Directing, Writing & Editing
PITCH
The Pig Path
In 1991 rural Virginia, two teenage misfits navigate a chaotic night of small-town challenges to party with a local celeb rapper and kickstart their budding hip hop careers.
EXT. RURAL VIRGINIA – JAY’S TRAILER – LATE AFTERNOON
The hot, oppressive heat of a Virginia Summer beats down on the dented sheathing of a family trailer. Stagnant, dirty water fills the bottom two inches of a kiddie pool. Old-timey, country music plays in the distance. JAY COOK (White, 14, wearing his most coveted M.C. MILK E. WHITE t-shirt and ratty cut-offs) and his best friend BRIAN JACKSON, A.K.A. Bee (Black, 14, wearing glasses and a homemade DIR T. BOYZ t-shirt), huddle in the shade of a tree. There’s a boom-box strapped to the front of Bee’s bike as their trusty steeds are always within reach. Summer break is underway. Hip hop culture has just started to take hold in late 1980s rural America, and white boy Jay sounds more “Straight Outta Compton” than Bee does. In fact, Bee, true to his roots, has a slight Southern drawl. Jay whips dandelions and rhymes remedial lyrics as Bee cuddles a rabbit.
I’ve never been one to wait for opportunity. When I realized that the roles that appealed to me were going to be far and few between in Richmond, I began writing stories that pushed the envelope for even me. Being a fan of black comedy and the macabre led me down the path to write my first two films. Luckily, I was helped out by some great friends that were hungry to do something more as well. Doing so has taught us all to be better story tellers. The mistakes that won’t be repeated are priceless reminders that we’ll always be learning. The uniqueness of telling a story in a particular way simply because we know no other way, was one of the greatest lessons of them all.
In addition to writing and directing, I’ve fallen in love with the editing process. Deciding what moment best lends itself to the intensity of a scene, or how to best cut to someone’s offhand eye roll is like putting together an intricate puzzle. How something is edited together can completely change how the story is told.
Representation
NORTHEAST
Agency Connects, LLC
605 Corporate Drive West,
Langhorne, Pennsylvania 19047
Brian K. Landis is a Richmond, Virginia based actor and filmmaker and professor of Cinema at Virginia Commonwealth University. He has appeared in Harriet, American Dreamer and, most recently, Apple TV+’s Servant and Swagger.