Dusten Choke
From Finland comes the 20 minute plus animated short Dusten Choke. Joona &Dataman& Kopperoinen is the creator and is responsible for everything except for the actors he has chosen to do the characters voices. Kopperoinen has created a unique and rustic looking animation here but its effective and entertaining. Its low budget but innovative and weaves an intriguing story.
Made for a meager $200 Kopperoinen did manage to enlist the help of some professional voice over actors such as Lana Marie (These Angels Are Cruel, Full Metal Panic! Come Make My Day and Dead Of Knight) plus you can find her on SoundCloud. Voice actor Otis Jiry who reads some great H.P. Lovecraft and Five Nights At Freddy’s tales, you can also find him on Soundcloud, Facebook, YouTube and various other websites.
Kopperoinen was kind enough to send me a screener link for Dusten Choke and I had no idea what to expect. I know he is a young man trying to get his independent art out there like many and trying to explore the outlets that are available. I definitely love anything indie including comics, movies, music whatever the case may be. Its great to see this artist from Finland doing everything himself and the ambition to get his creative art exposure.
This animation short tells the story of an explorer named Zackaree Rockwood (voiced by C.J. Heineman) who chooses to go on a an expedition in the mountains in an area known as Dusten Choke. Despite warnings from a local store/bar owner Albert (voiced by Otis Jiry) he proceeds. Things seem strange from the start as the store owner tells the explorer of a young local celebrity dancer named Strippy Stripy McThighhighs (voiced by Lana Marie) who left a book with him and needs it returned to her. The girl went into the mountains and never came back. Rockwood takes the book acting rather disinterested in finding her.
Once in the mountains Rockwood finds a cabin and bizarre things begin to happen around him. Culminating with being held captive by three dark and ominous characters who thrive on bodily fluids to survive. Rockwood struggles to overcome the madness and insanity bestowed upon him. Lots of surreal images, creatures and dark subject matter result in a trippy mind bending experience.
Creator Joona Kopperoinen has made something dark, foreboding and unique. It’ll appeal to those looking for something different in terms of extreme material. I dig the style of what Kopperoinen is trying to achieve here. Behind the scenes material was also included which shows how Kopperoinen painstakingly drew every frame, came up with dialogue, storyboard comparisons, some trailers and audio interviews with the voice actors involved. Altogether its a great package and something worth investing your time into. A new generation of surreal independent animation film makers doing things themselves is a cool concept I can get behind. Order here: https://m.facebook.com/pg/TrocelengStudios/posts/?ref=page_internal&mt_nav=1#!/s
