Sean Greene: The Sticker Club

Artist Statement

Drugs are taboo, stickers are innocent: why not combine the two? In this film, I wanted to explore how the challenging of power (i.e. Chris demanding a refund) of a rather powerless group of drug dealers would bring out the extremes in their personalities.

I also wanted to use the “bomb under the table” technique that I learned about from Alfred Hitchcock by showing the audience what Sam slips in Chris’s drink but not Chris himself. The suspense built from knowing that the bomb--or, in this case, a full-blown acid trip--may go off at any minute is what keeps the viewer engaged.

In terms of the sound design, I didn’t want to use any “suspenseful” sound effects because just like with the element of the stickers, I wanted to keep the movie somewhat playful to avoid the cliche. The music I chose was less about plot development and more about character building. Every song play was chosen by a character on screen for a selfish purpose (e.g. to dance, to blunt the sound of their voices, etc.) and I think it adds a bit of humanity to the group of devious drug dealers. They’re both friendly and villainous; compassionate and selfish.

But the overall goal of this film was to create something watchable and rewatchable. A movie where bits of dialogue and background knowledge would go unnoticed without a second viewing.