Night Shift

The idea for Night Shift began in a dirty, green-lit underground bathroom on UCLA’s campus. From there, a story evolved into an exploration of fear within corporate systems—how people are often reduced to cogs in a machine, performing work that feels disconnected from meaning, consequence, or humanity.

Filmed in Prague, Night Shift draws inspiration from Kafkaesque works such as The Trial and Joseph Kilian, as well as the surreal, often unseen violence present in David Lynch’s Blue Velvet. These influences helped shape a world where logic feels unstable and power operates quietly, through repetition and control rather than overt force.

With this film, I wanted to examine the absurdity and quiet horror of corporate life, where individuals complete tasks that may feel pointless to them, yet feed into larger systems capable of local, national, or global harm. In many cases, this labor continues not because it is understood, but because there is no clear alternative.

Night Shift was designed as an atmosphere-driven film. We treated the space itself as a character, using high-contrast fluorescent lighting to emphasize the sterile yet foreboding nature of the Corporate Solutions building that Miller Johnson navigates. A dense, synth-heavy soundscape was developed to give the building its own presence, creating a constant sense of dread and uncertainty.

This film represents the most significant achievement of my filmmaking career to date and reinforced the importance of collaboration at every level of production. Night Shift only exists because of the dedication and creativity of an incredible crew across all departments. I hope the film feels unsettling, thought-provoking, and just disorienting enough to invite a second viewing.