Through the end of the month, anyone with Time Warner Cable can check out two completed shorts by John Whitney on the Local On Demand channel: the strangely comedic The Fixer and the dark sci-fi morality tale Measured Sacrifice. His next work, Eroded, starts shooting later this month.
"It's hard to describe because it's not quite like anything I've seen before," Whitney said, but he gave it a try. The proposed 30-minute short follows the relationship between a brother and sister after tragedy - and the life loss and head injury that results - has irrevocably changed the dynamic between them.
"It's a tragic revenge story - that's the best way to look at it," he added. Without giving too much away, Eroded also involves conversations with the buried, which is where the whole thing began.
"I have friend who's an animator," Whitney explained. "I was at his house six years ago and he had a picture on his desk, his sketch of a guy sitting on park bench talking to a face buried in the ground. I said, 'Can I use that as the basis for a story?' And that's where it started."
Though separate in tone and genre, Whitney's films are consistently fine-looking works, with a level of production value you don't expect from someone making movies for the love of it in Central Ohio (he works days in visual communications for Value City Furniture). The filmmaker credited producer Phil Garrett for help securing state-of-the-art equipment for Eroded, including the pro-quality Red camera, which Steven Soderbergh used to shoot his recent feature The Girlfriend Experience.
"If I can show I have some technical grasp of visual language that speaks to people, that's different enough but has a quality of professionalism, that's how I get noticed," Whitney said. His approach also rewards experienced volunteer crewmembers with an opportunity to play with the newest toys, and maybe try out some different on-set responsibilities. As Whitney said, "If they're a best boy but want to do more gaffer work, I want to be able to give people a chance to spread their wings a bit."
ERODED CAST MEMBERS INCLUDES ACTING IN COLUMBUS STUDENTS: Andrew Adamsson and Candace Bullock
and ACTING IN COLUMBUS ALUMNI: Kristina Kopf and Richard Napoli
