Calibrated

Wake up. Work out. Commute. Laundry. Dinner time. Brush teeth. Bed.

There is an alluring comfort in routine. The structure of an established schedule offers shelter from the chaotic maelstrom of uncertainty. We dutifully check off our to-do lists and relish in the security they bring. The schedule is kept. Order is maintained. And tomorrow is another day. Or is it?

Maybe it’s time to think outside the box...

As a story, Calibrated is a playful cautionary tale about the pitfalls of a hyper-planned existence. As a project – my first venture into live-action film – it’s been a personal journey out of my own secure comfort zones, an opportunity to giddily step out into that chaotic maelstrom of uncertainty. But I didn’t go it alone.

Having been born the youngest of 13 siblings, I’ve had the good fortune of finding myself amidst a colorful prism of uniquely talented people my entire life. Over the years, that prism has swelled to comprise musicians, photographers, craftsmen, writers, artists, comedians, thespians, and more than our fair share of total weirdos. The idea for Calibrated was born from my thirst to finally collaborate creatively with each of them. Even the weirdos. Especially the weirdos.

Live-action filmmaking is intrinsically collaborative. It requires levels of synchronicity and trust that were absent from my former, more solo endeavors as an animator and illustrator. But this unknown and unbeaten path has lead me to pastures unimagined. Along the way I’ve grown as an artist, I’ve grown as a person, and perhaps most importantly, I’ve grown closer to the myriad of family and friends who so generously dedicated themselves to this project.

Consequently, I’ve come to realize the same important message that our eccentric protagonist does: We are not islands. Our interconnections are what define us. When we distract ourselves with the trivial minutiae of our own day-to-day lives, we stifle our urgency to connect and to create. We forget to truly live.

After all, the chaotic maelstrom of uncertainty is navigable not by embracing established routines, but by embracing each other. And for me, filmmaking has proven to be the perfect avenue for that embrace.

On behalf of myself and all of the amazing people who helped me breathe life into this crazy idea, we hope you enjoy Calibrated – a silly-but-clever, quirky-but-relatable visual comedy, produced on a non-existent budget, but with endless amounts of love.

-Miles Kalbach