Past Filmmakers

Sasha Hussey
The Beginning

1. How did you come up with the idea for the film?

I was going through sort of a hard time and thought about how our own minds are the source of our suffering and how each day we have to battle with certain things in ourselves.

2. How long did the production process take?

I had a month to do the stopmotion project for my class and spent 3 intense weeks building my two characters, props, the set, and drawing the 34 faces for the protagonist. I only had about a week to do the shooting and editing (very stressful). Five months later I spent a month doing all the computer effects and compositing shots with After Effects. For the 3 weeks prior to submitting it to NC Visions, I recorded and mixed the sound effects. Total, about 10 weeks spread out over one year.

3. What challenges did you experience in the creation of the film?

Ooh, there were a lot. For one, creating the head for my character was difficult because I wanted to mold a very specific shape for it. The only clays I could find were gray or red, but I wanted it to be white, so I had to cook up my own clay from home ingredients and let it dry for days. But the clay head was too heavy so I covered it with several layers of torn-up newspaper soaked in paper-mache “goop.” Once this dried, I sliced all the way around the head and broke the paper-mache shell in half, digging out all the dried clay. I glued the head (now hollow) back together then painted it white. Also, building the dungeon itself took many hours of hauling dozens of full-sized cinderblocks by hand from a pile behind my house into the basement. They’re from 1920 or so and all shaped differently, so I had to constantly rearrange them so they’d fit together tightly.

4. What is your favorite memory from creating the film?

I loved building my characters and seeing them develop. So much of that first month was frantically trying to pull everything together so I really enjoyed coming back to it months later and completing every shot I originally planned. It felt great being able to finish it the way I originally intended.

5. When someone has finished watching the film, what do you hope they take away from the experience?

I hope he or she sees some sort of meaning in it. Obviously I just hope they can enjoy some aspect of it and maybe relate somehow to the character.

6. What type of reaction has your film received from viewers?

Honestly, I’m not really sure. Not that many people have seen it. I'm mostly concerned with whether or not I'm happy with my work.

7. What advice would you give to aspiring young filmmakers?

I’ve found I have to make movies that are personal and completely truthful to myself. If I try to make movies the way they’re “supposed” to be made, I think it sort of defeats the purpose because someone else could’ve done it instead. I think it’s neat to put what’s unique about yourself in your work. The projects I’m most proud of are the ones where I took something that really means a lot to me and expressed it as honestly as I could.

8. Please tell us about your next film or project.

I’m working on a 2-D cel animation using my pencil drawings as a basis, but using After Effects heavily to composite the shots together. Like The Beginning, I’m combining computer-based animation with more organic “real-world” source material. The story is humorous and silly, taking place in a surreal world where a strange character named Mr. Crooked Spine explains how he got his curious form. I also have an idea in the works for a 20 minute narrative video I’ve been planning on for over a year now. It also is surreal in style and focuses on a young man who must wear black cloth over his entire body, head to toe.

9. What are your thoughts on the film industry in North Carolina?

While I don’t follow the industry happenings that much, I think it’s great how many “regular people” are experimenting and having fun with video and animation thanks to more affordable equipment and new university programs all over the state, such as the Multimedia Arts & Sciences major which I’m in at UNC Asheville.