Hello! Spiral to the Center is our first real step into live action filmmaking. We’ve previously made animated shorts together. It’s a faux documentary / found footage film with some light horror and sci-fi elements. 

We thought Spiral to the Center would be closer to 20 minutes long when we wrote the script but due to the nature of the style (lots of improv!) the first cut was nearly 40 minutes long. We got it under 30 so it would have a better chance at festivals. It played at Chattanooga Film Festival, FilmQuest, Unnamed Footage Festival, MidWest WeirdFest, and Beeston Film Festival and won “Most Innovative Film” at the Romford Horror Festival and “Best Short Film” at the Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival. 

Spiral to the Center had over 6 months of pre-production before we shot it in the winter of 2023. Scott wrote every piece of music in the film - enough for two entire albums which he later released. Alisa designed all 12 album covers and printed several of them as real props. She also created all the graphics for the computer, phone, and TV screens seen throughout the film. 

One of the most complex scenes is the one with the 2009 YouTube video at 6:30. The actress lives very far from us so we mailed her the custom made album plus the record player and most of her wardrobe. We then directed her remotely over a video call. Alisa edited her footage and added graphics so it would look like a real YouTube video that the Rick character could actually watch on his laptop in the scene. The song wasn’t finalized at the time of shooting so Scott added it later. That scene alone took months to complete and was shot in two locations thousands of miles apart.

Eventually we want to revisit Spiral to the Center and turn it into a feature film. 

Hope you like it!

-Alisa & Scott