“Mirror”
Directorial Debut
The Ask
Pitch, conceptualize, plan, direct, edit, and produce a short film under the guidance of the VCU Cinema department for the higher level 2023 Summer Intensive course.
The Ideation
This past year, I was granted the rewarding opportunity of directing my own short film with VCU Cinema. My team and I have been crafting this since October of 2022 from conception to post production.
We began with a pitch. My producer, Claire Zwadlo, and I worked closely with our writer, Nathan Arnette, to craft a strong pitch deck and video that would be shown to five industry professionals. We focused on our approach to abject horror, taking inspiration from Julia Kristeva’s work surrounding the subject. From then, the judges reviewed each submission from the third year cinema students to choose which four groups would move forward to be completed.
In December of 2022, “Mirror” was selected for production, being given high marks for the strong sense of vision, visual articulation, and depth of understanding of the source material.
Our pitch deck
Pre-Production
The pre-production process took place from January to June of 2023. With the guidance of the VCU Cinema department and our executive producer Vivian Owens, the full 45-person crew began to form. Over the next six months, we painstakingly planned each detail of the film. I spent my time organizing my vision and learning how to communicate it. The team went through sixteen script revisions, hosted weekly department head meetings, managed our $5,000 budget, sat through tedious casting sessions, crafted props, worked alongside our stunt choreographer, sewed costumes, ran through camera rehearsals, and scouted locations that seemed to keep falling through- we kept working right up until the very last second.
Full cast and crew
Production
After months of planning and organizing, “Mirror” began production from June 3-June 5 2023. While we did face extreme obstacles, I am incredibly proud of my crew for handling the difficult 12-hour shoot days with professionalism and grace.
The Product
With this experience, I have learned countless skills on managing and collaborating with a large team under pressure, developing and communicating a consistent vision, and creating a product I am proud of. Currently, this passion project has exceeded our fundraising goal and is finishing up final edits before my colleagues and I send it off to our selection of festivals!
