Recently, a short film called Like and Follow has been released, displaying a 2-minute short about what life is like with a phone. Or rather, what a phone can do to a person. The low-budget incredibly thought out short was made by Tobias Schlage and Brent Forrest who met at a cafe in Tokyo and learned they had so much in common, both being filmmakers. When Tobias showed his storyboards to Brent featuring a phone walking a boy like a dog, he got interested and they worked as hard as they could to make it simple but fascinating. Doing a fair amount of work together over a year with some help from Mohammed Hamid, and David Arcus who supplied soundtrack. Despite being very little, the short was so incredible and meaningful it made its way through 160 film festivals and won 30 awards. Its strongest screenings were at Siggraph, Giffoni, and Annecy. From there, they got in contact with industry professionals who reached out to Brent and asked about the possibility of making a feature film. This made the two directors think they could make much more so they accepted the challenge and have been hard at work writing the script and working in preproduction. Thanks to his previous experience in the film fields, Brent has worked with big names such as Sean O’Reilly, James Rolfe, and Ed Hooks, and a few others who are getting involved in this feature. O’Reilly is already well known to be one of Vancouver’s greatest producers, and is in fact helping to produce this film. James Rolfe has an interesting role as the main character’s father. Seeing as he’s been a dad for quite a while, he’s probably said LOTS of Dad-like things lately. Ed Hooks is a master at animating and is sure to make this feature absolutely remarkable. Also, Raffi has some involvement. If it has something to with music, I’ll be amused.
Now, one of the bigger concerns is how do you get a short like this one and convert it into a feature? Brent and Tobias had to find a way to make the film seem appropriate for everybody without upsetting parents, or anyone else. With sensitive subjects like kids with smartphones, one has to be careful in how it’s handled. They worked out the plans and came up with an interesting concept about a little boy and a giant malfunctioning phone who take a journey together while also saving the nation. It was a lot of work writing and rewriting, especially given how they would finance it. Currently they have been writing and pre-producing for over 6 months. Hopefully they will play their feature at 2500 festivals and get some big streamers to pick it up.
Be sure to watch the short film Like And Follow here.
Also, Like and Follow these guys as they work on this project, you can find more details at their official website.