Tom, Death & Harry

LOG LINE:
A man faces the possibility of his own death when he meets Death, a pretty swell guy, who teaches him that it is sometimes harder to live.

SYNOPSIS:
On the day Tom is supposed to find out if his cancer is in remission he wakes up to discover his gold fish, Houdini, dead in the fish bowl. He panics, seeing this as a bad omen. His wife Nancy comforts him, reminding him that his treatments were successful. On a walk in the park to clear his head Tom has an encounter with a strange man calming to be Death himself. When Tom won’t believe this outrageous claim Death must take Tom on a whirlwind tour through his past experiences with grief and loss, in order to teach Tom that Death is nothing to fear. The real tragedy is missing out on life itself while you’re still around to enjoy it.

  • Brian Hogan
    Director
  • Julian Tizian
    Writer
  • Brian Hogan
    Producer
  • Julian Tizian
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Short, Student
  • Genres:
    Comedy, Romance, drama, tragedy, mystery, philosophy
  • Runtime:
    12 minutes 20 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    September 25, 2019
  • Production Budget:
    4,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    Yes
Director Biography - Brian Hogan

Brian Hogan is a Connecticut born gay filmmaker who always knew he wanted to be in show business. From the age of eight he was telling friends and family what he was going to do when he became rich and famous, and how he planned to change the world.

Brian worked as a missionary after graduating high school in 1997. He was stationed on a non-governmental hospital ship for three and a half years that traveled regularly between West Africa, South Africa and Western Europe. During his time overseas he visited over thirty countries, giving him a broad picture of the world as it truly is, not simply the way the American mainstream media would have us believe.

In 2002 Brian’s travels landed him at Oberlin College at age 23, where he pursued his love for film and TV, co-creating a multi-media production called Real World: Oberlin and directing numerous plays and short film projects. After college he moved to West Hollywood where he spent a few years writing screenplays at a Starbucks before switching gears and opening a Medical Marijuana Dispensery in 2010.

Seven years later in 2017 Brian returned to his natal ground of CT to attend a graduate film program at Sacred Heart University. During grad school Brian wrote and/or directed six short films, including Tom, Death & Harry, created a web series and completed a feature screenplay that he began ten years earlier in a Los Angeles coffeehouse. That screenplay, Super Hoax, was selected as 1 of 20 Finalists out of 700 screenplay submissions at the Oscar-qualifying New Orleans Film Festival 2019.

Brian lives with his sister and her family in Stratford CT, and now manages the film school from which he just graduated as Valedictorian and Lamda Phi Eta Communications Honor’s Society Inductee. Brian is proud to be an alumni of Sacred Heart University's Film & Television Production Master's Program (FTMA).

To find out more about Brian or his films please visit his website: TheBrianHogan.com.

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Director Statement

Tom, Death & Harry is a light-hearted take on a very serious subject. The subject of loss, in all its forms, from the untimely death of a goldfish, through the grip of terminal illness and all the way to the shocking death of the ones you love most, Tom Death & Harry pulls no punches as it explores just how final and absolute death can be. But if you can see another side to it, the side that knows that part of the cycle is just as necessary as any other side, you can come to understand that Death isn’t to blame for all this. Indeed, without death, life wouldn’t be precious, or perhaps even possible.

Sincerely, Brian Hogan