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Mosquito: The Bite of Passage

When renowned warrior mosquito Soma and her adolescent daughter Aliye, go hunting together for the first time one night in the slumbering slob George’s apartment, Aliye realizes that she does not want to follow their families’ ageless tradition of hunting for blood. When George wakes unexpectedly, the two have to make a break to escape with their lives, while also trying to repair the biggest rift their family has ever had.

  • Brian Vincent Rhodes
    Director
    Harolds' Fish Sticks, Drone
  • Eric Cheng
    Director
    Higher Sky
  • Brian Vincent Rhodes
    Writer
    Harolds' Fish Sticks, Drone
  • Eric Cheng
    Writer
    Higher Sky
  • Ivan Bordas
    Producer
  • Brian Vincent Rhodes
    Producer
    Harolds' Fish Sticks, Drone
  • Alisa Reyes
    Key Cast
    The Proud Family, Nickelodeon's All That
  • Eileen Galindo
    Key Cast
    Kung Fu Panda 3, Dora the Explorer
  • Philip Anthony Traylor
    Key Cast
    God Bless America
  • Project Type:
    Animation
  • Genres:
    Comedy / Sci Fi / Thriller / Action
  • Runtime:
    7 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    April 1, 2016
  • Production Budget:
    13,785 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    Yes
Director Biography - Brian Vincent Rhodes, Eric Cheng

Brian Vincent Rhodes

Brian Vincent Rhodes grew up in the industrial city of Detroit, Michigan, affectionately known as “The Motor City”. Although an acclaimed youth artist and obsessed fan of animation, Rhodes did not see an immediate future in art.

Pursuing other interests, he went on to study mechanical engineering and
industrial design at the University of Michigan, and designed for companies and organizations such as Apple, Chrysler and NASA. After winning a film competition while working at Apple, Rhodes pursued his first love of cinema. He worked as a senior art director at GlobalHue Advertising agency and designed record breaking campaigns for clients such as Corona, Jeep and the Bermuda Department of Tourism.

Rhodes then left advertising to start a medical device company with his then dentist, who had an innovative idea to regenerate bone in the mouth but needed help designing a device to facilitate it. He was the chief design engineer of the startup and created a device that can regenerate bone tissue in the mouth without invasive surgery. After successfully designing the device through testing, Rhodes decided he was ready to make his dream of film reality.

Wanting to further his commitment of being a director, Rhodes decided to take the next step by attending film school at the University of Southern California (USC).
Brian Vincent Rhodes is now an international award-winning filmmaker and artist. He uniquely blends the worlds of live action and animation together through comedic storytelling. Rhodes won the prestigious Telly Award for his student mock commercial Harold’s Fish Sticks while his recently completed thesis film Mosquito: the Bite of Passage, has been called “the most technically advanced film in the history of USC” by faculty.

Rhodes now works as a storyboard, character designer and previs
artist. His recent projects include storyboarding a feature film for Netflix called True Memoirs of an International Assassin starring Kevin James, lead storyboard and character designer for The Leviathan Project, a virtual reality experience that premiered at the 2016 Sundance New Frontiers Festival, and previs artist for first ever live music video “Make Me Like You” by Gwen Stefani, that premiere at the 2016 Grammys.

Rhodes also is an improv actor and a 2016 Diversity Fellow of the Upright Citizen’s Brigade comedy theatre. His dream is to write and direct commercials, feature films, television and virtual reality experiences, as well as occasionally perform in them.

Eric Cheng

Eric Cheng was born and raised in Beijing, China. In 2009, He made his first 2D animated short The Red in the Communication University of China (CUC) . The Red gained huge popularity on the Internet due to its innovative idea and fine quality. One year later, Eric created his second animated short Happy Anniversary as his graduation project in CUC, which won the Special Award at the 2012 TOKYO Anime Award and several others. Upon his graduation from CUC, Eric was admitted to the University of Southern California (USC), School of Cinematic Art in 2012, where he completed his third animation, Higher Sky. In Higher Sky, Eric demonstrated a deep understanding of the Chinese aesthetics, as well as a unique perspective of the Chinese cultural heritage. Shortly after the release of the animation, he earned an international name through the Student Academy Award.

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Director Statement

You ever felt like you were different; something that doesn’t fit the mold you were put in? You ever felt misunderstood or not accepted for wanting to be your truer self? Well I haven’t, so I really can’t help you there. Just kidding. Of course I have! We all have possibly felt this way at one point, but what I have also realized is that by embracing your truer self you can gain the greatest gift of all: self acceptance. Once you have that, everyone and everything will follow. Mosquito is just the kind of film that addresses the common experience of finding one's true self and inner strength.

This film was an ultimate endeavor between myself, my brilliant co-director and friend, Eric Cheng, and 60 other BRILLIANTLY talented people from around the world such as Asia, South America, the Caribbean, and all over the United States. As you can see, Mosquito is a cross-cultural collaboration especially with Eric being from Beijing, China and myself being from Detroit, Michigan. We were two very different people from two very different cities but we had one thing that brought us together, and that was the passion to tell a fresh, powerful and moving story. We navigated our cultural differences in our storytelling in order to create what we feel is a narrative that can reach everyone. Mosquito is a human story told through the eyes, wings, and proboscis of the adventurous mother and daughter mosquitos, Soma and Aliye.

This film took a tremendous amount of effort in storytelling, technical skill and sheer will. The blending of animation and live action required us to plan for in essence two films; one that required building a world for the actor’s performance and one that required building a world on top of it where these animated characters could live. It has been graciously referred to by USC faculty as, “The most advanced film in the history of USC.” We poured endless hours of writing, storyboarding, animating, designing, rendering and compositing into this film and our bodies do NOT thank us for it (but they hopefully will appreciate it over time, as we can give it more sleep and better food than Panda Express). We wanted to tell a story we were extremely passionate about and we could relate to personally. Eric and I used all our skills as artists, designers, engineers and storytellers to bring you what is hopefully and most importantly, a fantastically cool and great time.

Most importantly, we are proud to be two men making a film about two powerful women (mosquitos). We both have strong, beautiful and independent women in our lives in our mothers, sisters, wife (Eric) and girlfriend (Brian). They have impacted who we are in so many ways and we used their inspiration by showing the world examples of the strength and intelligence of women through the characters in our film. We aim to continue to create characters that our daughters, and sons, can look up to equally.

We loved making this film, we love our team, and we hope that you and audiences will love Mosquito: The Bite of Passage!

With Gratitude,

Brian Vincent Rhodes and Eric Cheng
Co Directors and Friends :)