Magic Owl

Short Surrealist Feature Films

[spokenitalics]

jurassic park but it's tiny elephants and nothing goes wrong 🥺

[cipheramnesia]

same score but played entirely on kazoos

[magicowlmedia]

As survivors of the 90s, we made a nostalgic homage to classic infomercials. Behold, in all its glory: Sandwichotron 3000: A Cut Above.

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Written & Directed by Imogen Straub. Starring Elijah Anderson-Justis. Featuring (in order of appearance): Chris Lawruk, Lia Rose Dugal, Charles Douglas, Zach Beltz Narrated by Adam Borrego. Cinematography by Adam Borrego. Animation by Imogen Straub. Sandwichotron voiced by Imogen Straub. Editing by Imogen Straub. Audio Engineering by Adam Borrego.

[magicowlmedia]

We now present:

The Better Half (2017)

[magicowlmedia]

Get ready for something ridiculous...

The Better Half (2017) Full Trailer.

[magicowlmedia]

Prepping for The Better Half (2017) premiere; here are are a few of our favorite stills!

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Location scouting.

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The owner of Skinner Aviation in Ashland, Oregon did us a solid. One of our final production days on The Better Half (2017).

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The Better Half (2017) Teaser Trailer

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When directing an independent romcom short, sometimes you need to stage a disembowlment. To achieve this, we purchased sausage casings from a local butcher, stuffed them with spaghetti noodles boiled in water saturated with red food coloring. These sausage’d noodles were then laid them in a sauce of white corn syrup dyed with red, green and blue food coloring to achieve a semirealistic blood texture, sheen and color. After a short soak, we poked them through select holes cut and torn in Alex’s shirt.

Tadah.

[magicowlmedia]

Luckily, the weather was very in keeping with the desired dreariness of the scene we were shooting.

[magicowlmedia]

The Bernoulli Effect is a practical effect.

[imogenstraub]

The last thing I saw before I slept/passed out was the footage I was editing.

[imogenstraub]

“Where lattes are spilled on expensive clothing.” Location scouting.

[imogenstraub]

A crafting day more than a photo day. This dishware isn’t going to plume itself!

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Manufacturing props for the “Squawky’s Diner Date Scene”.

[imogenstraub]

Behind the Scenes. Shooting the Better Half, Day 2.

[imogenstraub]

Sad crow breakup montage location scouting tryptich with producer stand-in.

[magicowlmedia]

This was the original location we scouted for the “Sad Crow Walking” scene - in Medford, Oregon. However, we relocated to the Discount Tire Shop in Ashland.

[imogenstraub]

Stills from last night. I will probably edit & reupload later.