push against the kind of boundaries that nobody else was interested in challenging.
Patrick Tamisiea and I met a few years ago while working Fullscreen, a production company where we were pumping out branded videos for companies like AT&T. He was fresh off the boat from Omaha, NB with a weird sense of humor and I seemed to be the only person there who appreciated it. Then I discovered he was performing in a sketch comedy group every month and getting sellout crowds. One night Patrick told me about a new character he was working on, and immediately I knew it was exactly what I had been looking for. The sketch was about a man who had been left behind at a market by his mother when he was six years old but then just stayed there, afraid to ever leave and possibly miss her coming back to pick him up. It felt juvenile, preposterous, absurd, and quite possibly hilarious.
I had made a short film before (fresh out of college and bursting with pride) but it was a failure on almost every level and left me broke and needing to find a way to turn my skills into actual income. I started out working in development for a big Hollywood director and then moved into the branded content world where I was able to flex my director muscles more but missed the process of developing a story, working with an actor to create a performance, and making a strong choice. I missed that give and take, that process that I had fallen in love with in college, and I was searching for the right project that could satisfy all those cravings.
We brought in my friend Nick Leeds, who had been an underappreciated writer’s assistant on a couple sitcoms, and he turned this character sketch into a world – a distinct place filled with characters whose dialogue leapt off the page. We found a location in Burbank that fit the tone perfectly, like something out of a forgotten dream of another time and place. Before we knew it, friends were signing up to help us and we even got one of our comedy heroes, Kevin Pollak, to come do an appearance as the crotchety old store owner who acts as a father figure. And together this ragtag group from Hollywood’s fringes told this heartfelt story about a strange young man who meets a girl – a girl who might just be looking for someone different from everybody else.
Look, we live in an absurd time. The President is a failed reality TV star who left the content machine to pursue his passion project, so why can’t we? Hopefully we are a little better at it than he is.
Director:
Christopher Hall
Writer:
Patrick Tamisiea, Nicholas Leeds
Producer:
Christopher Hall
Year Released:
2020
Country:
United States
Length:
16:12
Reviews:
The wacky comedy short Bryers Cucumber Tostinos takes place in a Hungarian deli. The characters are charming and… highly eccentric, to be polite. Our main character is a man-child with a crippling fear of the outside world. Fun upbeat music reinforces the film’s kookiness, and as the film’s hero meets an eligible bachelorette, a story of potential triumph emerges.
Christopher Hall has directed videos for major brands like AT&T and Amazon, as well as digital networks like YouTube Red. He co-created and directed three seasons of the horror webseries, FIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, which was one of the most successful shows in the first years of YouTube Red. He also directed over 25 different branded spots for Fullscreen’s AT&T-backed series SUMMER BREAK, which ran five seasons and won the Digiday Video Ad of the Year in 2016.
