An Industry Case Study
Narrative | Dramatic Features
Film Name: Eggshell
Genre: Animation/Experimental
Length of film: 2020
Date: the completion date for the film 20xy
Director: Case Jernigan
Producer: Case Jernigan
Writer: Case Jernigan
Cinematographer: Case Jernigan
Production Company: Number 44
Budget: numerals
Financing: text
Shooting Format: text
Screening Format: ratio
World Premiere: text
Awards: 1+
Website: text
The Official Trailer for Eggshell
Watch The Trailer for Eggshell directed by Case Jernigan
A Short Biography of Case Jernigan
I grew up in the southern US, where traditional values were stressed. It was impolite to make people uncomfortable, to bring up topics like politics or religion. And honestly folks were uncomfortable ALL the time. Sex talk? Completely out of the question.
My mom always used the phrase ‘walking on eggshells’ to describe the way she felt around me when I was a teen. I wanted to dig around, to get to the bottom of things. I was obsessed with justice and honesty, and from a young age I felt like I didn’t see much of that during my childhood in South Carolina.
The Case Jernigan Interview
indieactivity: What is your film about?
Case Jernigan (CJ): My grandfather looms large over my life. We never met, as he died shortly before I was born, but according to my family I carry on his legacy. I look like him, talk like him, joke like him, walk like him… the list goes on. I felt proud of this as a kid, so proud that I even had fantasies that I was a reincarnation of him. Or that he was listening to me and answering prayers. Like an invisible friend. As I grew up, I learned more about his flaws too.
This changed my perception of my grandfather, but also my perception of myself. The film is about the ghost of one’s past self following indefinitely. We are forced to reckon with that ghost at various phases in our life. I made this film at a type of personal crossroads. I’d found a therapist who helped me unearth some emotional wells. This coincided with some intense anxiety that was exacerbated by a head injury on the soccer field. My wife helped me through this pivotal and painful growth period, and in many ways the film is a love note to her.
Tell us about the festival run, marketing and sales?
Case Jernigan (CJ): The film has just screened through Hollyshorts. It’s also played at a number of other festivals in 2020 like San Antonio Film Festival, Fear No Film in Salt Lake City, ShortS International in Italy and We Like ‘Em Short in Oregon. It will also screen at ANIMAZE Montreal.
The film had no budget or financing. I was lucky enough to be awarded a beautiful free studio space through the Sharpe-Walentas Studio Residency in Brooklyn. So, I decided I would use my first year there to really invest in a personal project, and ‘eggshell’ was the result. I worked on various scenes and animated moments over the course of 2019 by shooting stop-motion papercraft, paint on glass, as well as filmed sculptures and handmade objects. The project premiered on Vimeo as a Staff Pick.
Give the full Official Synopsis for your film?
Case Jernigan (CJ): An artist reckons with insomnia and anxiety. A stop-motion short made with paper, ink and recycled materials. Are you walking on eggshells? This is a love letter to Cassandra, a hate letter to nightmares, and a thermometer for emotional temperature.
Development & Financing?
Case Jernigan (CJ): This film is a product of my own endeavor. I animate, script, write music and edit my pieces myself. But, I didn’t receive any funding. I don’t fully script or plan, as my work emerges piecemeal and the challenge is constructing the humpty dumpty into something cohesive enough to carry an idea or thought through a journey. My interest is in the handmade intuitive processes of the artists studio. So, my training is in oil painting, so I invest in the physical processes of accumulating the film as I go.
This process doesn’t involve checking boxes or ticking a to-do list, it’s more like joining lumps of clay onto a base and building a sculpture. That being said, I’m full of over to receive funding for my next personal project and to work with a team. Despite making art for many years, I’m still a relatively new filmmaker, having released my first short film experiment roughly 5 years ago.
Production?
Case Jernigan (CJ): I began making collages and small drawings related to the ‘ghost’ figure that features in the short in the summer of 2019. As I moved into a new, larger studio in August, I began to see the structures from which I could build a film. I worked steadily on a variety of pieces, from animating characters, to writing dialog, to plunking out little tunes on my keyboard, for the entirety of that Fall.
I built all of the objects and animated all of the scenes in my studio in DUMBO, Brooklyn. Toward the end of the year I brought my wife into my friend’s small recording studio and we captured dialogue which I brought into an editing cycle that lasted for several weeks. I released the film at the beginning of 2020.
Festival Preparation & Strategy?
CJ: I had screened previous works at San Antonio Film, We like ‘Em Short and ShorTS, so it was a no brainer to approach those festivals again. I also targeted some specific animation festivals, some of which accepted the piece like ANIMAZE, and others who didn’t. HollyShorts is probably the biggest festival that I’ve been a part of, and that felt like a slice of good luck.
The Release?
CJ: Vimeo has chosen several of my pieces as Staff Picks in the past, so I was eager to put this piece in front of their curators to see how they felt. They wanted a Staff Pick, so I felt comfortable releasing it online. The Vimeo community has been hugely important to me, and the curators have been massively kind and supportive through the years.
Advice from the Filmmaker?
CJ: Filmmaking for me is a deeply personal process where I can indulge every bit of out of the box thinking I can come up with. If I can give any advice, its to avoid cliche, reject the formulaic, and tell us a story about you. Your past, your discoveries, your fears- these personal moments will always be engaging, because at our core we want to know each other and form communities, and through all that know ourselves.
Tell us what you think of the Case Study for Eggshell. What do you think of it? Let’s have your comments below and/or on Facebook. Or join me on Twitter.
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