We just finished production on my first short film. It was originally called Legacy, but we changed the title so it wouldn’t get lost in the sea of other short films called Legacy.
Logline: A young father living out of his car takes a job from an aging handyman renovating an empty house, and finds a mentor whose own family is falling apart over what the house is worth.
The script I originally wrote was set in a restaurant, but finding a small place to rent for three or four days of filming was harder than expected. I passed my script to John Valley, who was set to direct, and he did a full rewrite. The tone and the story stayed the same, but the location was new.
The production was pieced together through friends and through the network I’ve built over the last three years, and somehow it all came together in a fantastic way. The producer, David Axe, found the locations and the van. The DP, Sarah Massey, brought her crew from Augusta: sound, gaffer, 1st AD, prop master, and hair and makeup. I played Henry. Stephen Ruffin, my first acting teacher, played Danny. And I found Andrew Chen through Backstage and flew him in from L.A. to play my son, Michael. Andrew was a great find. I was so impressed with his audition that I referred him to my management company, Dream Talent Management, and they picked him up. His first representation.
The three-day shoot didn’t start off great. The first half day was insert shots, and all I could think was, this movie is going to be fucking boring. By the end of Day 1, with some emotional scenes wrapped, it felt better. After a 14-hour day in a hot house with the AC off, I was ready to shower at the Airbnb and get some sleep.
Day 2 started exceptionally early, at 4:30 a.m. We had night shots to make before blue hour and golden hour. It ended up being a 16-hour day, but we stayed on schedule and things felt way better. It felt like we were making a movie worth making.
Day 3 started at 6:30 a.m., so we got to sleep in, and every scene felt right. We had knocked out a couple of Day 3 scenes on Day 2, which bought us two extra hours before the company move. We spent them on B-roll and anything else we could think of. That wrapped me and the house location. The crew and a few actors moved to the second and final location, the public library, where one of the rooms stood in as a lawyer’s office for the final scene.
John Valley wrote and directed the film, and this was the first time we had worked together, though we had heard plenty about each other through David. We got along really well, and we’re planning to work on another project together in 2027.
After wrap, we threw a small wrap party for the cast, crew, and supporters at a local bar in Columbia.
Although I’m the lead actor, I also came up with the story and paid for the shoot. It will end up being about a 15-minute film, and it will cost me about $25K when it’s all said and done, not counting film festival submission fees.
On Day 3, the producer, the director, and I sat down and agreed we have a really good story, shot beautifully and acted well. We hope for a decent festival run in 2027.
