Synopsis

As the world outside collapses, a lonely inventor whiles away in his dim workshop creating small gadgets to trade for canned goods up above. His only respite is watching old films and cartoons on his television in his basement hovel. As the broadcasts on his tv become more and more infrequent, and then stop altogether, he uses his skills to add mechanical legs to his television and builds it into a robot friend. As the inventor wanders the nearly abandoned city scavenging for spare parts, the tv robot follows along as a loyal companion. Soon though another scavenger, a young woman, gets the inventor’s attention. Intrigued, he follows her to a rooftop garden. She teaches him the beauty of gardening even though the environment does not hold much of a future.

Details

Genre: Drama
Project Type: Short
Runtime: 12 minutes 30 seconds
Completion Date: March 31, 2023
Country of Origin: United States
Country of Filming: United States
Shooting Format: Digital
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Film Color: Color

Director Statement

Filmed in San Francisco with post production finished in Portland, Oregon in 2023, As Seen On TV was written and directed by VFX colleagues Justin Graham and Trevor Hazel based on a story by Justin Graham. Justin and Trevor were VFX artists on such films as Minority Report, Terminator Salvation and Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker at George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic in San Francisco where Trevor continues to this day. Justin relocated to Portland Oregon to be a lead VFX artist at Laika Studios on their animated features Paranorman, The Boxtrolls, Kubo and the Two Strings, and Missing Link. Most recently he has been a VFX Lead on Netflix’s production of Henry Selick and Jordan Peele’s Wendell & Wild.

For the design of the TV Robot character, Justin turned to his good friend Jay Shuster, production designer at Pixar. Jay made a name for himself at Pixar as a character designer on Wall-E, Cars, and The Incredibles among many other animated features. Jay was such a perfect fit for the production that he took on playing the role of the inventor who creates the TV Robot in the film. With a supporting performance by Lori Dorfman, As Seen On TV grapples with such themes as loneliness, environmental decay and the collapse of civilization. 

Justin Graham

Director Biography

Justin was born in Brooklyn, New York, where he was raised on a healthy diet of television and movies. After studying art and film at the University of Arizona in Tucson he moved to the Bay Area to pursue a career as as a museum curator. The next three years were spent developing film programs and large scale multimedia exhibitions at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. When an opportunity came up to work at Lucasfilm’s Skywalker Ranch during Star Wars: Episode I, his inner geek could not resist. Justin has been working on feature films ever since. He has been a computer graphics artist at Industrial Light & Magic, Weta and Tippett Studio. In 2011 he was invited to move to Portland Oregon and join Laika as the Paint/Roto Lead on their second feature, Paranorman and continued there through Laika’s fifth feature Missing Link. For the last few years he has been the on-set VFX Lead and Paint/Roto Supervisor on Henry Selick and Jordan Peele’s Wendell & Wild.