Stonefish

STONEFISH

WARNING: THIS PROJECT CAN BE CONSIDERED NSFW

This project was wild.  I got a call from my buddy Jamin Winans, who I’ve worked with frequently, and he said he needed some graphics for a short video he was making with a company called BARK.  “I have to warn you, it’s very intense and upsetting,” he said. Bruh … he wasn’t lying. I spent the next few weeks deep in the seedy underbelly of the internet, sifting through the worst images and messages imaginable to make the graphics you see in the video.  I had to keep reminding myself that I’m an adult man who makes intense horror movies and couldn’t be more desensitized to this sort of thing while these videos and messages were intended for a 15-year-old and 11-year-old girl. It’s that kind of horrific motivation that keeps you working until the project looks perfect!

I was given a hard drive of real videos, photos and messages that BARK received and after coming up with a fitting design scheme, I put those assets into our dark visual world.  All of the messages and photos are real. I made it, so I can attest to that. A lot of time was spent coming up with a good look for depth of field bumps and nudges, pixelating the close screens but keeping them legible and griming up the screens with fingerprints and smudges.

Huge shoutout to BARK and everyone involved in this video.  Roo Powell, the main woman in the video was basically in the witness protection program for a good portion of this film’s production.  They were on Good Morning America and they had her face blurred throughout.  That’s why I’m still nervous to really even talk about it.  But the whole campaign has gone public and they are ready to take down some bad guys! This project was kind of distressing, but knowing companies like BARK are out there doing this kind of stuff made me feel a little better about the whole thing.