Keith Musil Burning Down The House

By Beatriz Areilza / February 17th, 2012 in Tech / California / 220 views

Keith Musil’s work as a filmmaker takes another step on his willingness to experiment with mixed media. Keith has directed branded content and music videos for the likes of Omar K and L.A duo High Places. His films are influenced by personal references like Drive, Popeye or Teen Wolf, and he takes inspiration from them and creates something completely new and unexpected by decontextualizing them. Always with an intriguing and unconventional story, this time he has decided to take another approach, exploring the technical parts of the filmmaking process.

This short experimental film—that premieres exclusively for Portable—is called Rhonda. In two minutes, Keith manages to keep us intrigued as our main character feels seduced and terrified in equal parts while watching a house burn down. The soundtrack, dramatic lighting and intense performance makes us wonder what happens next, or what could happen if this idea were extrapolated further.

This idea all started with the concept of creating a narrative that revolved around a controlled house burn. I figure the most interesting way to achieve that would be to build a diorama of a house and set it on fire. The second half of the project involved shooting a model against a green sreen and then compositing them into the video plates taken of the burning house setting. This allowed the narrative process to be worked out in reverse.

The mix of miniature scale and real life green screen footage gives the film a surreal feeling, the perfect amount to keep Keith Musil’s weird touch running throughout this pyromaniac story.