Croaked!

Director Statement

I’ve been making short films and videos my entire life, but my fascination with noir films started in high school. My best friend and I would spend half our free time on a shared Google doc writing scripts and the other half at his house filming them. After making several projects together, I wanted to make a detective film with a horror twist. We wrote a script, filmed it, edited it, and… it sucked. The short was a total mess, and unintentionally felt like a half-baked parody. So I went back to the drawing board and decided to do more research on the genre. It was then that I saw “Double Indemnity” by Billy Wilder, which left a profound impact on me. I felt like a child watching a movie for the first time, eyes glowing at all the possibilities. The second the credits rolled, I rewrote the script, making it less of a parody and more of a sincere love letter to the genre. It’s been a few years since I rewatched our second attempt, but– for the sake of keeping things sentimental– I’ll pretend it was perfect. After this project wrapped, I remained hooked on noir films and the idea of mashing together seemingly random genres. While I continued writing and making other films throughout my SCAD career, I wanted to revisit noir and do something else with it.

When it was finally time to begin developing my pitch for senior capstones, I knew I had to make an extremely stylized and cartoony film– an animation style I’d grown fond of as I progressed through my degree. I’ve always described “Croaked!” as a bubblegum noir– something with bright, cheery visuals and a dark, moody protagonist that takes himself too seriously. I wrote and pitched the initial story knowing things would change along the way as everyone’s visions seeped into the film. During recruitment, I made it clear to everyone that “Croaked!” was NOT just my vision; it was the whole team’s. I am incredibly grateful to have worked with this team of talented artists. The most important thing that remained consistent until the end is that the final product expresses love and gratitude for the films, songs, humor, and artists that inspired us, from the smoke-filled neon cities of “Fallen Angels” to the brooding protagonist of “Sunset Boulevard” to the jazzy soundscape of “Twin Peaks”.

We hope you enjoy “Croaked!” as much as we enjoyed making it.