Serendipity Nights

After going full tilt last week and getting slammed with the seasonal cold, this evening I have my candles lit, taken out my feather pen, and settled into a much needed cozy writing session. Some of you may roll your eyes at this next part, but we’re in-between a lunar and solar eclipse and mercury is retrograde. It’s another reason to lay low and reflect on adventures before the planets started doing an aggressive tango in the sky.

In the acting business, casting and coaches throw around the phrase “book the room.” What this means is, you can’t get every part because there are thousands of talented people and random, unforeseeable reasons why the director may like someone a smidge more. “Book the room” is walking into an audition with the goal to just be good and be memorable. This may not be your next role, but it can be the road to your next role. I had one of those moments at a short film audition mid March. I sat in the waiting room for three hours. Since the new self-tape standard, this was a rare occurrence and I’m glad all I had left to do that day was meet up a friend. In-between chemistry reads, us actors got antsy enough to open up and talk to each other. Everyone was going to “Short Cuts” after and they convinced me I better be there too for this little golden networking opportunity. One chem-read and a train ride later, I asked my super-understanding and flexible friend if we could throw out all our other plans for the night and show up to this thing. Cut to - entering a theater in a warehouse in brooklyn (aren’t they all?) and seeing every actor from the audition, the director and casting director, and discovering the guy from the chem read is also the creator of this hidden film event. “You better be there” - was right.

It’s these kind of serendipity nights that keep me in new york. When you suddenly find yourself exactly where you want to be you never knew existed. Know, I did not book the role. But you could say I booked a room full of filmmakers with a welcoming spirit and inclusive mindset. Short Cuts is a free five minute filmmaking club. Every month or so, members are presented with a challenge and people team up to make some art! There’s no money in it, and there’s no fee or extensive resume required to join. The whole premise is a creative incubator and outlet - a home to test ideas and build connections - without the expensive barrier to entry that filmmaking typically requires. In music there are open mic nights. In theater there are community stages. Finally I came across a similar place for film. It’s about having a good time and getting better at filmmaking.

!The Boston Underground Film Festival!

This acceptance email had me texting my mom happy emojis super late at night. Much like college applications, this was one of my stretch-fests. As in, I really wanted to attend, but I should have some backups in my application pool. Firstly, it was the first festival I was accepted to near my hometown, so my family could come. Secondly, The Piece short film takes place in a dream of Boston, and Mia, the unfortunately possessed leading pianist, is on her way to audition for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The chosen location we filmed in had a colonial charm that matched the northern academic look of Harvard, BoCo, ect. and gave the short film a timeless feel. We can set The Piece in a multitude of decades and still feel it belongs. The Boston Underground Film Festival, matched everything I was trying to accomplish with the artistic direction. It’s horror, it’s definitely underground, it’s Boston right down to the Tea, and it has a flourishing reputation. Attending as a director was a dream I had back in 2018 when I interned for my first film festival. To have some friends and family with me on that milestone day meant the world.

Making the weekend even better, it snowed! My family and I raced up north to ski on a blue sky day with fresh powder. These weekends in March felt like a warm hug from your favorite person after a long travel day. Since I was about to plunge into a very long training week back in new york, I savored every minute of it. This semester, I am teaching after school film classes with CinemaKidz! The training days took all the energy in my reserves. It was work, eat, sleep, repeat until crash with a cold. Some days you’re skiing in the sunshine and others you’re testing just how little sleep you need to function.