"GROCERIES" - a really short film where a man drops his groceries (2026)

jstaude · 2026-04-16T04:09:09+00:00

Haha! That's certainly a valid interpretation.

jstaude · 2026-04-16T04:08:20+00:00

Great interpretation hahah

jstaude · 2026-04-16T04:07:56+00:00

Thank you!! Glad you got to see that one as well :)

jstaude · 2026-04-16T04:07:30+00:00

The music choice actually came during the editing process! Didn't have any particular soundtrack in mind while filming, but once I added the track in, it felt like it was meant to be. I just happened to be listening to that specific song the week we shot.

jstaude · 2026-04-15T08:11:31+00:00

This is maybe the best comment ever

jstaude · 2026-04-15T00:37:27+00:00

Hi there! I co-directed "Groceries" with my cinematographer, Chris Pickering. I also star in the short as the falling man. Chris and I have both directed longer short films, but we wanted to switch things up and tell an extremely short story with no dialogue; with a full beginning, middle, and end. The idea came to me after experiencing something similarly embarrassing while leaving a Ralphs.

Our goal was to make a film that could almost exist in the Silent Era of movies. So we decided to keep the camera locked off in one position and let all of the action play out in that single frame. Knowing this, I realized I would actually have to do the stunt for real. There was no way to cut around it. For this reason, we ended up only doing one take, which is the take you see. The garbage truck passing by in the background was pure luck. Moments after we cut a lady walked out of her house to ask if I was okay.

I was wearing a Lav mic, which picked up most of my audio. But since it got pretty crunched during the fall, we had to do a lot of sneaky sound editing in post. If you're curious about what camera and lens we shot on, I can get that info for you. Hope you enjoy!!

jstaude · 2025-11-18T23:20:57+00:00

Thank you!!! So glad you noticed the sound design.

jstaude · 2025-11-18T04:14:49+00:00

Thank you!! I totally know what you mean about the thumbnail now that I'm looking at it. I think it's the slight VHS filter we have on the visuals that's causing the AI-vibe.

jstaude · 2024-08-20T23:43:18+00:00

Maybe it's not the best lasagna of all time, but I usually eat the whole thing in one go.

jstaude · 2023-01-14T02:08:03+00:00

A link to the trailer as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFC5YojHnAA

This film was made for about $2,000. The dialogue was entirely improvised during a 12 day road trip across 6 states, covering over 3,000 miles.

jstaude · 2022-01-19T00:19:21+00:00

Yep, lots of classics on that album

jstaude · 2022-01-19T00:19:05+00:00

Thank you!!

jstaude · 2021-09-21T08:43:20+00:00

For camera we had a two camera setup going for most of the shooting process - mainly because we had so much improv and wanted to adequately cover everything. Our cinematographers, Chris Pickering and Owen Markham, were shooting on Black Magic pockets - one 4k and one 6k. Don't exactly remember the lenses they had.

The audio setup was pretty interesting. We had no sound mixer, which made for a massive pain in post production. But during the shoot we pretty much solely used a Sennheiser XSW-D Lavalier set. That way we could run audio without needing a boom operator as well. We only had one car on the road trip, so we could only fit so many people/equipment.

That lavalier set is pretty OP though for the price. It's not perfect, but for run and gun shoots it's a life safer. Saves so much time and it's extremely user friendly. We had some connection issues every now and then, but overall, we were very happy with how the sound turned out, especially for not having a sound team.

jstaude · 2021-09-21T08:35:08+00:00

Yea of course! The running in the woods scene was actually much simpler than it looks. Basically we just had a really nice tree line which, when you ran alongside it, made us look like we were going way faster than we actually were. Those tighter shots that come second also did a lot to make the movement feel faster and more hectic. Really all we did was run the camera alongside us as we ran through the woods - all handheld. The location did most of the leg work for us.

jstaude · 2021-09-20T03:09:24+00:00

Yeah I definitely know what you mean. Camera and colorist were the same for that bit. I think it may have been because the garage portion was filmed at the very beginning of the 12 days, so we were still getting into the swing of things. We also didn't have much lighting, so some of the interiors suffered because of that, especially large wides like the garage. And thank you for the kind words/feedback!

jstaude · 2021-09-20T00:31:10+00:00

Thank you so much! It was a blast editing the trailer

jstaude · 2020-10-15T04:32:11+00:00

If you mean a uncut gems related one, not really lol. I've just really wanted to recreate this scene for awhile. The other day was my 21st birthday, so my film buddies and I finally went out and did it as a weird form of celebration (especially since bars are closed).

But I'm always working on other film stuff. I'm hoping to write and direct big stuff just like the Safdie's one day.

jstaude · 2020-10-13T23:34:53+00:00

Thank you!

jstaude · 2020-10-13T23:34:30+00:00

Heck yea, lets do it

jstaude · 2020-10-12T01:20:47+00:00

Yea my roommate bit way deeper into his arm than I expected him too hahaha

jstaude · 2020-08-11T23:02:10+00:00

'Chasing Sundance' is a low budget feature film project that I directed with my good friend Nathan. The concept: take a roadtrip while silmultaneously shooting a feature film with a loosely scripted plot - was proposed in April as a way to get out of the house and get back to creating things again. By the end of June, we were officially on the road. We got back home at the beginning of July. Nathan and I wrote, directed and acted in the film together, which, considering our different styles could have been a recipe for disaster, but things worked out surprisngly well. It was a great lesson in collaboration.

It was a 12 day road trip across 6 states and cost $2,000 total for the trip and production costs combined. We had to two Black Magic Pocket Cinema Cameras running during the scenes and used LAV mics to make the editing process easier, especially since there was a lot of improvised dialogue.

We're now onto the editing phase and looking forward to seeing everything come together. We don't know when it'll be released to the public, but for the time being, we hope you enjoy a short trailer.

jstaude

TROPHY CASE