While Alan is surrounded by what is thought to be the American ideal, he learns that sometimes all we are is lost in the woods.
Longer short films are usually not built for an online life, as it is harder to keep an audience adhered for a longer period of time. But a well constructed film can carry out a healthy afterlife in the online world. Alan Smithee captures us with its more than familiar story, and it’s lengthy realistic scenes.
Alan Smithee is a film about a boy growing up. It delves into the darker side of what growing up sometimes means – growing into your flaws, inevitably being met with the errors of your parents, and the necessity to make room for the pain. While Alan is surrounded by what is thought to be the American ideal, all the material comforts that should equate happiness, he learns that sometimes all we are is lost in the woods.
Alan Smithee was my first stab at long form filmmaking – from conception to completion. It was an experiment for myself as well as those around me that helped bring it to life. It was something that I have always wanted to do and thanks to the countless hours of hard work and support from my cast and crew, we were able to make it happen. It took 3 years from start to finish and if I were to take anything away from it, it would be a lot of lessons learned and that it’s really really hard to make a good film.
– Director Crobin
Crobin dug deep into his memories to create this film, and although most of it is fictional, it is obvious that it is built from bits and pieces of childhood memories that almost anyone can relate to. From friendships, to first sexual experiences and fantasies, as well as parental issues, even if it hasn’t happened to you in the same way, your in for a real flashback trip with Alan Smithee.
The idea for the film spawned off of a few childhood memories of mine. The bulk of the story was fictional though – for me at least. However, growing up on Long Island, a story like this is not unheard of. Escapism and fantasy is such and integral part of our childhood and adolescence, and I wanted that to be apparent in this film.