In Ross Stern’s short film, “Caricature Carl,” the protagonist checks all the boxes of a comedic antihero.
Carl (David Hamed), a caricature artist with a Jackson Pollock-like scowl, presides over his domain, a local park. Carl has a knack for creating unflattering depictions of his subjects, causing him to be less than popular with park goers. His territory is threatened when newcomer Abstract Abdul (Jayandra Chiluwal) appears on his turf, quickly charming newcomers with his “good vibes” and inoffensive aura paintings.
“I guess the characters Carl and Abdul can be taken from two separate halves of my personality,” said Stern, a 24-year-old, 2022 graduate from Montclair State University and resident of Bordentown. “I think I can be slightly competitive as an artist, and I think that jumping off point [for Caricature Carl] was, I want to make something about competing artists.”
That drive for competition appears to have served him well. In April, “Caricature Carl” received the top prize in the Parks category during Burlington County’s Second Annual Juried Film Festival. The film has received numerous awards and nominations in film festivals throughout New Jersey including, winner for Best Comedy in August of 2022 at the Brightside Tavern Film Festival in Jersey City.
In July 2022, it was a Jury Favorite at A Lyte in the Dark Festival in Princeton, and was nominated for Best Concept in both the Bergen International Film Festival of NJ, and the Northeast Film Festival in Teaneck. In October 2022, At New Visions 22, a Film Festival at Montclair State showcasing students’ short films in the Filmmaking BFA Program, Stern’s film received an Official Selection.
For Stern a passion for film making emerged early, in middle school. He remembers his first short film, Captain Obvious, in which the protagonist has a penchant for pointing out all that is obvious to those around him.
At West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North, he continued to nurture a love of film by taking TV and film production classes, creating the short film Random Access Memories featuring a spandex-clad robot that is loaded with the memories of a deceased teenager. He went on to study film at Mercer Community College in West Windsor in 2017, where he made “Girls Like Chocolate,” a short film about teenage crush gone awry that went on to win Best Student Comedy at the Brightside Tavern Film Festival in 2018.
At Montclair State University, he earned his B.F.A. in filmmaking. While a student at M.S.U., Stern conceptualized “Caricature Carl” in 2019, completing the film for his senior thesis in 2022.
He describes his films as “live action cartoons,” citing an interest in animation as well as a love of comedies created by filmmakers such as Charlie Kaufman, Spike Jonze and Jim Henson.
“I don’t take myself too seriously. I think a lot of student filmmakers can have a habit of taking themselves a little too seriously, and never cracking a joke, and I never want to do that,” Stern said.
* * *
Collin Wehr, the producer of “Caricature Carl” as well as a classmate of Stern at M.S.U., admires Stern for his commitment to the genre of comedy as well as his sense of determination throughout the filmmaking process.
“I loved that Ross was unafraid to [write] an unabashed comedy, and make his vision as uncompromising as he could, and tell the story that he wanted to tell,” Wehr said.
Although Stern has a deep appreciation of the work of well known filmmakers, he never seeks to emulate another filmmaker’s work. Most of his ideas stem from his own experiences.
“Anything I write is somewhat inspired by real life to a certain extent,” Stern said. “The characters are either slightly like me or take on an aspect of my personality. A lot of times I’m writing stuff that’s inspired by something that happened.”
With “Caricature Carl,” Stern speaks to the challenges of being an artist. Creating a short film as a student was not without obstacles, such as finding a location to film, securing funding, and the casting process.
The filming location provided a unique challenge, as Stern had originally hoped to film in a park in Montclair. However, officials told Stern that filming could only take place on weekdays, creating a challenge for a crew composed of mostly college students.
Instead he decided to film in a private park in Greenbriar Horizons, A 55-plus community in Bordentown, where his parents live. Rochelle, an art therapist, and Adam Stern, a dentist, play a wealthy couple in the film.
“I’m the resident young person of the neighborhood–everyone kind of knows me,” Stern said.
Securing funding involved setting up a campaign on the site Indiegogo, where anyone could contribute to the film’s production budget. The campaign included a humorous video of Stern and Caricature Carl debating the merits of the campaign, which ended up raising $1,777 for the original budget of $1,500.
Finding actors for the two leads proved to be challenging as well, but the obstacle was quickly overcome. When Hamed and Chiluwal auditioned for the lead roles, Stern felt confident that they suited the unique personas of Carl and Abdul.
“These characters were hard to find actors for. I feel really lucky that the few that did apply I felt were perfect for the roles,” Stern said. “David brought a lot of angry violence to Carl, I think. Abdul, Jayandra brought a cool chillness.”
The artwork featured in the film also played an important role in the film, the exaggerated caricatures a perfect accompaniment to Carl’s abrasiveness
“Those drawings are effective in that people laugh at them in the movie the most,” Stern said.
* * *
Christine Joy, a student at M.S.U. studying animation, created the majority of the artwork for “Caricature Carl.” Creating the caricatures for the film involved actualizing Stern’s visions of the drawings, which he wanted to be grossly exaggerated and ugly, as a way to demonstrate Carl’s uncompromising personality.
“There were a lot of artistic liberties that were given to me,” Joy said. “[Ross] encouraged very exaggerated very ugly caricatures which pushed me to make [them] as crazy as possible.”
Once all of the parts of the film came together in the post production process, it was time for the finished product to be screened at the clubhouse in Greenbriar Horizons. Stern was allowed to film at the private park on the condition that there would be a screening of the film that all the residents could attend.
Interpretations of the film from Stern’s friends and family appear to vary. While some believe the message of the film is optimistic and hopeful, others see it as more cynical.
“A neighbor of mine said that she really liked the message, and her interpretation was that you need to start looking at things a different way and then you’ll be successful. It’s neat seeing other peoples interpretations of it,” Stern said.
He finds himself in the more cynical than optimistic camp.
“I think overall, the movie’s about art’s place in a capitalist society, and that’s all I will say,” he said.
Since “Caricature Carl,” Stern has developed a podcast series consisting of 10 episodes, titled “The Stray Dog Media Lounge” alongside Wehr and Ian Baker, the sound mixer for “Caricature Carl.”
* * *
In the future, Stern, Wehr and Baker plan to establish Stray Dog Media, a film studio dedicated to making short films, and hopefully one day feature films.
He is also interested in collaborating with local filmmakers during the post production process of films, or maybe even working in a TV studio.
Currently, he is working on a script for a one-minute comedy that reflects on the prevalence violence within our culture.
It meditates on “where we use [violence] and where it’s acceptable to use it, but it’s also a screwball comedy about helping a robber steal my own TV,” Stern said. “I want to reel people in with humor, but also have them think a little bit more.”