The Order or: Summoning Witches at the La Brea Tar Pits

“Massam farinae aqua salsa Condimentum est perfectum et absque peccato Caseum vel plantae a me sentire pugnus Abyssum vocat in diem festum”

Ten years ago, I made a short film called The Order with my then art collective, Low Spirits. Despite being only seven minutes and taking place entirely in my old dining room, it was a very difficult and strenuous five nights of filming (with several months of preproduction planning and prep and over a year and a half of editing. Filming included nearly 90 candles, dried herbs, burning incense and resins, and no AC during a heatwave because of sound.

It was a learning process, but was™ takes me back to my old dining room with those friends, working on something together.

Earthy, green, herbaceous, spicy, resinous, smoky, woody.

For those that weren’t in that dining room working on The Order with us, was™ feels like summoning an old witch and showing her around the La Brea Tar Pits in autumn. Maybe that’s more of a relatable experience? Let me know in the comments.

In case you want to see that short film, I won’t spoil it by translating the spell. It’s on YouTube somewhere if you dig deep enough to find it.