Justin Stillmaker

Im so excited for 2026. But 2025 didn't disappoint. Directed my first feature. Wrote two more. Got to make a music video for one of my favorite bands. Shot a fight scene in the freezing cold. Helped relaunch Hippo Media. Garlic Fest, Bass Pro Shops, Molotov cocktails. First Getty images appearance. Went to Sundance. Watched 390 movies. Lots of cool coats. Adventures and shenanigans and too many cups of coffee. Thankful for all the people that helped, collaborated, and were always down for an adventure

The air is toxic. Murder is a business done by app. Nature is for the wealthy. No escape is possible. This year, decide if you’re RIDE….OR DIE. 🏍️🔥

Those who know me, know REPO MAN is my favorite movie. I could go on about its influence on Tarantino, Wes Anderson, The Simpsons, Gregg Araki, PTA even, but at the center of the film’s core is a Cyberpunk movie and you can feel the punk energy from it, in everything I make. I wasn’t aware of this until a friend pointed it out, but one of the big influences we pulled from Repo Man for the world of The Rider: Burning Chrome, was “Very cool woman in a trench coat”. A little murderous. No time for your feelings. Honestly, one of the original influences I gave to our Costume Designer, Cloina (@cloina ) for Number One was Storm’s 80s punk look from Marvel’s X-Men, but I can’t argue with the evidence! Repo Man is what part of what my producer likes to call “my film DNA”. Truly, I just believe giving iconic looks to your characters is an effective way to give your film a visual imprint, without sacrificing too much budget or time on the shoot day. This was especially true for The Rider, as you can see in our Assassins character description slide from our original Pitch Deck in the last pic of the carousel. What iconic character look remains imprinted in your brain forever? Hopefully soon, it will be Number One.

You can’t make a cyberpunk movie without a black briefcase handcuffed to a main character. William Gibson won’t allow it! It’s fun to make a punch list of cliches when tackling a subgenre, and figure out what your twist or take on it will be. The handcuffed briefcase is one of the strongest elements in our analog cyberpunk film (even if it was a giant pain the ass while filming, our Production Designer, Kyle, must have fixed the cuffs dozens of times) Not handcuffed to our main character, but instead adding a fun air of mystery to our film’s “agent of chaos”. We don’t reveal what’s in there till the end of the movie, but it does get used as a weapon, and possibly leads to the demise of a character. We’ll let you watch the film to figure it out, but our BTS photos may drop you some hints. BTS Photos shot by our Gaffer, Danny (@kojithesquirrel ) and our Stunts Coordinator, Michael (@michaelsaubertjr )

THE FIXER: a trope from a million sc-fi and post-apocalyptic films. Existing in the world, but just removed enough from the chaos. A little bit of a loose screw, and ALWAYS operating out of their cool shop. “Big George was one of my favorite characters from the script. Bringing them to life became one of those moments where everything just “clicked”. Our Production Designer, Kyle Dodge (@dodge.podge ), alongside an incredible crew at Flyover Studios (@flyoverfilmstudios ), built a set I completely fell in love with…it felt like being a kid again, playing with toys, but inside a fully realized world. Watching it come together, piece by piece, down to the smallest details like Alexis (@_alexisaranda_ ) tagging the shop name as her character of ‘Big George’, was surreal. We had already started filming the feature, but this was the day that everything suddenly felt big for my producer, Jasmine (@producedbyjasmine ), and me. Like the movie we’d been picturing in our heads…was ACTUALLY happening!! This set piece also gave us one of my favorite entrances in the movie (and possibly my favorite scene). Truly an acting division. So many little details it demands a second watch.” - Justin, Director

BIG NEWS—The Rider team is headed to Sundance! 🚘 🏔️❄️

ᴄʏʙᴇʀᴘᴜɴᴋ ʜᴇʀᴏɪɴ ᴅᴇɴ ᴄʜɪᴄ “This sequence from Upgrade (slide 2) really stuck with me when it was released. It explored the digital affliction of being something you can’t escape and are also addicted to. This factored into how I envisioned The Rider’s “vice” (𝘴𝘺𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘤 𝘥𝘳𝘶𝘨𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢 𝘩𝘶𝘨𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘺𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘱𝘶𝘯𝘬 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘳𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯’𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴 𝘢 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘱𝘪𝘥 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦, 𝘴𝘰 𝘸𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘢𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘭𝘮).” - Justin (Director) We also added the fun little detail that his dreams and nightmares are recorded, with a Nightmare Sequence shot on DVCAM by @navasadam Additionally, it’s important for us to give love to Nolan’s Inception—a very obvious cyberpunk movie that gets overlooked. For a movie that was so cutting-edge, it was nice to see him switch it up to something so analog, with his version of the dream den (slide 4) harkening back to the Opium Dens of the 19th century. The balance between the two is what we tried to strike throughout our film.

Are you RIDE or DIE? 𝘗𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘈𝘳𝘵 𝘉𝘺: @creepycarvesdesign

“My love for the tracking shot began at age 5, as I watched the opening of John Carpenter’s Halloween. If a scene has one, guaranteed it’s going to be one of my favorite shots in the film. So when I saw this tracking shot in The Rider short, I immediately connected to what Justin was up to…and there was no question about it, we HAD to repurpose it for the feature!” - Jasmine (Producer) “The ‘Follow-Behind’ tracking shot has such power. Carpenter knew it, De Palma knows it. It’s such a great way to bring a viewer into the world. This shot from Pulp Fiction is when I first started noticing it as a kid. The way it pulled you into Bruce’s story and created tension. No way we could pass up the opportunity to shoot The Rider in the same way…plus it looks so cool with the light out the back of his helmet.” - Justin (Director)

What is cyberpunk without screens on screens on screens? Justin and Adam decided to take the nightmarish truth that “the algorithm runs our life” and turn it into: “What if humans, became ONE with the screens?” Swipe for BTS pics and peep our DP / the Visual Architect of our World, taking in the madness of his own creation.

“It’s the end times…the fun is UNLIMITED.” Some BTS from one of our biggest set piece days—Big George’s warehouse Slide 1 - Featuring one of the best ADs in the biz, go4josh (Josh Schilling) Slide 2 - One of the outfits Kelsey & I pitched for ‘Stacks’ - this one leaned more sexy & femme fatale Slide 3 - The look we went with - leaned a bit more androgynous Slide 4 - @justinstillmaker & @adambombeffects planning out the shot you see in the 1st slide Slide 5 - the entrance to Big George’s wonderland Slide 6 - Our Production Designer, @dodge.podge , freeing @k_bunner from the shackles of her briefcase

“Yeah, Michael Mann’s Thief is a movie that is elemental to my DNA as a Director. In fact, a location in the film was a place I hung around in as a kid, playing Cops & Robbers…so, Thief was in my DNA, before I’d even seen the movie. The welding shots, the roaming in a sodium vapor-filled Chicago, the ‘master thief’ wanting to work alone and not for a corporation, his cool partner who wears awesome Hawaiian shirts. This film is built into almost every frame of The Rider: Burning Chrome that it’s almost impossible to pull out all the references.” - Justin (Director)