BURGERS

Social anxiety is something that I imagine a large portion of the population suffers from at least once in their life, and it's a feeling I dealt with more times than I care to count in my own life, especially in my younger years. I used to constantly find myself walking into bars, parties or any other crowded event with a certain level of discomfort or awkwardness as I falsely imagined the eyes of people around me dancing across my skin. It all stemmed from a level of shyness or vulnerability in the idea that I'd look uncomfortable or awkward, weird or strange or just downright dress stupidly. My mind would go blank, my armpits would become sweaty and I would have problems concentrating on conversations that were being spoken to me directly. Luckily now, I've mostly grown out of this problem from just being older and having more life experience and confidence but I think mostly it just comes with the realisation that, plain and simple, no one else gives a shit what you're doing because generally everyone else is inside their own head thinking about their own lives and insecurities.

That said, the story for Burgers came upon me one night when I was out with friends and I started to feel the same insecurities briefly come over me. I shook it off and continued to enjoy the night out with my friends but I distinctly remember thinking, What if there was a reason for this feeling. What if there was something happening at this bar that validated by anxieties and insecurities and my body was instigating some sort of defence mechanism as a form of flight response. It was from these thoughts and feelings that the core concept and story device for BURGERS came to be.

My drive and passion to complete the BURGERS came down to many factors. Firstly and foremost, if anything I hope I have captured the feeling of social anxiety, as I have felt it before and I hope it's something that audiences can relate to. Secondly, BURGERS was a much bigger film than anything I had tried before. It had more actors, more dialogue, more settings, more action, drama, framing and blocking than anything I had attempted before, which was a large reason for why I wanted to make it. I saw it as a major challenge and a chance to continue my growth as a filmmaker.

Stylistically, I loved the idea of attempting a film that had a mash of genres, and in particular horror/comedy with a twist ending. Ever since I saw THE SIX SENSE I've forever been in love with films that end with a twist, which I love even more when I can rewatch them and pickup all the breadcrumbs planted in the film that hint at the films true ending, which was something I also wanted to attempt here. Planting the seeds of the films ending was one of the most fun aspects of creating this film and it's my hope that with multiple viewings, audiences may pick up something new everytime they see it that hints at the films true ending. And finally, if all else failed, I at least wanted to create a story that was entertaining, that made people laugh and left them in shock once the final credits role.