The art was the final piece of “Sara and the Animals” to be completed. After several attempts at a design, Writer-Director turned to his wife Laura Austin and begged her assistance in executing a design. She obliged and returned with a watercolor work of art that is as captivating as it is alluring....
The original score for “Sara and the Animals” features five songs and was composed, performed, and recorded by Frank Coda. Frank and Joel found each other via reddit. Frank posted a Stranger Things cover track that Joel happened upon just as he was looking for a musician to score the film. After having...
The film’s influences are multifaceted, but there were a few at the forefront of Joel’s mind when crafting the initial script. A major b-plot that was cut from the finished film (but which astute viewers will no doubt notice the shades of) had to do with what Sara is doing on her phone for...
“Sara and the Animals” was shot on a shoe-string budget over the course of three days. The shooting dates were September 6th, 7th, and 8th in 2019. The production cost roughly $2,000 before going into post. The locations used were in Peekskill, NY (the cell store, copy store, and external city street scenes), Cortlandt...
The initial idea for “Sara and the Animals” came about after Writer-Director Joel Austin and star Ronnie Toone reconnected following a film they’d both worked on in mid-2018. After bouncing some ideas back and forth, Joel set about writing the script with one goal in mind: Tell a surreal, strange, emotional story that...