MindTwist Studio

12/02/2024

Last Friday we held a private screening and Q&A for Deeply Troubled - Short Film. It was wonderful to see some of the cast and crew again, and share the film with an audience for the first time. We are very grateful for how engaged the audience was in the Q&A conversation after the screening. We will share more soon!

Photo 1 and 2 by Michael Chryssomallis

11/12/2024

We have completed Deeply Troubled! The whole making of this film was a crazy but wonderful journey. As always in filmmaking, it came with lots of ups and downs. You might have noticed that we posted less in the last months and we'll make sure to share some of those behind-the-scenes stories in the future.

So, what's next? We are currently in the exciting but also nerve-wracking process of sharing the film with festivals. On that end, we hope to have some good news soon, allowing us to finally share "Deeply Troubled" with audiences. Wish us luck :)

We would have never come to this point without our wonderfully talented cast & crew:
Main Cast:
Oliver: Carter Monahan
Melody: Natalie Tran
Joe: Jackson Whitman

Written & directed by: Sebastian Schnabel, Cici Yixuan Wu
DP: Ben Enke
Production Designer: Cheri Anderson, Props Metropolis
Composer: Jannik Günther
UPM: Ethan Vander Broek
1st AC: Victoria Bruce
Gaffer: Alexander Hall
Key Grip: KaylaAnne Glick
Drone Operator: Max Sjöberg
Script Supervisor: Arlo Rader
Hair & Makeup: Laura A. Hart
Makeup Assistant: Megan DuBord
Set Decorator: Mai Moua Thao
Wardrobe Assistant: Sam Deans
On-Set Sound Mixers: Owen Brafford, Joshua Dyrud
Post Sound Mixing: Conduit Sound
Sound Designers: Jim Morgan, Sebastian Schnabel
Supervising Sound Editor: Jim Morgan
Colorist: Aaron Link, Thicket Film Company
Editor & VFX: Sebastian Schnabel
Produced by: Cici Yixuan Wu, Sebastian Schnabel
Associate Producers: Harrison Reeder, Tango Wu, Jianhong Cao
Storyboards: Janita Bethencourt
Seed & Spark Campaign Manager: Cici Yixuan Wu
Campaign Marketing Manager: Sean Coffman
LED Volume Virtual Production: D&N Studios
Car Scene DP: Christian Spraungel
PAs: Rudrani Suttar, James Hoghaug, Jo Leeper, Sean Coffman
Driver: Noah Hughes
BTS Photography: Michael Chryssomallis, Jenny Zander, Ethan Vander Broek
G&E from Cinequipt

Additional Cast:
Emily Thorkildson, Eric Lee, Jim Morgan, Janita Bethencourt

Locations: Uptown Balloons, Lisa Van Ahn

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!

---------------

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

----------------

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!!

---------------

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