Ethan Shaftel is director, writer and editor who has worked with artists like Beyoncé and John Legend. He also makes visually-arresting, mind-bending science fiction films, the latest of which is the short "Flesh COMPUTER
". Check out the trailer:
". Check out the trailer:
By J. Ott
I had a chance to speak with Ethan via email about how he pulled off the complex digital and practical effects you see above. 
He also talked about recruiting top talent on a low budget and, oh yeah, the philosophy of consciousness. Lots of great info for fellow filmmakers. Enjoy...
He also talked about recruiting top talent on a low budget and, oh yeah, the philosophy of consciousness. Lots of great info for fellow filmmakers. Enjoy...
* * *
Making the Movie: Where did the idea for "Flesh Computer" come from?
Ethan Shaftel: I had been mulling over two very different concepts for quite some time before I connected them and realized I had the makings for a really cool short.
There was a time when I had fruit flies living in all my potted plants. Since I WORK AT HOME, I would kill literally dozens of flies every day just by clapping them with my hands and casually brushing their carcasses into the trash. They are so small it didn't even seem gross, I wasn't even aware of "blood and guts" spilling out onto my hands. I couldn't feel their bodies being destroyed. And at some point I realized that my actions would be horrific if the flies were even just a little bit bigger -- if they were puppies, or even small birds, crushing one in my hands would be absolutely disgusting and upsetting.
, I would kill literally dozens of flies every day just by clapping them with my hands and casually brushing their carcasses into the trash. They are so small it didn't even seem gross, I wasn't even aware of "blood and guts" spilling out onto my hands. I couldn't feel their bodies being destroyed. And at some point I realized that my actions would be horrific if the flies were even just a little bit bigger -- if they were puppies, or even small birds, crushing one in my hands would be absolutely disgusting and upsetting.
And the reaction of the creature itself -- the wriggling, the frightened cries, the accelerated heartbeat and struggle to escape -- would make it very clear that it's own death is not something it regards ambivalently. And this is regardless of the mechanism that controls those reactions -- as consciousness is not a given even if the creature flees pain and is driven to survive. The question of how much awareness the fly might have of it's own destruction leads one to think about the fly’s awareness of it's own existence. Which is the connection with the next idea that lead to the short as a whole...
I have long pondered the relationship we have with our electronic belongings, imagining a future where one would care about the welfare of your computer in a much more visceral way, as someone might view the safety of her PET or even her child. So I imagined a parent figure who cares for a computer that is as helpless and alive as a small child or an animal.
Again, the logical next thought is about the awareness or consciousness of the computer itself. The main connection between both these stories is not so much the quality of the consciousness of the various creatures, but just the vast power differential that exists between different pairs of beings: the fly exists as an unimaginably tiny and insignificant thing to the man who carelessly swats it. To a lesser extent, that differential is also found in the various pairs of Owner/Pet, or Parent/Child. The greater of the pair understands the lesser completely, while simultaneously assuming that the lesser has no sense of the richness of existence. Other relationships with power differences presented as contrasts in "Flesh Computer" include the Bully vs the Victim, the Child vs. the Toy, and even the Conscious (in the sense of being awake) vs. the Unconscious -- the PERSONwho is simply asleep, and thus unaware and defenseless.
who is simply asleep, and thus unaware and defenseless.
Ultimately "Flesh Computer" is about the concept that everything has a point of view, and in some way everything is conscious. And since that question is so big and so scary and could lead us in so many directions, I decided that the best way to tie together the story of a computer and its caretaker with the story of a fly's death was to get a sense of the "state of the art" in the philosophy of consciousness by weaving in an interview with a philosopher working on the cutting edge.
How long was pre-production vs. the shoot vs. post-production?
Pre-production -- including writing the script from a set of loose notes -- took three months. Production was four days, not counting a couple pickup shots a little later. Post was spread over nine months. Of course, when there is considerable CG work, the distinction between post and production is less clear. The plates for the fly sequence were shot in less than half a day, but that animation work took several months.
What were the challenges in each of these chapters of the process?
There are honestly too many pre-production challenges to go into here. It was just really hard. I was actually devoting almost full-time work on it myself because of a lucky scheduling break between of two gigs, but that meant zero flexibility with the shoot dates.
One big challenge was finding the right location and reconciling myself to the fact that locations were expensive. We ended up getting what I think is the best deal in town and shooting at The Escarpment Studios south of downtown LA. We shot everything there, even the exteriors, but the establishing shot of the building are actually down the street at the old SEARS building.
building.
Casting, on the other hand, was a breeze. I found people I loved using online casting options (LetItCast.com and Backstage.com, principally) and was delighted to discover that the actors were willing to travel to LA in two cases to be in the movie.
I really think that the fact that the script was accompanied by really polished and well-drawn storyboards by [art director] Alec Joler made a huge impact in getting both cast and crew onboard for an unpaid or low-paid project. We didn't do that on purpose exactly in order to land cast and crew, but Alec and I spent a lot of time on them and struggled to get them just right because we were passionate about the project and wanted it to be great.
The upshot of that the passion and professionalism of the team was evident to people reading the script from the start, so I had a lot less "selling" to do to convince people I was for real and would follow this through. The boards had completely-realized character designs and were 'inked' in grayscale, maybe not finished comic quality but more like a well-drawn web comic. I combined the script and storyboards into a document that could be read very easily, full script on one side, full boards on the other as opposing pages. It got really good reactions.
Production challenges were a lot more manageable. We had one actor drop out during the shoot the day before his scenes were to be shot and we scrambled for a replacement. We were lucky that a referral from one of the cast members on set that day was available and willing to jump in, so that was a lucky break. 
We also lost the cat we were planning to use, and our replacement was a professional team of three identical CATS. You see two of them in the movie, by the way, and in one shot there is a hidden seamless cut from one of the cats to another!
We also lost the cat we were planning to use, and our replacement was a professional team of three identical CATS. You see two of them in the movie, by the way, and in one shot there is a hidden seamless cut from one of the cats to another!
Post production was fun -- it's always fun for me because I'm an editor and love that process, and I also love the sound and VISUALeffects process. Production is fast and intense and exhilarating, but post is slow and methodical and literally magical, like growing a garden out of a patch of wilderness. I was lucky to have a great editor named Michael Black cut the movie, but it's my specialty so I'm more hands-on in that department then I am in, say, choice of camera format and lenses, which was very driven by the DP.
effects process. Production is fast and intense and exhilarating, but post is slow and methodical and literally magical, like growing a garden out of a patch of wilderness. I was lucky to have a great editor named Michael Black cut the movie, but it's my specialty so I'm more hands-on in that department then I am in, say, choice of camera format and lenses, which was very driven by the DP.
We had picture lock in 8-9 weeks after the shoot, and the rest of the 9 months was all visual effects and animation.
This short is 13 minutes long and almost wall-to-wall visual and practical effects. I take it you didn't have a Hollywood budget, so how did you pull that off?
The practical effects -- basically the construction of the flesh COMPUTER itself -- was mostly the work of one special effects makeup artist and filmmaker George Troester, based here in LA. I found George online during preproduction and he got excited about the project and took it on. He certainly ended up more of a partner in the process then a vendor, which is how it didn't bust the budget. He's also physically behind the computer itself pulling on strings and pressing levers in order to move the various organs, trigger the laser, and expel the various fluids. He did an incredible job, and that process was REWARDING and definitely unique.
itself -- was mostly the work of one special effects makeup artist and filmmaker George Troester, based here in LA. I found George online during preproduction and he got excited about the project and took it on. He certainly ended up more of a partner in the process then a vendor, which is how it didn't bust the budget. He's also physically behind the computer itself pulling on strings and pressing levers in order to move the various organs, trigger the laser, and expel the various fluids. He did an incredible job, and that process was REWARDING and definitely unique.
Visual effects took a very long time and required many more artists then I had originally arranged for, which was my failure in planning. And inevitably when you get on set and are shooting, a problem or an opportunity (or maybe both in one) will arise that requires VFX work. So the modest VFX shot list begins to balloon before you even start editing.
Instead of two VFX artists which was the original plan, we ended up with nine -- who all contributed multiple shots. In addition I ended up doing about a third of the total VFX shot list -- though not a third of the workload, my shots were the simplest ones. Some of those artists were already friends of mine here in LA, but the rest were people I found by watching short films on YouTube, looking throughBehance portfolios, and even posting on eLance. We had compositors in Paris and Vancouver, design and animation in Mexico City, and all the CG animation for the fly was in Chicago.
Regarding the budget: I wouldn't have even taken this particular project on if I did not have professional VFX friends already through my post work. They knew about the project ahead of time and were also partners -- and willing to donate work or take token rates. The availability of the VFX supervisor James McGillin and animator Frank Stringini, for instance, was just as import in scheduling the movie as the production crew, and they were committed and in place from the beginning. But the other artists I found one-at-a-time as new needs arose.
I think it was a lot easier to convince people who I found to do it for free or cheap because there was so much done at that point. The footage looked great, so I was confident that if someone did have the time, that this would be a project that they would want on their reels. That doesn't mean many working artists can take on unpaid work in addition to their professional schedule, but I managed to eventually find people who were able to fit it in on weekends or evenings, and make their contribution finite enough so they'd be comfortable proceeding with a sense of what they were getting into and what they'd get out of it.
The VFX budget was definitely not as high-impact as you would GUESS WATCHING the movie, and certainly nothing in post was a significant cost compared to the realities of production costs that are inescapable. But unless you are like me and already work with VFX artists professionally and have friends ready to jump on board or refer more people to you, the budget situation on a short like this one is probably the opposite, where the majority you'd be spending would be on the multitude of effects shots. You have to work with what you got when you are planning a passion project!
the movie, and certainly nothing in post was a significant cost compared to the realities of production costs that are inescapable. But unless you are like me and already work with VFX artists professionally and have friends ready to jump on board or refer more people to you, the budget situation on a short like this one is probably the opposite, where the majority you'd be spending would be on the multitude of effects shots. You have to work with what you got when you are planning a passion project!
The production design reminded me of The Thingmeets City of Lost Children. Can you talk a bit about working with art director Alec Joler to create the grunge sci-fi look of the film?
I'm really happy with the production design and overall look, and it certainly took a village. Alec Joler is a long-time collaborator and multi-talented filmmaker, so in addition to art directing and storyboarding he was also just contributing in ways that are hard to quantify with a title. He's a very visual PERSON so he also influenced the look of the movie and design of the flesh computer itself. Nathalie Ruiz was the production designer, and she worked closely with Alec while performing the more specific roles of actually sourcing or building the props and set dressings and transforming the space into what you see in the movie. The creepy hallway in particular is entirely defined by the multitude of exposed pipes, hoses, and duct work. Nathalie built the pipes from white PVC pipe, painted, and installed them, and added all the wires, hoses, and one rental duct, the only thing actually made of metal. And then George Troester's role on the flesh computer obviously expanded to and influenced the entire world of The Handyman and the room that he's in. So it was a team effort for sure.
so he also influenced the look of the movie and design of the flesh computer itself. Nathalie Ruiz was the production designer, and she worked closely with Alec while performing the more specific roles of actually sourcing or building the props and set dressings and transforming the space into what you see in the movie. The creepy hallway in particular is entirely defined by the multitude of exposed pipes, hoses, and duct work. Nathalie built the pipes from white PVC pipe, painted, and installed them, and added all the wires, hoses, and one rental duct, the only thing actually made of metal. And then George Troester's role on the flesh computer obviously expanded to and influenced the entire world of The Handyman and the room that he's in. So it was a team effort for sure.
Part of the look also comes from the lighting by d.p. Hanuman Brown-Eagle. Can you talk about that collaboration too?
Hanuman was the first on board with the project and his commitment to do it was basically the element that got the ball rolling very decisively. My specialty is post, so I definitely was looking for a very strong DP that was going to be constantly bringing ideas to the table that I wouldn't have been exposed to otherwise, and showing me things that I hadn't asked for or potentially didn't even know about. Hanuman did just that. He was passionate about doing this with anamorphic lenses and called in his own favors to get the right set for the movie. I had a dense book of image references we used in our planning, but aside from top level requests, all gear and lighting was entirely in his hands. While shooting, I'm particular about what coverage I need and shot composition (again, from my editorial experience of what I want to have in the editing room) but the lighting and other photographic design making was again something that Hanuman drove in a big way.
The sound design did a GREAT JOB of matching the density and texture of the visuals. Can you talk about your approach to sound and music?
of matching the density and texture of the visuals. Can you talk about your approach to sound and music?
The super-talented Kevin Roache did sound design and mixing. He works on big, high-end TV shows and also did the sound for my feature Suspension several years ago. Again, he was a partner on the project, so what would be a huge and expensive component for a short film was a donation of labor and creativity from an “ANGEL INVESTOR” so to speak. That is again a process in which I tend to be hands on, since that was a specialty of mine at film school and I do my own sound design on many projects that I edit. So my temp mixes tend to be pretty elaborate during the editing process. Kevin starts from scratch when it comes to the mix, and adds completely new elements like foley, but the sound effects editing I do early on gets delivered into his board and a lot of those choices and placement stays through to the final mix. Some moments where editing, VFX, and sound are very tightly aligned -- for instance the POV shots from the computer's "eye" and all the clicking and flashing and glitches of the image resolving into it's unique vision -- are really edited and sound designed by me at the same time, and then just polished in the finishing stages.
” so to speak. That is again a process in which I tend to be hands on, since that was a specialty of mine at film school and I do my own sound design on many projects that I edit. So my temp mixes tend to be pretty elaborate during the editing process. Kevin starts from scratch when it comes to the mix, and adds completely new elements like foley, but the sound effects editing I do early on gets delivered into his board and a lot of those choices and placement stays through to the final mix. Some moments where editing, VFX, and sound are very tightly aligned -- for instance the POV shots from the computer's "eye" and all the clicking and flashing and glitches of the image resolving into it's unique vision -- are really edited and sound designed by me at the same time, and then just polished in the finishing stages.
Kevin uses a massive souped-up ProTools board. My temp sound effects mix was done in Premiere during editing and delivered as an OMF to import into pro-tools. I can't speak to how much time he put into it, but I know we mixed together for 3 full days as the last step.
What many people may not realize is that there is a non-fiction component to this film. David Chalmers doesn't just play a philosopher of consciousness in the film, he actually is one in real life. How were you able to get him involved in the project?
I wasn’t initially aware of David Chalmers’ work until I had really started researching while writing the movie. The nice thing about academia is that it's usually very easy to get ahold of an email address for someone and reach out to them directly. I actually wrote three scientists to inquire about doing an interview, but as I did more and more reading, I realized David was going to be the right choice. When I saw online that he had been in a rock band made up of only philosophers, I had an inkling that he might be open to a strange project.
After some back-and-forth he agreed to do the interview, but was in Australia for the foreseeable future. I found a green-screen studio in Canberra where David lives called contentgroup, and a producer there named Anna Pembroke worked with me on the fee and set up the shoot the whole thing. David sat in a chair in front of the green screen, looking at an HD camera with a teleprompter over the lens showing my Skype feed from Los Angeles so his eye contact was direct to the lens.
His schedule wouldn’t allow the interview until after the shoot was over, which initially disappointed me as I was hoping what he said could influence some of my shooting decisions. But by that time I'd read quite a lot of his work, so it was that reading that was incorporated into the script and shoot plan.
The interview took place about two weeks after the shoot, before we had a full edit of the movie, but enough into the process so that I knew what I was looking for. He was very affable and easy to talk to and I was able to explain that, for instance, I wanted to talk about a housefly specifically, and not an earthworm or a puppy when talking about consciousness, so that it would work with a sequence in the movie, etc. He had asked to read the script, but when I explained that I preferred that it not influence his comments, he agreed to proceed with almost zero knowledge of the final product. He did have my assurance that we’d remove his footage if he ended up hating it.
While Michael was working on a version of the movie with no voice over, I worked only on the voice over in parallel, putting together a string out of fascinating statements, and then cutting it into a 2 minute "aural trailer" -- with music and everything. That was basically the basis for what actually ends up in the movie.
I sent the cut to David far enough along so that it would look complete, but no so far that it would be a disaster to take something out that he hated or felt I was misrepresenting. For instance I was a little worried about the last couple statements, because I juxtaposed some ideas about "combining" with a COMPUTER that sound pretty out-there -- but are really not so "sci-fi" when the statements are in their proper consciousness. He has written papers about cognition as well as consciousness, two very different things, and I kind of smashed together the two of them into something that sounds a little more mystical. But David didn't mind, said he like the movie and wished me luck, so I made no changes whatsoever!
that sound pretty out-there -- but are really not so "sci-fi" when the statements are in their proper consciousness. He has written papers about cognition as well as consciousness, two very different things, and I kind of smashed together the two of them into something that sounds a little more mystical. But David didn't mind, said he like the movie and wished me luck, so I made no changes whatsoever!
I understand the short will soon be premiering at festivals. Which festivals and what is your overall distribution strategy?
Since a short isn't really a "for profit" venture, my goal is to get it out there as much as possible. We played a work-in-progress cut that was very nearly complete at the Boston Science Fiction Film Festival, and were honored to be chosen as the opening film. Recently we were nominated for several awards including Best Short and Best Director at the Indie Horror Film Festival in Chicago, and ended up winning Best Special Effects. The European Independent Film Festival in Paris will be the international premiere, and I’ll attend which is exciting. There are a few more coming up this spring that should get the film in front of more people. That is an end in itself, but is unlikely to have too much impact on just how wide this might go online eventually. At this stage, I feel like getting it reviewed and getting more people on the MAILING LIST and Facebook page is the main goal. Ultimately, we’ll release it online and there it will be for anyone who stumbles upon it.
and Facebook page is the main goal. Ultimately, we’ll release it online and there it will be for anyone who stumbles upon it.
I think the Venn diagram of people who would like "Flesh Computer" include Horror/Sci-Fi Fans, Short Film Fans, and people interested in consciousness studies and David Chalmers. Of those people, the first two categories might find it through the various film festivals, and eventual reviews and mentions and posts on sci-fi and short film blogs. But the last group might be tricker to reach — they will hopefully find it eventually by stumbling upon the movie on YouTube amidst other interviews and video clips of David and other thinkers in this area. At that point I hope it will standout as something pretty unique.
This is very cool world you've created and a radical departure in style if not genre from your feature Suspension. For your next project, will you CONTINUE to explore this dystopian world or will it be something totally different?
to explore this dystopian world or will it be something totally different?
All the next projects I'm pursuing are certainly broadly within the sci/fi or horror genre. I do have a feature concept that takes place in the world of "Flesh COMPUTER", but it's unlikely to be the first out of the the gate. I have written another short script that could be describe as a horror black comedy that is very different the either Suspension or "Flesh Computer" -- but it requires a very specific cast, which I'm going after now. We'll see what happens.
", but it's unlikely to be the first out of the the gate. I have written another short script that could be describe as a horror black comedy that is very different the either Suspension or "Flesh Computer" -- but it requires a very specific cast, which I'm going after now. We'll see what happens.
Where should people go to learn more about you and your films?
My work can all be found at www.easyAction.com, but for more on "Flesh Computer" and upcoming festivals check us out online at Facebook and FleshComputer.com.
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