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«Sketch» is the feature-length directorial debut of Seth Worley, with cinematography by Megan Stacey. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September 2024 and is a unique blend of family adventure, grief exploration, and imaginative horror. It has been compared to works like «Jumanji,» «Inside Out,» and early Spielberg movies. The film has endless charm – a magical, funny and sometimes scary story that’s meant to feel larger than life.
The plot follows the Wyatt family in the aftermath of losing their wife and mother. The narrative centres on 10-year-old Amber, who processes her grief through dark, monstrous drawings. Her brother Jack and father Taylor are both attempting, and struggling, to cope with loss in their own ways.
Jack discovers a mysterious pond near to where their mother used to walk – a magical place that can seemingly repair broken objects. He takes his mother’s ashes there, hoping that he can bring her back. Amber follows him and, in the battle to stop him depositing the ashes, her notebook full of monsters gets submerged instead. The drawings come to life; from red crayon-drawn spiders to a Godzilla-sized purple eyeball with scraggly legs, the children’s once quiet town is now overrun with some of the most comically twisted creations.
With her imagination turning the artwork into living, breathing disasters, Amber is forced to confront her feelings. But with the pond giving her brother ideas about resurrecting their mother and her father desperately clinging to an upbeat facade, it’s their collective grief that seems to be the only way they can stop the rampaging creatures.
The sketchbook of monsters
Perfectly cast Tony Hale (as Taylor Wyatt) delivers a nuanced performance balancing comedy and drama, portraying a father desperately trying to hold his family together while wrestling with his own grief. Bianca Belle (as Amber) brings remarkable depth to her role, effectively conveying a child’s internal emotional conflict through both subtle and intense moments. Kue Lawrence (as Jack) provides a vibrant energy as the protective older brother, showing vulnerability as well as determination. In the supporting cast, D’Arcy Carden plays Liz, Taylor’s sister, who offers a pragmatic and supportive presence to the grieving family. Finally, Kalon Cox plays Bowman, a cheeky classmate who becomes an unexpected ally in the monster-fighting adventure.
Cinematographer Megan Stacey on set with Bianca Belle (Amber)
Los Angeles based cinematographer Megan Stacey’s work shines and supports the vibrant monsters and plot in a very assured fashion. The production shot on Cooke’s Anamorphic /i S35 lenses to elevate the film’s epic feel and utilised Cooke’s /i Technology built into the lenses to support the film’s visual effects workflow. Cooke spoke with cinematographer Megan Stacey and Visual Effects Supervisor Dan Sturm about their process.
Megan and director Seth had worked together on a handful of commercials whilst the director had been living in Los Angeles before moving back to his hometown of Nashville during the pandemic. When Megan received the script in the summer of 2022, she felt an immediate kinship with it and made sure to put everything she had into booking the film.
This was to be Seth’s debut feature and Megan’s sixth, meaning she felt some assurance she could be across the organisational undertaking of a project at this level. Seth has a background in Visual Effects which includes serving as senior content creator at Red Giant, part of Maxon, along with hosting their acclaimed podcast ‘VFX and Chill’ whilst also directing countless commercial campaigns in which VFX played a critical role.
Megan recalls that the playful tone of the film was present in the original script and the overall concepts of the different monsters felt firm and ready to be fleshed out. Seth’s initial work with a few concept and visual effects artists helped the team to understand the sketched characters further and production designer Madison Braun and Megan were kept in the loop throughout this process.
The movie is being called ‘Spielbergian’ in its tone and shooting style which Megan sees as fair and reflective of the initial pre-production discussions where the plan was to maintain a considered and planned approach rather than going for a semi-improvised ‘capture the moment’ style. The shot language was very specific and with the plethora of VFX elements to contend with as well as a schedule dictated by the limited working hours of the young cast members there was a lot to initially be considered.
Major references that Seth and Megan discussed in pre-production indeed came from Spielberg films such as “Jurassic Park” and «E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.» The Daniels’ “Everything Everywhere All at Once” had also recently been released and became a reference for the playful tone the film was aiming to encapsulate. Megan is a self-proclaimed Edgar Wright fan girl especially when it comes to how the camera takes part in the comedy within his films so “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” and “The World’s End” also became part of the reference pool.
Seth’s office whiteboard became crucial in strategising the filming approach
Pre-production mainly revolved around Seth and Megan sitting together in Seth’s office with a giant white board which the pair would use extensively for drawing storyboards and overhead diagrams. They’d act out scenes and film on their phones to determine the visual style and pacing. There was still room to improvise and follow instincts on set but going in with a thorough plan gave the team the best chance of getting what they needed. Megan sings the praise of Seth’s ability to hold entire scenes in his head.
Megan also sings the praises of casting director Jessica Sherman who found incredible child actors that, whilst being sweet and friendly, were also professional and quickly able to understand film set language and timing to work in harmony with the camera. They had great imaginations when it came to the monsters and were undeterred by acting to blue screen and imaginary elements.
Filming took place in Nashville across 27 shooting days with everything being shot on location and no set builds. The main house came as somewhat of a godsend; the production knew they’d need to mess it up quite a bit for various sequences and it was proving tricky to find homeowners who’d be comfortable with what was required. In a last-minute scramble to find somewhere suitable a location came up on a list of properties that were soon to be demolished. As such the team had much greater freedom including using elements inside for a fighting the eyeders scene including a water hose and chalk dust.
Megan rides the Dolly in the house post chalk dust sequence
Most of the shooting crew were Nashville based; and Seth had a great base to draw from. Megan, along with the cast and a few others, was one of the few out of town hires so came in not knowing any of the crew but she feels it helps that they all knew Seth already, including the camera assistant and the gaffer.
Megan likens the on-set experience to a movie making summer camp and this was created in part by star and producer Tony Hale. Seth took the film to him early on with Tony in mind for the role and this feeling was very reciprocated. He helped create a fair and idyllic working environment. Also to thank for this harmonious shoot was Melissa Michalak the Unit Production Manager who really cared for the crew and their needs, helped by her close friendship with gaffer Mike Gipson which meant they could exchange perspectives and avoid the divide between production and crew that can sometimes emerge and lead to detrimental outcomes.
The film has several scenes on a school bus including a dramatic “crash by monster” sequence. Most of this was done in the real world on a moving bus rather than on blue screen or with projection and the camera was usually handheld, partially due to time constraints. Megan remembers the bus as being cramped and on occasion not running, the joys, and charm, of more limited budgets! The style doesn’t feel at all compromised but less was more in this situation and as long as the tree cover was fairly consistent various takes could be cut together with relative ease.
Steadicam operator Alex Beswick on top of the school bus post “crash”
Josh C. Boyd served as 1st AC, Mike Gibson as gaffer and Nick Janey as Key Grip. The shoot was single camera – save for the aforementioned bus crash sequence which was one day with five cameras: two Alexas on the road and some rigged Blackmagic cameras in the bus. Megan herself operated and there was a “big revolving door” of Steadicam and gimbal operators to enable the dynamic camera moves she was after. “Sketch” is a camera movement heavy film and Megan’s skilful use of it adds emphasis and drama whilst supporting a child-like sense of wonder that also highlights the comedic and absurd moments.
Steadicam duties ended up being shared between four operators who would come and go as their schedules allowed. Alex Beswick (Bez) wound up being the main Steadicam operator and Megan shared a real affinity with him, particularly out in the woods where lots of camera movement was needed but the schedule didn’t allow track and dolly to be laid on the forest’s squishy ground. Operator Larkin McLaughlin also became a key collaborator over the shoot period.
Steadicam operator Larkin McLaughlin
The style was always designed to embrace the idea that as an audience you’re watching a film. The story isn’t grounded much in realism, so it made sense to support this visually as was Megan’s intention and a part of this approach became shooting in anamorphic.
“We decided to shoot anamorphic because we wanted people to know right off the bat that they were about to go on an early-Spielberg-type adventure. I think people just have an automatic emotional reaction to the wide screen and the fall off that communicates that you’re watching something epic. We don’t see the world the way an anamorphic lens does so watching a film shot in this way gives a feeling of a cinematic experience being imminent in your future.”
Seth had shot a proof of concept short “Darker Colours” that was released in 2020 with Nashvile based cinematographer Chris Adams. This short had also been shot in anamorphic and initial conversations around what style and elements to bring from the short to the feature supported continuing in this format. Tonally however, the short was eerier and leaned more into the horror genre whilst the feature was to be lighter, with more levity. Megan praises the look of the short but felt the more vintage lenses that were used for it had a bit too much halation and bloom. As such she sought something a little more punchy for the feature to suit the major motion picture ambitions. Megan had used the Cooke Anamorphic /i S35 lenses on a handful of projects before and found them to be a great fit once again.
“The lenses were perfect for us because they have all the modern luxuries of a new set of anamorphics but are designed with the softness, warmth and subtle distortion of an older set of lenses. I feel like they have a nice balance between the vintage and modern. There’s softness, there’s the traditional characteristics and there’s a little bit of breathing which is nice but it’s not totally mushy. It doesn’t fall apart, even wide open, it’s a perfect balance.”
Megan has extensive experience with the Alexa Mini so was very comfortable exposing it and knowing how to use it efficiently and where it could be pushed. Mostly she’d shoot around T2.8 and found the lenses performed very well at this stop. The camera package was furnished by Nashville based dbVrentals who had a pre-existing relationship with the film’s producers. The benefit of the modern side of the Cooke anamorphic design is that Megan knew this set in Nashville would match the ones she had familiarity with from other shoots and rental companies across the States rather than the issues that surround vintage anamorphics where they can be quite different depending what rental they come from.
The bus monster crash sequence
When it came to Visual Effects and anamorphic Megan recollects that Visual Effects Supervisor Dan Sturm never tried to dissuade the production from shooting anamorphic and Seth’s background with VFX meant he knew what he was asking of the team by shooting anamorphic. Dan agrees 100% with the idea that anamorphic gives the audience the kind of cinematic, emotional connection that the film wanted to provide. He also finds that anamorphic post and VFX are not the pain they once were – especially with this camera and lens combination which he’d used before, and since, in commercial work.
For Megan this job was a very educational experience when it came to VFX and her main takeaway going forwards was the importance of automated metadata gathering. Yes, you have your ACs doing notes and that’s very helpful but occasionally a shot might have no notes or they’re incorrect and having a system that automatically records metadata and hands it off to post is massively helpful in case there is a gap and for VFX the more information the better. No work on set is added but you gain so much potentially helpful information in post. If there’s information that’s easy to gather and pass onto VFX then that can only be beneficial and save money down the line. This approach leads to more of a team and partnership way of working which is always important, particularly on a smaller budget movie.
In VFX Supervisor Dan Sturm’s words: “With Sketch, or any project really, having as much lens and camera metadata attached to the footage is great for post. Even on projects where we know before the shoot that we’ll need certain information from set, it can be tough to get complete, reliable camera notes. The camera crew has plenty to worry about already, so we only ask for the stuff that’s really necessary. But, exactly as it happened on Sketch, sometimes we don’t realize we need something until we get to post (or we just didn’t have these convos in pre-production because I wasn’t on the project yet) and then we have to jump on a big email chain to see who maybe remembers what. Having that info – and tons more – baked into the clip removes so much headache for everyone.”
Megan and Seth found that having a partial practical effect or lighting gag on set would really help sell the CGI. Smashing the eyeders for example was helped with a real-world puff of chalk and using an astera tube as the emerald sword that could be digitally painted on top of really helped to elevate everyone’s work. There was no on-set VFX Supervisor and Seth did what he could to be across this role, helped by his background in VFX, so automated metadata gathering became invaluable in making sure people weren’t spread too thinly.
Interactive lighting on Kalon Cox (Bowman) is provided by a Creamsource Vortex and Astera Titan Tubes
For the house the lighting approach was to light from outside as much as possible and keep the floor clear for action. Schedule wise there was no wiggle room or possibility of overtime when it came to the child cast and the team had to work efficiently. Megan, in collaboration with the art department, had the walls painted slightly darker than they were originally, and the windows were fitted with venetian blinds made of dark wood, so the window light was able to be quickly adjusted by rotating, raising or lowering the blinds.
For the exteriors the production only had a single condor so the strategy in the woods became to keep the foreground in consistent light, ideally by staging action in open shade under the tree canopy. Sometimes sunlight would be dappled in the background and other times it wouldn’t be but at the very least the foreground would remain the same and additional negative fill could be bought in as was required with 12×12 frames. On a tight schedule Megan didn’t want to sacrifice good camera movement for getting a couple of extra beams of light in the background by waiting for light. The camera movement felt more emotionally necessary than completely finessed lighting.
Anthony Guerrero served as on-set DIT and operated out of a van as close to each shooting location as possible. Megan worked with one shooting LUT which had gentle emulation of Kodak print stock with quite a bit of crunch and a bit of exposure pull to encourage slight overexposure. Anthony was always double-checking exposure which was reassuring on the tight schedule and was also making dailies so could maintain consistency in the vision. Megan enjoys the benefits of accurate digital monitoring on set, finding that the more crew who have eyes on the scene the less directions you have to pull your brain in which is helpful especially when the collaborators have as much trust in each other as this team clearly did.
Seth edited the feature himself and the full time Visual Effects team (excluding vendors) was essentially two people and for the first half was mainly just Seth and Dan which meant the importance of having a reliable and robust project management system in place from day 1 was essential to getting the film across the finish line – i/ technology helped make this possible in a number of ways.
Dan recollects: “Because of all the CG characters, we needed to have all the shots 3D tracked so we could integrate the animation. Tracking both the world so we had correct ground planes for character position and sizing, as well as tracking all the body parts that were being replaced or enhanced like Evil Amber’s face and hands or Amber’s Tentacles. That software relies on the lens information and sensor size to figure out the camera motion. Could we have gotten by with letting the software do some estimation for us? Probably. But just like easing the burden on the camera department, having the lens info attached to the files that we sent to the tracking vendor is a huge head-start and saves us
time, money, guesswork, revisions, etc. Especially on a low-budget feature where we had (according to our shot tracker database) ~150 shots that needed to be tracked.”
“On the topic of the metadata, we made sure that the vfx plates we created and distributed to all our vendors had the lens and camera information baked into each frame. So, if an artist ever had a question about which lens was used on a given shot, they could just view the metadata on a frame and it was right there for them. We also added some of that information to our shot tracking database so it was easy for anyone to reference during post. As an aside, this is the kind of thing we do less frequently in commercial post just because smaller scale projects are sometimes easier to data manage as-needed. But Sketch really cemented for me what a benefit it can be to have all of that information with us all the way to the end of the job, to the point that, after the movie wrapped, I built a couple of new custom pipeline tools to automatically transfer all original camera and lens metadata to our shot tracking database for every new job.”
The colour grade was done in Los Angeles by Loren White whom Seth had worked with before. Megan attended in person and Seth was on a remote feed. Final VFX were all available for the grading and work mainly involved creating more consistency with the sun and times of day.
Megan is incredibly proud of the film and rightly so. It’s a real tour de force that works for both children and adults. It’s heartbreaking at times but overall hopeful. There’s a real variety of ways people can experience loss, and the film shows the importance of allowing space for everyone to feel and deal with that in the way that is the best for them. The idea of having kid’s films that teach about emotional intelligence in a way that isn’t overly heavy handed proves that educational lessons can be hidden in family entertainment. As Seth’s feature debut “Sketch” plants his flag in the best way.
Ultimately «Sketch» emerges as a unique cinematic experience that transforms grief into a magical, sometimes scary, but ultimately hopeful journey of emotional healing and imagination. The film premiered at TIFF to rave reviews and is currently seeking distribution. We congratulate the whole team on this powerful piece of filmmaking.
