Earwax
A sound designer suddenly goes deaf in one ear, but in his attempts to get his hearing back, he makes the silence much worse.
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Jasper MartinDirector
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Jasper MartinWriter
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Jasper MartinProducer
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Thomas PennellCinematographer
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Jasper MartinEditor
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Martin GallagherSound Designer
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Stuart RowsellPractical Special Effects Designer and Technician
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James TurnbullDigital Effects
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Calvin Bandagosa ElizondoStoryboards
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Billy WhiteKey Cast
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James TateAdditional Sound Design by
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Marcus FriedlanderColoristThe King (2019)
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Project Type:Short
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Genres:Black Comedy, Body Horror
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Runtime:5 minutes
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Production Budget:3,700 AUD
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Country of Origin:Australia
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Country of Filming:Australia
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Language:English
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Shooting Format:Digital
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Aspect Ratio:4:3
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:No
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Student Project:No
Jasper Martin is a writer, director and editor living and working in Sydney, Australia. Originally from Darwin of the Northern Territory, he found a passion for filmmaking at an early age and never gave up the habit and obsessive pursuit.
Jasper found work at an early age at a television station at age 16. Soon after, he became a freelance editor and cameraman for a local production company. He left Darwin for Sydney, where he studied at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Screen Production.
With fellow graduate Billy White, he started the freelance production outfit Jack Ginger under which he has produced, written, directed and edited multiple short films, music videos and commercials.
What originally enticed me about the concept of Earwax, was the technical challenge it presented: distilling a story down to the essential elements of filmmaking and taking sound and visuals, combining them in order to elicit an effectively horrifying response from an audience.
The visual conceit was to craft a claustrophobic cinematic style hinged on a boxy, Academy aspect-ratio (the ideal frame size to frame a human ear), paired with centre framed close-ups filmed using wide angle lenses.
I liked the meta-cinematic idea of intertwining the form and function, spinning the technique of ASMR to provoke the audience to physically cringe and grimace, meanwhile using this technique as the central plot device, the raison d’être of the entire story; writing a film built on the bedrock of sound, and literally basing the story on the world of sound mixing.
By taking sound and pairing with an array of practical special effects and camera tricks (such as illusions designed to seamlessly fit a camera in an ear cavity), the canvas became an opportunity to expand and experiment with the medium, practice facets of the filmmaking toolbelt and hone skills delivering an effective piece of 'pure cinema'.