A Short Film by Clinton Stark · Featuring Loni Stark
A woman struggles with perception, reality and acceptance.
Shot on Panasonic GH5 · 4K V-Log · Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 ART
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
"What is essential is invisible to the eye."
— The Little Prince (1943)
About the Film
A woman struggles with perception, reality and acceptance. In a world where the boundaries between madness and sanity blur, she confronts visions that refuse to stay hidden — reading stories to stuffed animals, wandering a grocery store in disguise, burning down whatever stands between herself and the truth.
Crazy or Die is the second chapter of Clinton Stark's Identity Trilogy, following All American Apple Pie (2016). Where Apple Pie explored obsession through Americana nostalgia, Crazy or Die descends deeper — into the surrealist territory of perception itself. What do we see? What do we choose to ignore? What is essential, and what is illusion?
Inspired by David Lynch's Mulholland Drive and the philosophical fable The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the film inhabits the space between waking life and dreams. Clinton showed Loni behind-the-scenes footage from Mulholland Drive as reference during production. The result is a psychological art film that refuses easy interpretation — a meditation on identity, feminine strength, and the courage required to see the world as it truly is.
Three films exploring obsession, perception, and self — each shot on a different camera, each peeling back another layer.
Part I
"All she wanted to do... was bake a pie."
Watch Part I →Part II — Now Playing
"I'll burn down what's between us..."
Behind the Camera
When Clinton got the Panasonic GH5, he didn't shoot a resolution chart. Instead, he recruited Loni and spent several weekends making a short film. "If a camera doesn't feel good in my hand then the specs really don't matter much to me," he wrote at the time. The GH5's 5-axis in-body stabilization proved transformative — enabling handheld shooting with cinema prime lenses, free from the jello and rolling shutter that plagued other mirrorless cameras.
Shot in 4K V-Log with 10-bit color depth via an Atomos Ninja Inferno external recorder connected over HDMI. The Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 ART and Rokinon 35mm cinema primes delivered a cinematic depth of field impossible on smaller-sensor cameras. Lighting was minimal and handmade — including a DIY LED panel inspired by the neon-drenched palette of Nicolas Winding Refn.
GH5
Camera
4K
Resolution
V-Log
Color Profile
10-bit
Color Depth
7:52
Duration
"I'll burn down what's between us..."
Director's Commentary
Clinton and Loni discuss the making of Crazy or Die — from the Lynch references to the improvised grocery store scenes, the challenges of shooting experimental narrative on a mirrorless camera, and what it means when the line between character and self begins to blur.