Sundaze

Two years ago, on a idyllic summer day, Kris and I set out to make an art project that was equal parts visual and audio. We had some vague ideas of it being a car chase between the same person. we weren’t sure yet if it was the guy’s future self vs the past, his city self vs the country, and we weren’t necessarily on the same page either. We just filmed. It was only the two of us driving around Vermont with a camera and a storyboard.

if all film projects could be like this I’d probably make more of them. it’s freeing to not a have a deadline or a bunch of people to answer to. it’s a creative challenge to break from structure and play in the realm of experimental film.

everything we made revealed itself in the edit, along with our struggles with perfectionism. everything that I knew was technically wrong was a blaring overexposed light in my mind. Is it too experimental? is it not experimental enough? is there enough to chew on? is it too vague? back and forth. for kris, I think it was seeing himself on film that he didn’t enjoy – hence one of my reasons for staying behind the camera. But the two of us are creatives and we brought the edit to its Final Cut.

then we left it for two years.

if you let it, life will alter you, and it doesn’t need two years to do so. when we opened the file back up again our perspectives of ourselves and our work had completely changed. I had learned color grading, I had studied some of the original films in the experimental genre, finding a particular connection in the film ‘meshes of the afternoon.’ In two years I had become more confident as well as carefree about my art. rewatching sundaze in 2026 I found it far more inspired than I thought it would be. the edit was creative, but the color correction was scared. with my new found courage I completely changed the color to the bright blues you see in the final film. For kris, his ideas for the music had been forgotten, and with a clean slate he reworked one of his unreleased tracks. The music was exactly what the film needed, a mix of drive and humor.

We both learned so much for this project – did I even mention the animation? Kris and I are the type of people that try to prove to ourselves that we can do whatever we want. When I think about starting this project I remember wanting to prove to myself that I could film a car chase, despite lack of equipment, crew, and experience.

watching the final piece, the lesson that sticks out the most to us is the duality of humans and the struggle between our past and future selves. That being said, We encourage audiences to make their own conclusions around theme and symbolism in the film.

over the next few months we’ll be sending it to festivals and eventually release it online for everyone to see.