USA Character Project

Emmanuel isn't like other ten-year-olds — he can't play with them, he can't focus at school, and he can't even bear to be hugged by his mother. Manny's crippling fear of being touched is threatening to ruin his life. Until, at his mother's prompting, he visits a local boxing gym. There, with help from a seasoned trainer, Emmanuel learns not just to confront his phobia, but to use it, in this inspiring story about facing our fears, owning our strengths, and fighting for a chance to be who we are.

Jakob Daschek, the founder of Syrup, is passionate about pushing design beyond its traditional limits. He has worked with clients such as PUMA, GE, Nike, Sony, Aeropostale, Motorola, and Polo Ralph Lauren, among many others, and has received numerous awards, including the How Design Interactive Award, Print Magazine Digital Award, One Show Award, Webby, Davy Award, Macromedia Site of the Day Award, and the Art Direction Club Award. Jakob has recently moved on to become a commercial director signed with RSA Films.

It's rare as a director to get a brief that asks for nothing more than a flawed character. From the beginning I was excited to really explore how flaws can define who we become.

We are all flawed in one way or another, with weird quirks, traumas or idiosyncrasies. They might annoy some people or inspire others. For example, I have this weird thing about not putting keys on the table. It makes no sense but it's part of a phobia I have and reveals a lot about me.

When I was talking with my writing partner Aramique Krauthamer about the idea of this film we got really into the idea of flaws that become strengths. USA has a few characters like this and so we thought it might be perfect. The more we talked about it the more we became intrigued with the moment of transformation, when the character realizes that this flaw that has plagued him might strangely be to his benefit.

That's how the story of Duck was born.

I've always been interested in sports and especially boxing stories but there have been so many boxing movies that it's almost a cliché now. I wanted to use boxing but not make a story about it.

Our lead character, Emmanuel is scared of being touched, so clearly boxing would be the last thing he'd want to do. But because he's spent his whole life avoiding being touched he's inadvertently become impossible to hit. That's the beauty of his flaw and what makes the film interesting.

A lot of the film was riding on finding the right kid to play Emmanuel. I was nervous about it until I came across this kid Skylan. Right away I knew that we had found someone special. He brought such an amazing energy to the set, and his way of taking direction was more like an adult. He is an old soul for sure and this is not the last we will see of him.

The other part that was really important was finding the right boxing gym for the moment of transformation. We found this place called Broadway Boxing deep in Watts. That kind of character is hard to come by. You could feel the sweat, the hard work and history dripping from the walls. The gym felt lost in time and inspired us to try and make the aesthetic feel almost Cuban.

I'm not trying to give people hope that their flaw might become their strength. This story is just to show that some things are beyond our control. Sometimes we need to fall in order to rise. Sometimes it takes a phobia to make a fighter. Life is funny that way.