MindTwist Studio

06/30/2024

The last four days at the Hollywood Climate Summit were deeply inspiring, important and empowering. We met so many amazing people and made new friends. At this point we are so tired and are looking forward to finally getting some sleep when we are back in Minneapolis (after our red-eye flight). 😴

We will share more about the summit in the coming days!

03/29/2024

IMPORTANT!

Since yesterday, we have been receiving emails and calls from people who got an email sent from "Sebastian Schnabel" (not our email address at all) regarding a Pepsi or Red Bull shoot. [See second image for an example.]

It is a scam. If you've also got this email, please report them as spam or phishing. We're looking into it right now and hoping it'll be resolved soon.

12/08/2023

About a month ago we attended the Awards Gala for the Upper Midwest Emmys®. We had two nominations this year for our documentary “Community Power Minnesota: Transportation and Happiness", in the categories "Environment/Science" and "Editor" (Sebastian Schnabel). Unfortunately we didn’t win, but we still had a wonderful time sharing that night with all the talented people in the room.

Being nominated at all was a huge honor for us. Coming from Germany and China, Minnesota has become a second home. Therefore, being nominated for two Regional Emmys® right here with a film about this community, felt very special to us. We really appreciate the support and people we have here in the Twin Cities.

We want to give a big thank you to The Redford Center for believing in us and this Minnesota story. Thank you Professor Yingling Fan for agreeing to be the subject in this film. And last but not least, thanks to everyone else who was involved in this project!

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09/20/2023

Marie at Lake Street Council took these photos of us when we went around Lake Street and filmed all the new mural art!

09/05/2023

It is such an honor to be nominated for two Regional Emmy Awards!

This is wild and the news left us a bit speechless. Huge thanks to The Redford Center for believing in this community story and making it possible for us to tell it!

08/09/2023

Carter Monahan plays our protagonist “Oliver” in Deeply Troubled - Short Film

BTS photos by Mike Vasili Chryssomallis, Jenny Zander and Ethan Vander Broek

[in a hushed voice] the profile includes a frame from the film with a preliminary fast color grade done by our DP Ben Enke.
Stay tuned for more frames soon! 👀

08/05/2023

We can't express how grateful we are for having such a supportive community behind us, believing in what we do. "Deeply Troubled" is a neo-noir coming-of-age story about youth mental health and gender identity. This story needs to be told and we're so glad you're here with us! 💛🎈

Wow we have reached 44% of our crowdfunding campaign on Seed&Spark!! Earlier this week we launched a “match” where an angel supporter was going to double our funds (up to $500) on Saturday. We are so excited to share that we’ve surpassed our “match” goal of $500 and have raised $1,160 this week! Thank you all so much for joining us on this journey. This film has been in the works for three years and at one point we really thought we wouldn’t make it at all anymore. Thank you for being a part of our “Deeply Troubled” family!

There are only 14 days left to fulfill our goal of $10,000. If we don’t reach at least 80% for “Deeply Troubled”, we get nothing. We’re going to need your help to get us to the finish line! Please help us spread the word by sharing the campaign seedandspark.com/fund/deeply-troubled with your connections!

07/29/2023

Director of Photography and Production Designer of our upcoming short film "Deeply Troubled"

BTS photos by Mike Vasili Chryssomallis and Ethan Vander Broek

07/18/2023

Tech scout at Uptown Balloons

07/18/2023

Hi hi! We (Sebastian & Cici) are the creators of “Deeply Troubled”! Sebastian wrote the first draft of this story in 2020 and just when we were about to start pre-production and casting, COVID hit. Now three years later, we’ve both changed a lot and decided to co-write a new version of the story.

Sebastian has been wanting to be a filmmaker since he was eight years old. He first made movies with Lego, shot on his dad’s Video8 camera (an 8mm video format in the 90s), then - fast forward to his teenage years - he bought his own camera and started making short films with friends. Growing up in a small town in Germany, Sebastian believed very early on that filmmaking is an international art form and that he might need to go abroad sooner or later. The first time he came to the US was in 2012 when he took a summer session at UCLA. He wanted to take an editing class and a directing class, but when the directing class got canceled, he reluctantly chose “Intro to Film”. Fortunately, that’s where he met Cici.

Cici grew up in a very populated industrial city in China. Her path to filmmaking was not as straightforward as Sebastian’s. Actually the opposite, she was determined to be an architect. At UCLA, she was going to take an architecture class and a math class (very stereotypical 😂) but at the last minute she switched math to “Intro to Film”. Cici went on and got a Bachelor of Design in Architecture from University of Minnesota, freelanced in the art department in Film & TV for two years, and finally joined Sebastian on his entrepreneurial journey. We have become a producing-directing & co-writing team since!

We are so excited to have you join us on this journey! Welcome to this new chapter of “Deeply Troubled”!

Photo by Kimberly Anastasia

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07/13/2023

We have some exciting news 👀

Sneak peek of our new project “Deeply Troubled”!

More to come, stay tuned!
Follow our film Instagram account .shortfilm for updates soon!!

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05/11/2023

We had such a wonderful time at the Twin Cities Actor Expo - Filmmakers Audition! It's our third time participating and definitely the best one. Meeting and connecting with talented actors and directors was rejuvenating.

Thank you Naomi and Lily for organizing the auditions! Thank you Erin and Matt for your amazing reading with actors! Thank you Sarah for sending actors our way at the mixer! Thank you Twin Cities Film Festival for having us 💜

Photo credit: Dallas Smith
(This is a rare photo of us both. Thank you for capturing the moment!)

02/17/2023

We edited this video for SARD who are providing emergency help in Syria. If you can, please donate and share widely.

01/06/2023

2022 turned out to be a crazy year. We worked with amazing clients, connected with so many great people, and were honored to show our films in exciting new venues! We look forward to seeing you all in 2023!

10/19/2022

Behind the scenes photos from our recent filming with the Domestic Abuse Project MN

You can see our work tomorrow. "United in Healing" is taking place virtually on Thursday, Oct 20th at 7pm (CDT). You will hear stories of impact from clients, staff, sponsors and board members. It is hosted by WCCO-TV | CBS Minnesota hosts Shayla Reaves and Mike Augustyniak. Register or donate at http://www.givebutter/UnitedinHealing2022

It's been such a crazy but humbling journey working with DAP and producing their fundraising event video. We got to interview their participants who trusted us with their stories and showed what true resilience was. We talked to their staff members who do such important work every single day. We filmed their board members who support DAP with their time and financial resources. And we got to see WCCO hosts at work bringing their amazing energy to host this fundraising program.

Big shout out to Amirthini Keefe and Sloane Malone from DAP for all your support throughout this process! You both are truly amazing.

Last but absolutely not least, big shout out to our wonderful team! You are all so professional and just overall great people to spend time with.
Cinematographer/Colorist Mike Vasili Chryssomallis
Production Sound Mixer Joshua Dyrud
Gaffers Christian Spraungel and Curtis Craven
Editor Sebastian Schnabel
Producer Cici Yixuan Wu
Additional Gear Rental from Cinequipt, Inc. and Line Break

10/12/2022

A bts photo of our short film The Flour That Made Us

The story behind this photo is that we hopped on a light rail at night hoping we'd have a whole section at the end of the train all by ourselves, because you know, it's almost midnight. However, what we didn't know was that it was a game day...

So we got on the light rail, and saw that there were people in each part of the train, except one side of the middle area. We took a chance in the middle section and started filming. We framed out all passengers of course. It worked. Actually, it turned out a lot better than if we did shoot in the back of the train.

The twist here was that 15 minutes later, at one station, a TON of drunk people got on the light rail, half of which were not wearing face masks (this was summer 2021) and they absolutely did not care. We got off one stop after because you know, drunk people are probably not the best to be around at midnight especially when you are with two actors and a camera in hand.

Photo by: Cici Yixuan Wu
Featuring director Sebastian Schnabel , cinematographer Mike Vasili Chryssomallis and our actors PaChia Vang and Max Sjöberg .

10/05/2022

Last week Sebastian and Cici attended the Catalyst Story Institute in Duluth and we had such a wonderful time!

The panels covered information from TV to film, indie to Hollywood, pitching to writing. We got to meet inspiring fellow creators and industry executive, as well as the super supportive catalyst staff. A really great experience overall and we wish we had more time to connect with everyone!

Events and festivals like this one motivate us to keep writing, creating, and putting ourselves out there.

10/04/2022

So excited to see us featured in MPR News and Sahan Journal! Professor Yingling Fan's research was what drew us first to apply for The Redford Center initiative and it means so much to us that we got to work on such an important story with her team at Daynamica and everyone at the Redford Center. Yingling's research and the happiness map deserve to be seen by more people!

University of Minnesota professor Yingling Fan’s research shows that environmentally friendly commutes are among the happiest, although bus commutes rank low. Car commutes fit somewhere in the middle.

09/26/2022

Sebastian and Cici will be joining AIGA Minnesota at 12pm CT tomorrow for the September Virtual Lunch & Learn: 'Driven by Passion - how the filmmakers and Co-owners of MindTwist Studio balance their business and art life'.

We will talk about how we turned visa restrictions into a motivator, found our client base in the pandemic and navigated between client work and our art career.

The event is for free:
https://aigaminnesota.org/.../lunch-learn-driven-by-passion/

09/23/2022

Thank you AIGA Minnesota for featuring us and our films! Sebastian and Cici will sharing some stories about their business and art life next Tuesday at the Virtual Lunch & Learn. If you are interested in joining us, register at https://aigaminnesota.org/event/lunch-learn-driven-by-passion/

09/07/2022

This is Jimmy, the owner of Cutz Too Barbershop on Lake Street.

Early this summer we produced an Annual Report Overview Video for the Lake Street Council . For this project, we interviewed three small business owners on Lake Street and asked how the last two years had been for them and how Lake Street Council helped them rebuild. Here is the link to watch this video:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yyvc6qEMjWU&t=269s

08/24/2022

Iraqi & American Reconciliation Projectمشروع مصالحة الشعب العراقي والأمريكي and Norway House celebrating Eid Al-Adha at Open Streets Minneapolis - Franklin. Art, crafts, music and a good time filled the day!

Thank you IARP for having us document your beautiful event once again. This time with photography. Your sweetness and kindness are always a joy to work with.

Photos by the talented photographer Sabrina Jasmin

08/17/2022

Earlier this year we were selected by The Redford Center to produce a short documentary on clean transportation in Minnesota as part of their Power the Vote initiative. Co-founded in 2005 by Robert Redford and his son James Redford, The Redford Center advances environmental solutions through the power of stories that move.

Watch the film: https://vimeo.com/732542898

It was such an honor to be working with the Redford Center on this story featuring Dr. Fan, a professor at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs, Mayor Amáda Márquez Simula of Columbia Heights and Nissa Tupper, Principal Transportation and Public Health Planner at Minnesota Department of Transportation. This film “Community Power Minnesota: Transportation and Happiness” is so meaningful to us because we learned a lot about the relationship between clean transportation and emotional wellbeing, we got to talk with the community and hear their stories of living and commuting, we met with local leaders and heard their feedback on how Minnesota is doing on clean transportation. We were inspired during every step of the process.

When you think of your daily commute, what feelings come to mind? Would “happiness” be at the top of your list? Watch the film and let us know what you think in the comments.

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Learn more and take action at redfordcenter.org/communitypower.

Chispa LCV League of Conservation Voters

07/12/2022

Thank you everyone who came out to Little Asia Market on Sunday!!

It was a bit bumpy in the beginning with the wind and rain. But that didn't stop people from enjoying the market! So much joy in the air, wow!

We appreciate each one of you stopping by our booth, checking out our project photos, getting a bookmark, watching the reel, contributing to our question board, or chatting with Cici about filmmaking. We had such an amazing time!

Big shout out to Kate, Garth and Juno from Arbeiter Brewing Co. and Wone from Third Daughter, Restless Daughter or helping us keep our gear, table and tent safe!

If you saw Sebastian running around filming, that's because we're making a event recap video for L.A.M. Stay tuned!

07/08/2022

MindTwist Studio's first pop-up is this Sunday! Here is Cici holding some prototype for our merch. (One of them features original drawings from our dear friend Janita and we can't wait for you to see it!)

The return of Little Asia Market (L.A.M.) Pop-up, organized by Arbeiter Brewing Co and Third Daughter, Restless Daughter is to celebrate artists and makers within our diverse Asian American community.

As a half-Chinese half-German full-immigrant business, we were so thrilled when Juno and Wone from Arbeiter Brewing Co and Third Daughter, Restless Daughter reached out.

We love the idea of showcasing the individuality of all different Asians! We can't wait to meet all the artists and makers at the market!

Come and join us this Sunday, July 10th 1-6pm at Arbeiter Brewing Company. You may spot Sebastian running around and getting footage of the event and performances. You may also spot Cici at the MindTwist Studio booth introducing us and our projects. There will be cute film merch for the first time! 😉

[L. A. M. started in response to the rise of anti-Asian violence. As of December 2021, more than 10,000 anti-Asian incidents have been reported since the beginning of the pandemic. The collaboration was a way to bring our communities together by allowing the artists/makers to showcase our individuality and unique voices. Little Asia Market brings the strength of over 20 Asian American artists/makers/performers from the Twin Cities together into the Minneapolis Longfellow neighborhood. These artists are chosen to show the resilience and steadfastness of the community and to amplify their voices.

It’s not just “Stop Asian Hate.”

It’s celebrate Asian joy.

It’s uplift Asian artists.

It’s support Asian business.

It’s protect Asian communities.

It’s recognize Asian accomplishments.]

07/06/2022

Running a small business feels like you should always be ready to restart or reimagine. Four years ago we had our first office space and I remember running up and downstairs knocking on neighbors' doors and introducing ourselves. We met Pangea World Theater pretty soon through a building gathering and then after a two-hour conversation with their co-directors Meena and Dipankar they hired us to document their Directing Institute for that summer.

When the pandemic hit in 2020, we lost all our theater and event gigs which at the time provided 95% of our revenue. We tried out so many different and random projects, hoping to make this challenge into a pivoting opportunity for us. Most of them did not work, but some did.

We recently talked to Sahan Journal about our story - as a married couple and as co-owners. If you want to know a bit more about how we got together, how we ended up in Minneapolis and how we started the business, read the article in the link below.

https://sahanjournal.com/business-work/video-production-mindtwist-studio-sebastian-schanbel-cici-yixuan-wu-minnesota/

06/24/2022

These photos were taken by our friend Honoka from Tokyo. She went to "The Flour That Made Us" Screening in Shibuya and sent us these wonderful photos!

We met Honoka in 2013 when Cici was taking a writing class at the University of Minnesota. It's been about 8 years since we saw each other last but it is still our plan to meet up when we visit her in Japan or when she comes back to Minneapolis.

When we were told that our film was selected by the Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia and would be showing in Tokyo as part of their Shibuya Diversity Program, we were absolutely thrilled! We really hope that the audience in Tokyo enjoyed our film! And we feel so grateful that with these photos we got to be a part of the screening experience and that our friend could be there in person!

The last image shows a review of The Flour That Made Us from a PR Volunteer at the Short Shorts Film Festival.

05/20/2022

Our short film "The Flour That Made Us" will be screened again this Sunday 4:15pm at St. Anthony Main Theater as part of the Fiction Shorts Audience Favorites!!!

Here is the link to get your tickets:
https://prod3.agileticketing.net/websales/pages/info.aspx?evtinfo=737985~36893ed1-b0b9-423c-bbab-90f22d0aeafe&epguid=78d5df86-076b-41eb-9b27-8d9e012642d6&

05/17/2022

You can still watch "The Flour That Made Us" at until this Thursday, May 19th!

If you couldn't make it to our in-person screening last Sunday, no worries! You can still catch it as a virtual screening!

Link for tickets:
https://prod3.agileticketing.net/websales/pages/info.aspx?evtinfo=733309~36893ed1-b0b9-423c-bbab-90f22d0aeafe

A big challenge with this short film was that there is almost no dialogue. You hear each character's thoughts as voice-over throughout the film, in their native languages. A fun fact behind this is that we actually recorded an English version with the actors at Conduit Sound Studio, then decided that we should record again, but in German and Mandarin Chinese. Because it was a super fast turnaround project, Sebastian and Cici ended up recording the voice-over and that's what you hear in the film.

Let us know how you like it! We are considering an online Q&A if you're interested. Let us know in the comments if you would like some Q&A!

04/22/2022

We have another super exciting news to share with all of you: our most recent short film "The Flour That Made Us" is an official selection for the Minneapolis Saint Paul International Film Festival.

It will be screened at the St. Anthony Main Theater on Sunday, May 15th. AND it will be screened online throughout the festival (May 6th to May 19th). Get your tickets now before it sells out! https://prod3.agileticketing.net/websales/pages/info.aspx?evtinfo=733309~36893ed1-b0b9-423c-bbab-90f22d0aeafe&epguid=3afd26d4-be2d-473d-ad76-fafd3da02616&showing=733401&

This film is very dear to us. We've had so many wonderful and personal conversations with people involved in this project, talking about belonging, home and culture. How we grew up, what it means to live in between cultures, where we feel the sense of belonging, what home means to us etc. The best part about this screening is that we'll be able to have more of these conversations with an even larger audience!

Congratulations to all the cast and crew! You're all so amazing and wonderful!