2004: The Diamond Years

Stephen’s first experiment involved doing magic tricks with basic camera techniques. Eventually, he put his two oldest daughters in front of the camera to see how they could act. Soon after he wrote a simple piece for them to act out as two sisters fighting, only to learn that one of them was a witch. This minute long short was eventually dubbed “The Witch Sister”.

Feeling good about the short, Stephen decided to expand on the idea and make a sequel short, picking up where the second one left off, allowing the other sister to get revenge with the help of her father. The idea was to feel slightly bigger and more exciting. With a quick turnaround, the Witch Sister 2 was completed nearly a month after the first. This also marked Stephen’s official on-camera debut as the aforementioned father.

Having already gone this far with the narrative, Stephen decided to expand the story further and explain the events of the day while pushing boundaries even further with the Witch Sister III. Knowing that the short would be devoid of big effects, he did his best to craft a more intriguing narrative and put his editing skills to the test.

After crafting three kid friendly shorts, Stephen decided to make his next short land on the opposite end of the spectrum. With this mindset, he worked out a short solo piece about a man contemplating suicide. This piece also allowed him to work on his acting abilities, to really stretch what he was capable of. Suicide Story was finished in May of 2004.

Almost a month later, Stephen White, Stephen Foster and William Patrick came up with a short film idea one afternoon and scribbled out a working script. That same evening, they filmed the short and had a work print put together by the next day. It was planned to be a silent short from the start, but White embellished it in the edit to add some style. It was finished in June 2004 and is considered the “cult” hit of the shorts, appealing to a certain group but they’re rabid for it.

Wanting to challenge himself further, Stephen White thought about his next short. He considered dabbling in the realm of stop-motion animation but wasn’t sure what the approach should be. He began taking note of his daughters’ favorite toys and began crafting a tale around them. Soon after he spent an entire weekend filming the toys in various situations, either in stagnant situations or moving through some form of puppetry. He also practiced his work on stop-motion with varying results. After finding the right voices for the various characters, he went to work editing together all the pieces to create Amy & Poochie which was completed in July 2004. While he wishes there were ways to improve the work done here, Stephen is proud of the work performed for a first pass.

In August 2004, Stephen White and Stephen Foster reteamed to collaborate on another project. This time looking to spoof various martial arts pictures. While the narrative of the short was created on the day of shooting, the fight choreography was the primary focus of the short. They wanted everything to feel as authentic as possible, with the humor coming from other elements not the fights themselves. White worked to ensure the fights came out intense in the edit, hoping to thrill viewers with the showcase. In September 2004, Revenge for Murder was completed and is considered the best short out of the 2004 era.

[Some music was changed from the original version to avoid copyright blocks.]

With the desire to film still burning hot, Stephen White was trying to think of his next experiment. During this period of his life, he had been subjecting himself to more indie films looking for inspiration. He knew a big studio film wasn’t feasible, but a great story done on a budget could be plausible. He had also wanted to do a project with his brother, so he began crafting a story about two brothers. Over time, he decided on the overall narrative of the project and even some artistic choices he had in mind to give it an indie feel of the times. By December of 2004, Will & Bobby was complete and remains one of Stephen’s personal favorites.

Entering 2005, Stephen wasn’t sure what was next on his agenda. Luckily, his friend William Patrick was directing a new short and needed an editor. Being impressed with his editing skills in the past, William offered Stephen to edit his short film Hurt after Stephen took a pass on one scene. The first cut retained every scene filmed which caused some pacing issues. Eventually, various bits were removed, and Stephen even took some liberties to help embellish certain sequences. The only thing the film lacked was a proper ending. Something that William realized and filmed new shots to add into the final product, which allowed it to be completed later that year. While he wasn’t directly involved with the production, Stephen enjoyed having the opportunity to edit something that was not his own work.

Eventually the desire to do something new came about which led to the split screen experiment, Twins. While it’s nothing more than a technical trial run, it was meant to be the start of a larger project. It wouldn’t be until 2008 when all these shorts found their way onto YouTube for the first time.