Dear Richo

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Some unfinished business in the bush leads a bonehead to make a choice.

Personal short film completed in 2019, based on a couple of experiences I had while growing up in the suburbs of Canberra, Australia.

My goal with this film was to make psuedo narrative mood piece, as a way of moving on and addressing my weird obsession with suburban Australiana my hometown.

For a period, I’d been trying my darndest to draw digitally in a style that felt like these rough charcoal drawings I’d been doing in my sketchbook for ages. And when I felt like I achieved that, the challenge was combining it with 3D and making it animate in a way that felt right to me.

In the lead up to releasing this online, I wrote a (longer than neccessary) backstory and description for the film:

“When I was 16, a couple of my friends killed a guy and buried the body in the bush. They waited for him to leave his house, grabbed him, tied him up, and threw them in the boot of the car. He was begging them near the dried up creek, crying for his life. It was serious, they were going to do it.

At least that’s what the rumor was.

At the time I had no idea what to believe. I knew they had broken into cars to knick CDs and jewellery, sometimes stolen those cars for joyrides, huffing glue and smoking pot whenever they could get their hands on it. I know at least one of them is in jail now. But I also knew they exaggerated a lot about the stuff they got up to. They were bored and could find nothing better to do.

One time I got mugged behind a mall car park. A group of about 6 people a bit older than me were drinking during the day and while I was on the way to the bus stop, they had a go at me. Punched me so hard I hit the floor, bleeding from the face and knees I ran away and didn’t tell anybody. For months I had panic attacks whenever I left the house.

About a year later, one of my friends introduced me to the guy that did it. I froze up completely. They started joking about it and he apologized, saying he was in a much better headspace now. Everyone was supporting him for being in a better place.

I’ve noticed more and more how much your upbringing and your location can affect you. Sometimes people can get stuck in a toxic environment and feel like there is no way out.

Our home is our identity, and while we’re responsible for our actions, there is a darkness that can come from it that is difficult to shake away.

And so:

A bonehead moves on.”

Written and Directed by Bryce Pemberton
Sound Design by Ryan Pemberton

Special thanks to:
Claudia Chinyere Akole
Lester Chan
Nancy Li
Ryan Pemberton

Below are some behind the scenes material: