'Oda's Torment' - Forced to Think Inside the Box

In between our commercial and officially sanctioned efforts, we like to put as much time as possible toward creating narrative short films. After all, making movies is what inspired me (and the whole Flow Mo crew) to pursue this career in the first place.

If you’ve peeped our blogs before, you may remember seeing updates about a project called Mantoru. While that one is currently deep in post production, and will be hot and ready for the festival circuit this Summer, we’ve just wrapped principle photography on the next short we’ll be unveiling.

’Oda’s Torment’ is the result of adapting a script that was written back in 2012. In a screenwriting workshop in Sacramento California, I originally came up with this story about an unfortunate soul trapped in a small cell, and his mental journey to try and escape this claustrophobic interior. I intended it to be a short film from the very beginning. Usually, when a writer cracks open a story they wrote a long time ago, their reaction is that of “this thing I wrote is garbage”. And while I didn’t decide to be quite so hard on myself, the script for what would eventually be called ‘Oda’s Torment’ was indeed due for some changes.

First off, the somewhat faceless and generic main character (known only as “Man” in the original script) was specifically changed to a Japanese Man known as Mr. Oda. Who he is exactly, won’t be revealed here. But he is a protagonist that is confronted by the toughest of obstacles: imprisonment, seemingly with no possible way out. His fears, frustration, and personal demons are bound to find him eventually. Oda isn’t one to panic, though. At least, not at first.

Through our ongoing collaboration with 2112 and Fort Knox Studios , we were able to utilize unique room spaces and location opportunities to execute the visual aspect of the story. I’m thrilled with how this thing looks so far, and the day that it meets your eyeballs is one I’m greatly looking forward to.