Smoke - Adrian Tomine

A short fan film we made based on the mini-comic by Adrian Tomine (from his 32 Stories compilation). We tried to remain faithful to the comic and used the comic for our storyboards. If you have the comic,you will see that we shot matched each drawn panel.

We shot everything in front of a green screen, and all the backgrounds were composited in photoshop. Hope you enjoy it!

Starring Shantas Wong. Directed by Kevin Pavlovic and Ellery Vandooyeweert. Music by Corey Rutley.

• Category

  Film & Animation

[aliencandy]

Very well done. The only problem I had was the acting. It doesn't seem very natural; the movements seem stiff and the mood and emotion forced. When reading the comic strip, I had imagined the voice tone differently, maybe lower and more depressed sounding. The part where she writes the letter and reads it along bothered me. I don't know whether it was her voice that altered the seriousness of the scene, but I think it would've been better silent. I do like the overall composition.

[kevinthatwas]

thanks for the feedback.

[unepetitedemoiselle]

I really appreciated this video! To a Tomine fan it's a beautiful effort to do this... thank you!! Though the acting is quite amateur I think the photography is excellent... you really grasped how to make a comic be a movie.

[vollsticks]

The alt-comics Sin City!

[smithslover1]

nice adaptation, just finished reading this today, and think the video does have a very comic-strip feel to it.

[umdesch4]

Beautiful music in this.

R.I.P. Corey, you will be sorely missed.

[brianne13910]

i looove adrian tomine and this is fabulous

[heyjude00]

nicely done! I apppreciate how faithfull you were to the comic. The only thing that didnt exactly do it for me was the acting, it seemed forced and it lacked the emotion that this melancholic comis exudes. but other than that, this is stunning, you should be very proud!

[phizzy56]

Very cool. Tomine fans will enjoy this.

[Shelby Bryant]

You really know what you are doing! This is so good! The way you composed the shots and put them together using the green screen is so creative. I hope you keep making more films! -Good choice of story too- Optic Nerve and comics like that have a very good slice of life story style. The guide those comic authors provide on shots/angles/aesthetics is really valuable. Way to go!

[sofnkyfresh07]

wow! I'm a huge Tomaine fan and this is simply beautiful. It truly captures the tone of a Tomaine comic. Nicely done!

[aicheyearaem]

Love it as well; wish "sick" and "pest" weren't verbally emphasized so much, but it could be I only notice because I've seen it 10x.