Squeeze Toy
A young man is on the brink of losing his mind to a self-constructed conspiracy, wherein an evil trio is after him.
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Chris K. DanielsDirectorStand, See Me, When Mentioned
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Chris K. DanielsWriterStand, See Me, When Mentioned
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Chris K. DanielsProducerStand, See Me, When Mentioned
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Christian TabbKey Cast"Adrian"
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Samuel CaswellKey Cast"Halloran/Ryan"
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Charles SchwagerKey Cast"Old Man Roy"
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Aruna EvanKey Cast"Taylor"
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Project Type:Short, Student
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Genres:Thriller, Action, Stylized
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Runtime:8 minutes 5 seconds
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Completion Date:April 29, 2019
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Production Budget:0 USD
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Country of Origin:United States
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Country of Filming:United States
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Shooting Format:Digital, 4K
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Aspect Ratio:2.35
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:No
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Student Project:Yes
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Campus Movie FestBoston, MA
United States
April 2, 2019
Boston Premiere
Jury Award For Best Film, Audience Award, Film of The Week -
Terminus International Film FestivalAtlanta, GA
United States
June 30, 2019
Atlanta Premiere
Nominated For Best Drama -
Los Angeles Cinematography AwardsLos Angeles
United States
Finalist Award -
Jammu International Film FestivalJammu
India
India Premiere
Official Selection -
Highlands International Film FestivalHighlands
United States
Official Selection -
Rome Prisma Indepdent Film FestivalRome
Italy
Rome Premiere
Finalist Award
Chris K. Daniels is a 21 year old filmmaker from Boston, Massachusetts. He's been writing, directing, and acting in shorts for about seven years now. Chris tends to focus his work on a sort of dark, conceptual view of twists on reality. He seeks to bring forth an interesting form of 'what if' question, and answer it in the form of a narrative short.
Chris is currently a student, on track to get his Film/Video BFA in Boston, Massachusetts.
Chris is an award-winning, festival-featured filmmaker. Some of his notable honors are the winning of the Golden Tripod Award at Terminus International Film Festival, the Silver Tripod Award and the Jury Award at Campus Movie Fest for two consecutive years in a row (2017-2018,) the Best Film Award at New Artists Film Festival, and Film of The Month two consecutive months in a row on Indiemand.co.uk. On top of that, Chris' short "You Must Be Artificial" was a part of the official selection for The Short Film Corner at the Cannes Film Festival 2018.
All-in-all, Chris loves to create. He's a young man passionate about making movies that mean something. He hopes to make his creations for the rest of his life.
"Squeeze Toy" is a story about a young man in the midst of losing his mind. As the story develops, the depth of the situation is revealed, and the truth ends up coming to light. With this film, I really wanted to express my creative voice and style in how the story is being told. I tried implementing a bunch of different storytelling mechanics and editing/story styles to really make the piece everything it could possibly be. I wanted it to be an engaging story, really portraying this bizarre perspective on the world through this character's story. I wanted to see the development of reality just as our lead experienced it, as to make his situation more emotionally significant.
With all that, I try to cast underrepresented leads within all my short films, to do my part in bringing equality to the film industry. So that worked out perfectly when I found the incredibly talented Christian Tabb. He's a truly amazing actor and a genuinely great guy. His passion and love for the character of "Adrian" really brought this piece to life, and made the conceptualization and directing process a pleasure all throughout.
Overall, I really loved making this project. I hope others can feel the passion and enthusiasm I had in making this short come to be.