Don’t Be a Hero

⇑ click on the image to play the film

“DON’T BE A HERO” WAS A 15-MINUTE SHORT FILM I’D WRITTEN, DIRECTED, PRODUCED, EDITED, AND CO-COMPOSED. THE FILM PREMIERED AT THE 2018 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL, AND WENT ON TO PLAY IN FESTIVALS ALL OVER, INCLUDING SXSW, NEW ORLEANS FILM FEST, AND MANY OTHERS. WE HAD OUR ONLINE PREMIERE ONE YEAR LATER AS A SHORT OF THE WEEK, AS WELL AS THE VIMEO STAFF PICK. CURRENTLY, A SERIES BASED ON THE SAME STORY IS IN THE WORKS.

Vintage gorgeous clutters by production designer Margaux Rust:

Screen+Shot+2017-08-26+at+2.22.47+PM.png

Original soundtrack from the film, composed by Kelly McFarling and me→

Director’s Statement for the Sundance premiere.

A KQED piece that profiles the film, amongst other projects.

A NoFilmSchool Podcast episode that profiled the film, as well as behind-the-scene tidbits→

director's statement + teaser.00_02_33_12.Still005.jpg

Poster Gallery↑

An interview about the film via NoFilmSchool.

Anatomy of a Scene

For the climatic scene in the bar, I showed cinematographer Drew Daniels and production designer Margaux Rust (both of whom I’ve worked together with for years) this shot I’d taken from The Alley in Oakland, of a lone woman drinking. I told them I’d like to see some of these ideas incorporated into the scene.

Linbrook Location Scout

DP Drew Daniels, Production Designer Margaux Rust and I went down to the bowling alley in Anaheim the weekend before our official scout to drink, sing karaoke, and to feel out the place.

Location Scout Photos

Technical Scout

The day of the technical scout, where we decided what to keep and what to do with the rest.

We didn’t get to our big dialogue scene until about 4:30am, where we had 90 minutes to wrap up, or the entire crew would get stuck in 3 hours of traffic. Suddenly everyone got a jolt of energy and we decided to cover the scene with one long tracking dolly shot.

We shot the scene in both spherical and anamorphic, depending on the psychology of the character.

For the internet release, I’d decided to mix in the aspect ratios, so Lizzy Jo lives in the 16x9 world whereas her outlaw alter ego lives in anamorphic, and sometimes we’d overlap the ratios on purpose.

And for those who’re curious, below is the deck / lookbook I’d created for the production crew, which was sent to the cast and crew along with a Wanda Jackson playlist.

““It’s not right - everybody’s here, but when you wanna talk? Nobody wants to listen.”

— Samantha

Don't Be a Hero

Don’t Be a Hero

Vintage gorgeous clutters by production designer Margaux Rust: