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Skully Forge

Agency: www.theheist.tv
Directed by Seth Rice
Co-Directed  & Shot by Seth Haley

What happens when you shoot an artist profile in the style of a car commercial? We wanted to find out. Danny Greene (SkullyForge) virtually lives in his forge; he’s dedicated thousands of hours to honing his skill as a bladesmith. And it shows. Each piece is incredibly unique, with a deliberate patina that serves as a homage to the process.

Entering a blade-smith’s forge is an intense experience, there’s the blast of heat, the flaming roar of the forge, the clang of iron being forced into new shapes and textures. When we set out to document Danny’s process, we truly entered a world of sensory overload; it’s an incredible experience to watch a raw piece of steel shaped, heated, and pounded into something new.

We wanted to highlight not just the incredible artistry of the knives, but Danny’s dedication to his craft; he spends 8 to 10 hours almost every day crafting not just knives, but functional works of art. Each piece feels like it has a story of its own.

We originally conceptualized this piece as a more straightforward mini-doc style piece about the process of crafting a knife. As we dug into the edit though, we realized that there was an incredible amount of energy in the process itself, and we couldn’t bring ourselves to get in the way. Rather than detract from that energy, we let the beauty of the process speak for itself.

Shot over a period of two days, we followed Danny through the process of creating several knives, experiencing each step along the way with him as he took the raw steel and crafted the knives you see in the video.

Visit Skully Forge or follow him on instagram @Skullyforge

Co-Directed by Seth Rice/Seth Haley

Shot by Seth Haley

Edited by Seth Haley/Seth Rice

Music by Zachary Horner

Sound Design & Final Mix by Zak DeVries

Color by Brian Singler

Shot on a Red Raven, with vintage Contax Zeiss primes

If you’re interested in licensing footage from this film, footage is available for licensing on FilmSupply.