Paul-Thomas L. Parnell
Work

Films, effects and worlds

A feature, shorts, spots, books and games. Film credits are also on IMDb.

Feature film

Harker: The Awakening

Writer, director and producer. An independent science fiction feature, 2017.

Agents gathered around a monitor in a scene from Harker: The Awakening
Trailer

Harker: The Awakening

IMDb

Actor with a glowing hand, effects shot from Harker
Music video

Who I Am

Music video for the song Who I Am, built from the film.

Film

Lincoln County

Producer, director, cinematographer, camera operator, storyboard artist and visual effects. Shot on location in Lillington, North Carolina.

A man in a hat peers around a wooden door at night A man watches a girl in a white nightgown by a cabin fireplace A girl in a white shirt looks down at the camera under a bare light A girl grips a blade in a dark cabin
Short film and television

More on screen

A man and a woman close together in a scene from Time Revolver
Producer, writer, director, actor, storyboards, VFX

Time Revolver

Short film.

Hammer Down
Writer

Hammer Down

TV series.

Commercials

Spots

A girl eating Doritos, thumbnail for Snare Trap
Producer, writer, director

Doritos: Snare Trap

Crash the Super Bowl entry, 2016. Over 26 million views on YouTube.

A shadowy figure with the Doritos logo, thumbnail for Chip Dealer
Producer, writer, director, actor

Doritos: Chip Dealer

Crash the Super Bowl entry, 2014.

A cinema screen in fog with the words This Summer
Writer, designer, VFX, editor, sound design

Bow Tie Cinemas IMAX spot

Cinema spot.

A Town Fair Tire storefront
Writer, editor

Town Fair Tire

Spot.

Shorts on Infinite Pixel TV

Shorts

An armored bounty hunter on a grassy hill
Writer, director, editor, game capture

Going Down

A Fortnite and Mandalorian short film.

A man with a bottle of Demogorgon Tequila beside the Stranger Things logo
Producer, writer, director, VFX supervisor

Demogorgon Tequila

A Stranger Things spoof.

Two men pushing a wheelbarrow beside a phone playing Tiny Wings
Writer, director, VFX

Tiny Wings vs. Humans

The mobile game, in real life.

Twin Toys on YouTube

Big-channel episodes

I wrote and edited episodes for Twin Toys, a family Nerf channel, and did effects and stop motion on others. A few of them became outliers for the channel.

A camouflage box fort under a blue sky with the Twin Toys logo
Writer, editor

Nerf War: The Ultimate Box Fort 2

2017. Over 22 million views on YouTube.

Two boys with Nerf blasters under a drone carrying blasters
Writer, editor

Nerf War: Payback Time 16 (Drone 2.0)

2017. Over 22 million views on YouTube.

A LEGO Batman figure on a Nerf blaster beside a boy
Visual effects, stop motion

Nerf War: LEGO Batman Begins

2017. Nearly 8 million views on YouTube.

Kids' channels on YouTube

Effects and editing

Visual effects and editing for family channels, two of them with millions of subscribers.

Role on each: visual effects, editing.

Visual effects

Effects work

An armored figure pins a man against a brick wall as he raises his hand
Reel

Demo reel

Visual effects from Harker and other projects.

Graffiti reading Question Everything in a tiled tunnel
Earlier reel

Visual effects reel, 2011

Zuko with his scar beside the Avatar: The Last Airbender logo
Visual effects supervisor

Avatar: Agni Kai

Short film, 2020. Made for RE:ANIME on YouTube.

A lone figure on a reflective plain under a giant red moon
Visual effects artist

The Black Baptism

Short film, 2020.

IMDb
Two men fighting over a knife on a salt flat
Behind the scenes

Gold Rush

One minute short for the Filmstro and Film Riot competition.

Books and games

On the page

Heart of Oz graphic novel cover art
Editor in chief, writer, artist, publisher

Heart of Oz

A graphic novel anthology: six stories, four writers, seven artists. I also produced, wrote and directed the Kickstarter video.

Cover of the Dust World RPG quick start guide
Publisher, producer, designer, writer, editor in chief

Dust World RPG

A sci-fi western tabletop game, Powered by the Apocalypse.

Cover art for The Raven's Gambit, Book One of The Veilbreaker Saga
Book series, writing now

The Veilbreaker Saga

Book One is The Raven's Gambit. It's urban fantasy: a real, modern city with magic pushing through the seams.

I built the world to carry past one book, across novels, screen and tabletop. A second canon, the Kodex of the First Archmagus, runs alongside it.

Cover art is a work in progress.

Podcasts

Actual play

Dust World RPG actual play podcast cover art
Publisher, producer, voice talent (DM)

Dust World RPG podcast

A western apocalypse actual play. Episode one plays here.

The four kids of Strangers in the Pines
Publisher, producer, voice talent (Lucas)

Strangers in the Pines

A Monster of the Week actual play, now becoming an animated series.

Animated series, first short in production

Strangers in the Pines

Pine Forge sits deep in a national park in northeast Oregon. Four high schoolers, one small town, and something in the woods that won't stay there.

The show grew out of our actual-play podcast, where I play Lucas Santiago. The first short, The Mirror Takes Him, is being built shot by shot from the episode audio, on a multiplane pipeline I run: 3D layout for camera and staging, painted plates, hand-directed frames, composited and finished in house.

Pine Forge at dawn, establishing art
Lucas propping Danny against the school lockers The four kids of Strangers in the Pines in the woods at night
Series, in development

Black Night: Wands and Order

A city the size of New York where magic never went underground. Goblins run the rackets, trolls work the doors, and dragons land in the middle of traffic. Two detectives work the cases nobody else will touch.

A dragon looming over a police officer on a city street at night A detective aims a pistol while his partner raises a glowing hand A goblin boss in a smoky bar A troll bouncer under a red neon sign

Concept art.

Got a story that needs a writer?

I'll help you write yours, or write a new one for you.

Hire me to write