Filmmaking / Directing : How We’re Making an HBO-Level Crime Thriller With a 2-Person Crew — Introducing MOUSE by Roth Rind

Today, I’m excited to share the official teaser for our crime-thriller series MOUSE, a project born out of a simple mantra at Short Snacks Entertainment:

"Don't wait for permission to create your art."

Short Snacks was built to prove a point: high-quality narrative storytelling doesn’t require massive budgets, endless waiting, or an army of crew. It requires discipline, intention, and a refusal to let the industry’s gatekeeping define what you can make.

MOUSE is our proof of concept — and now, it’s becoming so much more.

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What Is MOUSE?

MOUSE is a serialized crime thriller shot in a grounded, cinematic style while embracing the constraints of micro-budget filmmaking. Everything you see is created by a crew of just 2–3 people, using what we have “in the box,” leveraging practical problem-solving, fast shooting days, and a streamlined post-production pipeline.

Despite the constraints, our goal has always been to reach the tonal and visual level of a premium-cable series (something you might expect from HBO or AMC)  delivered in a compact, bingeable format.

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The Cast Bringing It to Life

We’re incredibly fortunate to have actors who jumped into this experiment with full commitment:

LANNY JOON (Baby Driver, Lost, Call of Duty)

SHÉLAH LARSON (December to Remember)

LINC HAND (42, Imperium, NCIS: Hawai'i)

SYRA MCCARTHY (Grey's Anatomy, The Dropout)

DANNY PARKER-LOPES (Minority Report, Legend of the White Dragon)

...and many more outstanding cast and crew that have anchored the realism and elevated the scale.

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Production at the Speed of Thought

One of the pillars of Short Snacks is working fast without sacrificing quality. On MOUSE, that has meant:

• Principal photography for 5 new episodes completed in just weeks

• Post-production timelines measured in days, not months

• A continuous script–shoot–edit loop, where episodes evolve in real time

• A scalable pipeline where everything from color to VFX to sound is built for efficiency

We film lean, edit lean, and innovate constantly proving that premium storytelling doesn’t have to rely on traditional scale.

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Why This Matters for Filmmakers

Stage 32 is filled with creators who are tired of waiting for permission. With MOUSE, we want to show that:

• You don’t need a studio to tell a studio-level story.

• You don’t need a full crew to shoot something beautiful and narratively rich.

• You don’t need a giant budget to build tension, atmosphere, or character.

• The barriers filmmakers think they have… are often illusions.

Every episode of MOUSE becomes a case study in resourceful filmmaking, something we hope inspires other artists to stop hesitating and start creating.

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Where We’re Headed

With Episodes 1–5 already out and Episodes 6-9 deep in edit, the world of MOUSE is growing quickly. We’ve recently partnered with Tilta as our first sponsor, marking an exciting step toward scaling the show and deepening the tools available to our crew.

More importantly, audiences have been responding proving that story and craft will always connect, regardless of scale.

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Watch the Teaser Below

If you’re a filmmaker, director, cinematographer, or storyteller on Stage 32, I hope MOUSE encourages you to find what’s in your own “box” and make something today, not someday.

Because at Short Snacks, we don’t wait for greenlights.

We create without permission.