How I Made My Own Short Film While Working Below-the-Line on a Show
It's Stressful, but Possible
Common advice for writers still honing their craft is to start off writing short stories before trying to write a novel.
The same advice applies to film: start with shorts before trying to make features.
As I write this piece in December of 2024, I have written, directed, and produced three separate short films and written many more short scripts that have yet to be made.
My first short film was a 12 minute “supernatural modern western-esque crime thriller” titled A NIGHT LIKE THIS. It was an exercise in writing a short film that I would want to watch while learning how to actually make a film.
Short number two was a collaboration with one of the actors from my first short who approached me to direct something that could go on her horror YouTube page. The was my first time working within specific guidelines (it had to be in the horror genre, the script had to be under four pages, etc.) so it became an opportunity to gain more directing experience while also learning how to collaborate with other creatives. The end result was a 3 minute horror-comedy titled WAITING FOR HOPE that can be found on Fear Crypt Productions’ YouTube page.
The behind the scenes stories for those first two shorts have enough anecdotes and lessons for their own pieces. But this is supposed to be about the making of BARELY RECOGNIZABLE, isn’t it?
Well, dear readers, that prologue is important for context! Note the exclamation point; you know I’m serious.
Let’s start with an important year:
Spring of 2019 - WAITING FOR HOPE was just starting its festival run and I had just shifted from a position as an office production assistant to a post production assistant on a streaming series titled SERVANT. In the hopes of riding the wave from WfH’s warm reception I was working on a short script in my spare time with the working title of CABIN STORY.
After a busy 2019, the goal was to hit the ground running in 2020 with the following plan: return for season 2 of SERVANT while prepping CABIN STORY to shoot after the season wrapped. It sounded good!
Then the COVID-19 pandemic.
Skipping ahead to 2021, thanks to the nature of the post production department, I was able to continue working on SERVANT remotely throughout the pandemic. And since I wasn’t leaving the house much, I had plenty of time to write new short film ideas during my downtime. One of the those ideas was BARELY RECOGNIZABLE.
The original idea for the film came to me as two separate movies, actually. But I realized it was just two separate scenes.
For a few years I had wanted to write something around a character that was a con artist. I did not know the story for this character, but I knew how I wanted to meet them — in a city park, ripping off some hapless mark before making a quick exit at the first sign of police.
The other scene that birthed this film was thought up much closer to when I started writing the first draft. I saw a family gathering that suddenly turned tense when someone at the dinner table unwittingly revealed themselves to be an imposter. One of those “oh, shit!” moments.
If you’ve already seen the BARELY RECOGNIZABLE, a drama that becomes a dark twisted thriller in the 2nd half, then you might be surprised to know that the first draft actually included a “happy ending.” Kind of.
The feedback for the first 2 drafts was indifference. Nobody hated it. But nobody loved it either. Two changes I made in the third draft that made everyone much more enthusiastic were the addition of a key scene for the character of Logan (previously underserved by the script) and leaning into the darker ending that the story was asking for. Considering it was still the pandemic, the darker ending fit my mindset more anyway with its hints of claustrophobia. Intended or not, the melancholy of this period inspired the themes of isolation and identity found in the finished film.
(And I must thank my colleague Cameron Mitchell for helping push me to go for the less expected ending. It was on a phone call with him that I realized the hopeful ending wasn’t landing.)
As 2021 became 2022, my schedule become jam packed as I reached out to industry friends to help me bring this story to life.
But I wasn’t just making a short film.
I was making a short film on the weekends while I was working as a post production assistant on a streaming show called SERVANT during the week. Not only were the no days off, most of my week was spent pulling double-duty.
(This would be a good spot to note that the post department crew I was working with were all understanding and supportive of my extracurricular endeavor as I juggled a personal project with my usual daily work load. And a fellow post PA, Samuel Valenti, ended becoming my editor!)
Still, this balance of time meant that the challenges I faced for BARELY RECOGNIZABLE felt magnified.
Casting was a major challenge. Since this was to be an exercise in preparing myself for bigger projects, I acquired a Micro-Budget SAG agreement so that I could not only use union actors, but go through the process of learning the rules needed for a project that needed to be entirely professional.
“Kathy” was written with a specific actor in mind: Lauren LaVera.
I first met Lauren back in 2016 on one of her very first short films, a cute comedy titled CANDY where Lauren played the title character. We connected again in 2019 on the set of AMC’s DISPATCHES FROM ELSEWHERE. Lauren had a recurring appearance as a barista and I was on staff as a set PA. We discussed working together on a short in the then near future and, in fact, I had even sent Lauren the script for the aforementioned CABIN STORY.
Though CABIN STORY never happened (yet?), I reached out again through our friend in common Chloe Carroll for Lauren to star in BARELY RECOGNIZABLE. Thankfully, she was interested.
With our lead role set, we went through a process of reviewing self-taped auditions in order to fill the other three parts. It was through this process that we found the excellent David M. Raine and Mack Velle to play the roles of Logan and Vinny, respectively.
We also found a great choice for Anita through this process. But that’s where the first big curveball came from—
Less than a week before shooting our first block, the actor’s manager (it goes without saying, but both actor and manager will remain nameless) emailed me to let me know that this actor was pulling out of BARELY RECOGNIZABLE in order to do a spot on a series. One word popped into my head when I opened that email.
SHIT.
In hindsight, I should have seen it coming. While negotiating on the actor’s contract with their manager, they insisted that I rearrange the schedule to make it easier for their client to join the project. I had originally broken down the 20 page script into 3 blocks of shooting, or 3 weekends. The actor’s manager had me swap my Day 2 and Day 4, which meant moving an important scene that I was hoping to have more time to focus on up a week. This was both a blessing and a curse when I got the above-mentioned email that same week.
Two new obstacles had now reared their heads. I had recast the role with the 2nd most screen time in the film. AND I had to rush through storyboarding a scene that was moved up a week. While trying to figure out with my Director of Photography (or DP) how we could do that scene with less gear than we were planning to have. It was too late to change the rental agreements we had in place, so we had to make do with what we were going to have.
(We ended up holding new auditions for Anita AFTER Days 1 and 2. In a stroke of good fortune, a previous collaborator of mine, Kayla Grasser/Kayla Anthony, aced the audition and was available to take on the role. She came out of semi-acting-retirement to help us, so thanks again, Kayla!)
Production started in March 2019. Day 1 had its bumps, but was smooth compared to the insane days leading up to it.
Day 2 was a challenge.
And then our second weekend decided to add an even BIGGER challenge for Day 3. What was intended to be our big day of exteriors was derailed by inexplicable weather patterns. In the span of about five hours, the weather changed from cloudy to rainy to sunny to snowy to sunny again to hailing to rainy and then back to sunny.
Needless to say, but continuity was fucked.
The weather issues were so bad that I was forced to make the tough decision to add an extra day of shooting for the final scene. The actors I needed were available, and the only change I had to do was eliminate two lines from the script because we had to shoot without sound. So it actually worked out for the better.
Day 4 (the original Day 2) was a breeze and felt like a turning point in the production.
While the rest of the shoot had its own difficulties, I found that the earlier struggles had better prepared me as a director. I found myself less phased by surprise issues and was more decisive with the needs of each scene. I was already confident as a writer— Well, confident enough, anyway. There’s always room to grow— Now I was becoming confident as a director.
When I recalled some of these experiences to a former production friend of mine last week, he told me that it sounded like the reality was that BARELY RECOGNIZABLE had prepared me to become a producer. Not the goal I had intended but I suppose it is still a welcome one. In the independent film world, you generally are forced to wear multiple hats. And unless Kevin Feige miraculously appears before me to offer me a Marvel movie, I’ll likely be making my next film in the independent realm.
As for post-production, it helped out that I was working with professional editors who I could question regarding VFX shots and cuts while I was filming. That made the post process less stressful as I knew what we needed was achievable. I also was able to use my experience reviewing SAG contracts for the credits of SERVANT to help guide my negotiations was managers and agents.
So for those of you who want to make your own short films, I hope you see that my experience working below-the-line was invaluable to giving me the proper experience to directing and producing in a professional manner. HOWEVER, in hindsight, I do not recommend working an active film industry job while producing a short unless you are a genius at time management. The burnout is real.
Before I close out, I’d like to extend one more “thank you” to my incredible cast and crew. And also to my supportive family members, friends, and colleagues who have supported the film in different phases. It is truly appreciated.
Next time:
I’m planning another post about BARELY RECOGNIZABLE before the new year. Then I’m hoping to figure out a better schedule for these things…
Ready for a few plugs?
Here are some links to my collaborators works:
You can follow Lauren LaVera on Instagram
David M. Raine is on there too!
My DP, Easton Carter Angle has a website you can visit!
The film’s poster was designed by Cory Harrill!
Our Post Production Sound was handled by Dragonfly Audio Post!
Oh, and the film is now available on YouTube! Please check it out, if you haven’t already!