Rosenberg’s world imagines the unexpected

Filmmaker Adam Rosenberg’s creations may make you cover your eyes, but you’ll be peeking through your fingers so you don’t miss a thing.

Rosenberg’s post on Nextdoor let us in on his latest short film, The Runs. The final scene takes place in his own hood, Cottonwood East. Rosenberg warned, “Beware, the film relies heavily on potty humor,” and that wasn’t an analogy.

It took about a day for anyone to comment on his post. Perhaps it was because the film starts with a man on the toilet, which is a tad embarrassing. Hopefully you didn’t stop watching. Maybe it’s because for the remainder of the movie, the main character has his pants around his ankles in public.

But expecting normality in Rosenberg’s work is illogical. Unanticipated uses of food, irrational appearances of rodents, mannequins in dicey situations, baby buggies and cars (‘nuf said), and quirky human behavior, all in less than 10 minutes, is likely to result in a concoction of distress and delight.

After college, Rosenberg became a video editor at an ad agency. Thoughts of drifting on in that staid situation didn’t sit well with him. So six years ago, after having lived in Virginia all of his life, he decided to shake things up a bit. He’d visited Colorado before and had a friend living in Boulder who rather fortuitously had a roommate moving out, so Rosenberg moved in.

After relocating to Colorado he started Adam Rosenberg Films. Initially he was focused on video-based pieces, which allowed him to work with clients in any part of the country. Over time, the local connections he’s made have led to his business growing.

His expertise lies in directing and editing short films and music videos using live action, special effects, stop motion video, and animation. Some of the projects come about because he’s been hired to produce a specific product to be used for marketing, training or advertising, and some are simply because his creative juices are flowing.

“The fun personal projects you see on my website, we don’t have a lot of money or any money to make those,” Rosenberg said, “so you make friends and work with each other on things because you enjoy it.”

Rosenberg explains the thread that runs through a lot of his work. “I’ve always been drawn towards comedy and doing silly things and weird things and sometimes really dark things. I make what I like, what makes me laugh, and what makes me entertained. I like to make other people laugh and I really want to do things that I haven’t seen before.”

The Runs definitely accomplishes that. It’s an ad for Tushy brand attachable bidets, but it didn’t start out that way. “It was a silly film that I wanted to make. I thought, ‘I like this, I think people will enjoy this,’ and then kind of realized it would be even better as an advertisement,” Rosenberg said.

He pitched it to Tushy after it was complete, and because the brand embraces light-hearted humor, it was given the thumbs up.

The anticipation of how the story will end, along with the redeeming environmental message make The Runs a worthy watch and every remark on his Nextdoor post was positive. The video now has more than 61,000 views on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QCz4w4LH4Y).

Recent accolades for Rosenberg’s work include winning Best Music Video at Film Quest and Blissfest333 International Film Festival for Canopy, an unnerving piece filmed in a ghost town in Utah. He also won the Best Director award for Canopy and his short film HUEVOS at the Colorado Circuit Film Festival this year. HUEVOS won several more awards including Best Comedy Short and Best Director at the Denver Underground Film Festival last December.

Rosenberg graduated with a degree in video and animation from Virginia Commonwealth University. His studies gave him the freedom to explore creatively, but his technical skills are mostly the result of his own initiative.

Rosenberg‘s mother is a visual artist and his dad is a doctor who is more mathematically oriented. That inherited yin yang combo means he dreams up ideas and has the ability to execute on his visions.

Asked what his parents think about his work, Rosenberg said, “They’re my biggest fans. They always joke, ‘Who have we raised? Look at my weird son…we love him so much.’”

Coming up next for Rosenberg is a television series pilot project being filmed in Colorado on which he is the art director creating the scenery, props, and wardrobe. The details are under wraps for now aside from it being a dark comedy starring some A-list Hollywood actors.

He’s also working on a personal project - “Alphabetical Athleticalz, a stop motion video exploration of all things sports from A to Z,” beginning with Arthritic Arm Wrestling and Butler Boarding.

“I’ve thought about my goals, what my trajectory is, and for me it’s just to grow, keep learning and keep doing new things. Just keep learning new techniques, meeting new people, trying new genres,” Rosenberg said. “Filmmaking is really a collaborative thing, so meeting new people is a big goal. It’s really fun to have everyone with their unique skills combined funnel towards a single idea that becomes this larger thing that’s more than one person can imagine.”

Rosenberg and his wife moved to Niwot two years ago. “We really love it here. We love showing people around our town. We can walk everywhere, it’s beautiful and there’s all these great little stores and all these events happening, like all the parades, Rock and Rails, the sculpture garden, and there’s kids riding their bikes. It’s just such a warm, small, vibrant community.”

To learn about Rosenberg and enjoy his work, visit: http://www.MrAdamRosenberg.com.