Cast & Crew

A Note From The Writer

In November 2016, I started to write a screenplay. I wanted to write about fidelity, about my family; I wanted to write for my friends and I wanted to write about the women I love. I had a lot of things to say and it just so happened, I had the perfect story.

The script had been marinating in my brain for about a year before I ever put pen to paper. I was terrified, writing your first feature film is like climbing Mount Everest in flip-flops.  I thought, before I do anything, I need to have an understanding of how to tell a story in a visual medium. My year was spent building confidence; I watched movies, listened to podcasts, read scripts, and wrote sketches. If I was going to climb Mount Everest, I sure as hell wasn’t going to do it in a flip-flop.

That November, after a year of writing on post-its, napkins, and book jackets, the 100-page script came out in the span of three weeks. Over the next few months came four readings, three storyboards, and 25 drafts.

The third reading is when I knew I was onto something special. I had changed the ending to include a slight cliffhanger. The choice sparked a heated debate between the men and the women in the room. The majority of the women praised the ending as real and chilling. The men thought it was forced and took power away from the female lead. The opinions were so polarized. I remember one man in the room couldn’t let the argument go, he didn’t understand the ending at all. I spotted E.A. Moss out of the corner of my eye - she would later come on as the film’s director - she was shaking her head in frustration. Finally, someone snapped at him, “Well, maybe the script isn’t for you.” 

E.A. Moss was at the first reading for Side Piece. She unofficially (officially) came on to pitch jokes and strengthen character development. By the third reading, I realized her understanding of human behavior was unparalleled to anyone I’d ever met. Perhaps that’s why she’s such a great improviser, her ability to pinpoint justification and intention are precise. One night, at The UCB East Village bar we discussed making Side Piece her Directorial debut. She accepted and after that, we were off to the races.

Armed with a good script and a great director, the movie had to be made. With the resources we had, we knew the only way to make our feature film was to make a proof-of-concept short film. Extracting and constructing the short story took time and patience but the hardest part about making a proof-of-concept short film was that, you know, if you had the money, you'd just be making the damn feature.