Do Us Part

It was an absolutely amazing opportunity to create such a beautiful story with Lily. Lily Mulcahy, who starred in my short film over the summer, is pursuing a career in Film in Chicago, and instead of being in front of the camera as the main character, we took a step up and worked on a project together. Since we go to school in two very long-distance dates, it was only possible for us to make a film during the short amount of time while home. As timing plans changed, we truly did not have as much time as we hoped. Our first time meeting about the film was the brainstorm period; we parked on top of a parking garage in downtown Springfield and just got to creating. We bumped a few ideas around, but decided on one concept: this would be about social media and its effects on people, specifically who are new to ginghams to college. A few nights pass and during one of those nights I said to myself, "no, we can do so much better." So, I picked her up, drove us to downtown again but to a different spot, and within an hour we had the spine to the film: love, heartbreak, confusion, uncontrollable events, soulmate who wasn't meant to be. A few days later, we sat in Lily's kitchen and planned out the storyline, all the shots, called our two main actors, set locations and were ready. We had two days to film, and they were the best two days I have had in a while. The first filming day we shot for a total of 16 hours and the next day, 8. With a few location changes and making edits throughout, we were still able to pull it off. Unfortunately, we haven't written the script yet nor edited it, and Lily and I had to head back to school. A little time went by as I continued editing the film together, but we needed the script. The script, fun fact, was the last portion added to the film! We focused strongly on telling the story with the imagery, but then adding the cherry on top with the script. We worked together a few times over zoom during our crazy lives, had Sam record it several times, finished putting the film together and released it. For a $10 "budget," keeping in mind the pandemic, and with limited time and resources, we created a wonderful masterpiece that we are all so proud of. I can't wait to work with Lily and everyone again in the future!