Movies You Made: “Commencement”

I met so many wonderful people at the recent Austin Film Festival. One of them is Adam Neustadter. Here is his bio:

Adam Neustadter is a filmmaker currently living in Los Angeles. He studied film at NYU and has been directing ever since. Coming up through music videos, Adam worked for most major labels, countless indies, and Hollywood studios such as Disney and New Line Cinema. In addition to his impressive video output, he has directed campaigns and content for clients including Verizon, Incase, and MTV. Adam’s short films have screened at festivals around the world, and he recently released his first feature film Julien & Claire, which he helmed in France over ten days. Adam’s work has been praised in publications including The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, and Pitchfork Media.

Adam told me about a short film he had created called Commencement. I asked him if I could share it with the GITS community and he kindly agreed. Here it is:

Here is an excerpt of an email I sent to Adam after screening the film:

Love it! Beautiful and compelling mood piece. The speech is terrific, the performance pitch performance, and the accompanying visuals both iconic and touching.

It reminds me of Crossing The Threshold in the Hero’s Journey, this entire night a transition for the couple from Past, to Present, and then that final image of them on the ‘road’ to the Future.

It never ceases to amaze me how evocative movies can be, no matter their length. Honestly some of the most compelling films I’ve experienced are short films, just like Commencement.

Here are three other projects Adam has been involved with:

JULIEN & CLAIRE is a micro-budget feature that I shot in France over ten days. It is a lush, music-driven mood piece that examines the romance between a young American dancer and a struggling French musician after their chance encounter on the streets of Paris. It’s available on several digital platforms like Hulu, but we decided to post it on Vimeo for free as well to offer a clean and ad-free viewing experience for people in any territory. It was an interesting experiment since I wrote the film in two weeks, raised the financing in two weeks, and shot it in under two weeks. It’s not a perfect film, but it was a lot of fun to make.

“Hey Lady Luck” is an all-narrative music video that I directed over the summer for European DJ Michel Cleis. The video follows a heartbroken stuffed panda bear on an epic journey of self-discovery across Los Angeles, after he’s been discarded by the woman he loves. The track/video were a big summer hit overseas. This is my extended director’s cut, which is a bit moodier than the radio edit.

If I were to share one more recent project, it would be this James Iha music video. James was the guitarist in Smashing Pumpkins and still plays stadiums in A Perfect Circle, but he released a solo album earlier this year. We shot a loose homage to 1976 Bowie film The Man Who Fell To Earth (dir: Nicolas Roeg) and the video is appropriately ridiculous. This was a huge hit in Japan, of course.

Thanks, Adam, for sharing these movies with us and best of luck with all your creative endeavors!

You may follow Adam on Twitter: @adamneustadter

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