Patrice Sarath's Blog

So excited to share that Hell: A Rescue Mission has received an Honorable Mention from the Horrorific Women Film Festival. It’s baby’s first laurel!

This adaptation of my story by the same name, which you can read in the collection Into the Dark, is actually less of a horror story than the original short story. The short story is even darker than the film. I made that as a deliberate decision. I wanted to get at the friendship between Jenna and Trudi, the deep connection that they had. The relationship in the prose story is much more twisted, although still full of love.

See how pretty that laurel looks?

I don’t know. Maybe I’m getting softer in my old age. Still, we had some great horror scenes in the film, and I think it was scary.

Hell: A Rescue Mission Cast

I got so lucky with my cast and crew. , Molly Burke as Trudi, and Anthony Gibson as Nurse Frasier had great chemistry. Anthony was pretty eerie as the nurse who knew things about the dying floor. One of my favorite scenes is of him and Molly smoking on the loading dock behind the hospital.

And speaking of that scene…

Location Scouting for Hell: A Rescue Mission

We needed four locations. A hospital room, a house, a hospital exterior, and hell. Since this was a project for a class at Austin Community College, we got really lucky. The Health Simulation Center let us film in one of their simulation rooms. It had everything. They took the dummy out so we could film in there, and we added a few things like curtains to prevent reflection from the glass entryway.

The house — a living room and bedroom — was easy. We just filmed in my house. We had a pretty tight crew and managed to get the shots we needed with minimal background noise.

Pretty hellish if you ask me.

The hospital exterior — well, we filmed outside a local hospital. And they let us. Sometimes, when you act like you belong somewhere, you get away with things that if you had asked to do, they would have told you know. Also, I look like a sweet old lady. It comes in handy.

Finally, hell. We ended up filming on campus in the “spooky hallway” — a stretch of hallway that goes behind the classrooms. The Highland Campus used to be a mall, so this back hallway was pretty unnerving. With the excellent lighting by the gaffer and the G&E team, we turned it from a badly lit industrial space to a claustrophobic hellscape.

We really had a lot of fun dressing the set for hell. The work that cinematographer Angela Reavis, lighting designer Ethan Dubois, and did to make hell come to life (or death) was creative and exciting. Making movies is the ultimate team sport.

The Score and Sound Design

I met Bennett Mains on a couple of other student films and when I told him about Hell: A Rescue Mission, he was excited about the opportunity. The sound recordist Matthew Linder had done an excellent job on set. Now it was up to Bennett to design the soundscape. He added so much depth and texture, and the score — oh you guys, the score is so amazing. I am so looking forward to sharing the film with you — whether at a film festival or on YouTube.

Next Steps for Hell: A Rescue Mission

I’ve submitted the film to a few more festivals, and I’ll let everyone know when and where it will screen. Until then, if you want to check out the short story in my collection Into the Dark, that’s available wherever you usually buy your books. Let me know in the comments if you want more details about my movies along with my usual updates about books, writing, and the other ephemera this site is known for.

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It has been a busy few months, friends. Not only have I had my story collection Into the Dark come out from NewCon Press, but I rewrote two screenplays and submitted one to the Austin Film Festival. As I write this I made it to the second round of the NYC Midnight screenplay competition. I just finished up writing a screenplay for the Dallas 48Hr Film Competition, and ran sound for the production. Coming up: A short story rewrite for a story from my 2019 story a week challenge.

Currently in progress: two screenplays, one based on my 2nd place short in the first round of NYC Midnight, and another one a secret project. It’s not ready to talk about, but it is from one of my favorite stories of all time.  

Oh yeah, and I’m developing a novel idea based on a kernel of a concept that at this stage can best be described as “all vibes, no plot.” But that’s the way they all start, right?

So let’s get to the news.

Shakespeare in the Diner: Macbeth

I want the world to see Shakespeare in the Diner: Macbeth because the work the cast and crew did was just so stellar, and because it was hard. It was hard, and we did good work.

Diner Macbeth, as it is affectionately called (by me, I don’t think anyone else has thought of it), has so far been awarded an Honorable Mention and an Award Winner in two film festivals! Yay! I will get an IMDB credit from one of them, and that makes me very happy.

Hell: A Rescue Mission

This film is just starting its festival submission run. No word yet, but we’ll see how things go. I’m optimistic that this beautifully shot, acted, and scored film will capture fans.

One of the reasons I wanted to make this film was to see if I could adapt one of my own stories. I ended up changing the ending. I made it more optimistic, if such a thing is possible for a story in which a best friend dies and the other friend has to say good-bye to her. I think I am in a place in my life where I want optimism. I want hope. Even if it’s sad hope.

Check out Into the Dark for the source material for Hell: A Rescue Mission.

Pop! (Collage by Eyland Gaddy-Brewer, actor and producer.)

It was so much fun working on Pop! 48HR competitions are grueling. If you aren’t familiar with them, basically you get a prompt on Friday night at 7 pm, and then you have to write, film, edit, and submit a finished short film  by 7 pm on Sunday. It’s not easy, but the cast and crew were an excellent team and we did a great job. I wrote the script in about four hours on Friday night, we filmed all day Saturday, and the director edited on Sunday. I think this one is going to go pretty far. Because hey, a movie that has its own catchphrase already has that going for it. Ka-bloo-ey!

And it looks like we’re going to do another one in June, so stay tuned.

What’s Next

What’s next is always what’s next. I continue to write. Coming up is a writing post on why understanding screenplay structure can help with writing novels, but be warned – there are pitfalls ahead.

I’m looking for production partners for my completed screenplays. Boy,  that’s possibly the hardest part of this.

I’ve got novel ideas cooking.

And always, writing short stories is still my jam. My story Kewpie and Sookie, a retelling of the Cupid and Psyche myth, is out on submissions. I’m sure it will find a home.

What’s up in your world?

The post 2025: The Year of Living Creatively first appeared on Patrice Sarath.

Hello! If you are here because of the opinion piece in The New York Times about Mary Bennet, and would like to read The Unexpected Miss Bennet, you’ve come to the right place. Here’s where you can find a copy.

“The Unexpected Miss Bennet is a delightful continuation of Pride and Prejudice.” — 5 Minutes for Books“Favorite Pride & Prejudice Sequel” — Austenesque Reviews

The Unexpected Miss Bennet on Amazon in the US

The Unexpected Miss Bennet on Amazon in the UK

The Unexpected Miss Bennet on Barnes and Noble

The Unexpected Miss Bennet on Audible

The Unexpected Miss Bennet on Audiobooks

Thank you so much, and please let me know what you think!

The post Where to Find The Unexpected Miss Bennet first appeared on Patrice Sarath.

Note: This was originally from 2016. Do I think the avatar of the trickster is still at play in the 2024 election? I think we’ve gone straight on to authoritarian rule and things will only get worse. 

What’s up, Doc? The carrot-smacking, trouble-making, cross-dressing, opera-loving rabbit, the bane of Elmer Fudd’s existence, encapsulates the American psyche. He’s a trickster, a rogue, a mischief-maker — in an earlier incarnation he was Brer Rabbit, and in still earlier forms he was another species entirely — Anansi the spider or Coyote, or any of the many animal avatars of the trickster god.

It was the spirit of Bugs Bunny that had a lot to do with the election of Donald Trump.

Somewhere along the way, we infantilized the stories of the Trickster God, smoothing out all the evil and nastiness and turning them into stories for children. All those stories of Coyote’s adventures where he gets his comeuppance gloss over the parts where Coyote is truly a harmful entity — chaotic neutral at best or chaotic evil. There are plenty of Native American stories about Coyote that are warnings about him, but all everyone remembers are the funny stories.

Same thing happened to Loki. In Norse mythology he causes trouble just for the sake of it, and causes Baldur’s death. But now he’s played by Tom Hiddleston, and he’s gone from chaotic evil to chaotic rowrr! And no, I didn’t bring this up just so I could find a picture of Tom Hiddleston as Loki. Okay. Maybe a little.

I think everyone feels like they have a little bit of Bugs Bunny in them. That’s why the impulse to overturn the applecart was strong enough in overwhelming numbers of people. The same spirit that animated a great many Bernie Sanders supporters could be found in their political opposites, Trump supporters. And everyone thinks the Trickster spirit is mischievous and roguish. You know, Han Solo. (Totally shallow, I admit it straight up.)

Because we equate the Trickster with Bugs Bunny or Coyote with a bandanna, or Tom Hiddleston, we forget the actual, real, true power of shaking things up just for the sake of shaking things up. We think it’s not going to be that bad. We just want to shake the gameboard a bit. And because we’ve stopped telling the real, true dangerous myths about Coyote, we didn’t know what we just wrought.

An entire country turned Trickster on itself.

Now, the destructive spirit is a necessary spirit. The rule of law without the trickster is authoritarianism, fascism. But the rule of the trickster without law is anarchy. With the incoming leadership, we get the worst of both worlds — the authoritarianism we’ve just seen, with the images of racist white nationalists saluting Donald Trump with a Nazi salute, combined with the expedient nature of Trump’s platform. The people in power are a brutal combination of authoritarianism and anarchy — they stand for nothing except their own profit, so everything is fair game. Come January 21, we will actually have a power vacuum.

Don’t take the trickster for granted. The trickster god isn’t Bugs. He’s not adorable Coyote, making mischief and getting his comeuppance. The US played with dangerous forces in this last election. Mythology is not to be taken lightly. Even if we don’t know the true stories, we’re still at their mercy. When the gods come out to play, mortals are the ones who get hurt.

*All images copyright their respective creators.

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Note: I originally wrote this in January 2017. It felt right to revisit. I think this time though, I am going to raise my head and my voice. 

I went to bed in the Shire, woke up in Mordor,
Exchanged comfort for horror
And complacency for fear.

But the world that I woke in
Is the same some folks walk in,
And it’s not their fault
This map isn’t mine.

I’ve just been lucky,
Protected by borders,
And locks on the doors.
Didn’t know that orcs had their orders,
Didn’t know the choice wasn’t mine.

Went to bed in the Shire, woke up in Mordor,
Not sure how I got here,
It’s kind of familiar, kind of a nightmare.

Don’t climb the towers
Keep low to the shadows
Don’t raise your head up
Watch out for spiders.

Maybe the Shire was always in Mordor,
Maybe Mordor was always in us.
Hold up the palantir and look at your peril,
Don’t look away til you’ve seen what you must.

Went to bed in the Shire, woke up in Mordor,
Exchanged comfort for horror
And complacency for fear.

Not sure what I’ve got here, neighbors or strangers,
Not sure of the danger, not sure of the fear.
Always thought orcs deserved what they got there,
Beginning to wonder if that’s out of order.

Don’t climb the towers
Keep low to the shadows
Don’t raise your head up
Watch out for spiders.

Fell asleep in the Shire, woke up in Mordor,
Maybe the Shire was always in Mordor,
Maybe Mordor was always in us.

The post Woke up in Mordor first appeared on Patrice Sarath.

I don’t even know where to start. Was it in 2018 when I wrote the first draft of “Hell: A Rescue Mission?” Or maybe it was in 2022 when Ian Whates, publisher of NewCon Press and editor of Parsec Magazine reached out to me to buy my story, “Theo Ballinchard and the Oranges of Possibility,” a short story in the world of The Sisters Mederos and Fog Season.

Or maybe, it was when I decided to get a certificate in film technology from Austin Community College. My worlds all collided in a glittery smashup of fantasy, science fiction, filmmaking and art. And I’ve written a lot about the journey before, but as Tolkien (or Robert Earl Keen, whichever) told us, the road goes ever on and on, and the party never ends.

This is the story of Hell: A Rescue Mission the short story and movie, and my short story collection, Into the Dark, from NewCon Press.

Hell: A Rescue Mission: First Draft

I wrote Hell in December 2018. It was a dark story, and ended abruptly, and didn’t quite work. I workshopped it with my several writers groups, and kept hammering away at it. In 2021, when I started taking classes at ACC, I wrote a screenplay adaptation, paring away the excess and focusing on the emotion. That’s the class that gave me the ending, very different from the short story itself.

And then I let it be. I wrote other screenplays and stories, made Do Over and Shakespeare in the Diner: Macbeth (never let it be said that I don’t like colons), and graduated with my film certificate. But I had a couple of reasons to go back to the screenplay.

One, I thought I could do it justice, after learning from my previous projects. Two, I had the opportunity to take another class at ACC, and wanted to jump right in. I wanted to explore more exciting camera movements. Dolly shots. Dutch angles. Handheld camera movement. Macbeth had been fairly static, which was what I wanted then. What if I could put together a team who wanted to push the boundaries on what we could do with exciting camera work?

So I got the team back together, from Macbeth and other projects. And working with Angela Reavis on camera was exactly what I wanted — exciting, bold, fresh, and funny.

Creating hell.

Into the Dark: The Short Story Collection

After Theo Ballinchard came out in ParSec Magazine, Ian reached out. He was starting a short story collection series, Polestars. Did I want to be one of the authors in the series? Yes. Yes, is the answer to that. You should check out the other authors in the series, many of whom I’ve been a fan of for years.

I put together a curated collection of the stories that have marked my career.

“A Prayer for Captain La Hire” was reprinted in Year’s Best Fantasy. “Blood on the Snow” was published in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. “Pigs and Feaches” went to Apex Digest and later Best New Tales of the Apocalypse. Later stories include “Caro Comes Home,” a love story, and “Joe Fledge’s Jump” was a finalist in the Jim Baen Memorial Contest.

At that point, “Hell: A Rescue Mission” had not seen publication. So why not include it in the collection? What an exciting prospect, to have the short story and the movie come out simultaneously.

Adapting Hell

I want to be clear that the short story and the film are different versions of the story. They share some scenes and even some dialog, but the stories are very different. And I think that’s a strength. The best adaptations take a different approach to the source material. Just think of The Shining. Or Arrival, based on the Ted Chiang story “Story of Your Life.”

I still think there’s room for yet another adaptation of “Hell: A Rescue Mission.” There’s enough story in the short story to make a feature-length movie. Maybe. Stay tuned.

The collection comes out in December 2024. “Hell: A Rescue Mission” the movie also debuts in December 2024. I’ll keep everyone posted on how they can see the movie — it should first appear in the ACC showcase in the early part of December.

Into the Dark is available wherever books are sold.

The post Hell: A Rescue Mission, Into the Dark, and my life as a writer and filmmaker first appeared on Patrice Sarath.

When I started my film making journey in the fall of 2021, I had no idea what I was getting into. I had some idea that I was going to learn screenwriting and film editing and had a sort of hazy expectation that I could parlay this new education into a new career. I wasn’t keen on the concept of learning new technical skills, but I was game.

Now here we are, two and a half years later. I officially have my film technology certificate degree. Yes, I walked – and it was an uplifting and emotional experience.  And I never expected when I registered for classes what I was going to accomplish.

It was a pretty emotional day, and I was proud to participate in the spring 2024 commencement.

Here’s what I learned in film school:

Audio and Grip and Electric

Ever watch a movie or TV show with muddled sound? How long did you stick it out? People will forgive a movie with bad lighting or dialog or story, but bad sound will make an audience leave a theater or reach for the remote.

Sound is hard, y’all. I’m not good at it but I’m getting better. I’m also getting better at making sure that sound is good on any of the projects I’m on. That we take into account background noise and hiss and static. That we build in time in the schedule to capture wild lines or additional recording.

Lighting and cinematography

I knew you needed lights. I didn’t know how lights set the mood or created the illusion, or were an art form. The difference between a video and a professional movie or TV show: Lighting. I still have so much to learn.

Camera operation

I’m not the best camera operator and I still struggle with camera work, but I know what I don’t know at least. And here’s what happened to set me back so much. In my Film Style production class in my second semester, we had an instructor who didn’t teach very well. So much so that we had one or two lessons on camera, but after that, he just lectured at us.

The goal of the class was for us to crew and film two short films apiece, but the class was so badly taught that people started dropping out, and we hadn’t been given any instruction in camera use.

It was seriously hampering my confidence in my lighting and cinematography class, to the extent that I was embarrassed by my inability to confidently use the basic tool of the trade.

I almost dropped out, ending my film studies career right there.

Camera Boot Camp

Instead, I had a flash of inspiration. We could reserve equipment to make our projects. So I reserved a camera, the Sony FS-5, a workhorse of the industry, the lens kit, and a Benro tripod. And I took it home and built that camera on the tripod every day for a week. The first night, it took me two hours to set up the camera, turn it on, and adjust some rudimentary settings. By the end of the week, I could set up the camera in about 20 minutes.

That weekend, I had to film a noir-inspired project for a lighting and cinematography homework assignment. I wrote a one-minute script, got some friends to act, and used my friend’s back patio to shoot it. I lit it using the GVM light kit we were assigned for class, and well –

It’s still one of the best projects I’ve ever made.

So much fun — I learned so much and best of all, it gave me so much confidence.

That lighting class was the hardest and best class I’ve ever taken. I was so out of my depth and I learned so much. I will be forever grateful for what I learned and what an excellent foundation it gave me.

Getting Things Done

We ended up making a few movies in Film Style, and that was largely because I led the class and made it happen. The instructor had the audacity to get snippy with us that we hadn’t started a project. Actual dialog:

INSTRUCTOR

It’s almost spring break! Why haven’t you shot anything?!

CLASS (IN UNISON)

 We don’t know anything!!

So with my week of camera experience under my belt, I made sure we started getting projects done. First up was my short called Toughs in Love, where I made every mistake in the book. Then a couple of us made our individual projects, with everyone helping on crew. Finally the class came together (all five of us remaining) to do a final short project called Changeling.

We were later informed that we were the first class of that particular instructor to actually submit a project to the ACC end of semester student showcase.

Directing and Portfolio

I leveled up the next year. I took Directing in Spring 2023, and made my short film Do Over, which won Best Short and Best Student Short at Equinale Film Festival in Mecklenburg, Germany, and Equus Film Festival in Albuquerque in 2023.

What a difference a year makes: From Spring 2022 to Spring 2023.

And my portfolio project, Macbeth, which I write about here, is almost complete and ready to go out on submission to film festivals. I can confidently say that Shakespeare in the Diner: Macbeth, is going to be a success for everyone involved, cast and crew.  

Producing Movies

I produced two projects in spring 2024. I was responsible for managing both projects, raising funds, scheduling the shoot, scouting locations, managing the audition process, helping put together the crew, creating the call sheets, and working with the director to create shot lists, shooting schedules, and more.

Alice. A student encounters hostile classmates and an unsympathetic teacher, and is plunged into a nightmare that she manages to escape by drawing courage from a gift from her girlfriend. Winner of the Director-Producer Partnership Award and the Film Festival Submission Award at the ACC Establishing Shots Student Showcase in May 2024.

Braids & Bows. A teen girl raised in a conservative Christian church gains the courage to stand up to her strict parents with the help of an unexpected crush. Accepted in the ACC Establishing Shots Student Showcase.

People often ask, what do producers do? The answer is, a lot. But basically, we’re in the director’s corner and we make sure that they get to execute on their vision.

Film Editing

One of the best things I learned in film school is how to edit a film. There are the technical aspects of being able to use an application like Adobe Premiere Pro. And then there’s the storytelling part of editing. What clips you choose and why. How to understand the performance and the story. When to choose the performance over the technical when it comes choosing a clip. How something as simple as a frame or a couple of frames can make the difference.

Editing is as much an art as shooting, and arguably even more important. It’s the final version of the film. Like everything worthwhile, it’s not easy. I am, as always, better at it than I allow myself to think.

Screenwriting

I am a story teller. It’s what I do. I started film school because I wanted to become a better writer and story teller. And that is what happened. Screenwriting is so structurally tight because it’s both art and an instruction manual. When people sneer at the formula of beats and turns and rising action and scene motives, they’re missing the point. This is what storytelling is. Read a fairytale or a short story or a novel. What draws you in? What makes you turn the page? Those are the beats and turns.

I’ve become a better prose writer because of the screenwriting training.

As I write this, I earned 3rd place in the first round of the NYC Midnight short screenplay challenge, and I’m waiting to hear if I passed on to the second round. While getting past the second round and into the third round is a huge step, I already know that the script I wrote for the second round is a viable short film script. It’s very doable – low budget, actor-worthy, and the type of story that is appealing to audiences.

Winning 3rd place in the first round was a great feeling; now to move forward through Round 2.

I’m already thinking of ways to make it.

And that leads me to:

Building Connections

Film school is where you find your people. Your crew. The team you want to make movies with. I AD’d (Assistant Director) on a friend’s shoot yesterday for the Austin 48-Hour Film Challenge. I’d make a movie with any of these people.

The film industry is all about connections, and film school is where that starts.

What’s Next? Books and Stories

I know this is a long post. Thank you for still being here.

So this is where I’d like your help. Please continue to follow my film making journey.

If you like my books and stories, I’d love it if you could share them with your friends and family. After all, Father’s Day is coming up – and what dad doesn’t like Jane Austen, or fantasy and Regency? Or horse books?

I will have more news to announce regarding short stories in a few months, and I’ll be able to share an exciting new project.

Talk back to me! Let me know your journey in the comments. I’d love to hear from you.

The post My film making journey: A new chapter first appeared on Patrice Sarath.

In 2021 I made a decision that has had tremendous impact on my life – I started film school. In 2023, that decision played out in ways that I never could have imagined. This is the story of how I made Shakespeare in the Diner: Macbeth, and how this film changed the way I look at what I can achieve.

Spring 2023 directing class: What movie should I make?

In the spring semester I had a choice. I came up with two loglines for a project to take on. One was Do Over, a pony movie, in which a time-traveling tween and her adult self go on a quest to find a pony. I mean, I’m a pretty horse crazy person, and I’ve never been able to afford a horse, so write what you know, right?

The other was a concept that I had been thinking about since lighting class a couple years before. Could Shakespeare in the original language be adapted to a modern American setting – specifically, the American diner? Diner scenes are everywhere in American cinema, and they have a distinct language and style. They can be funny, ominous, and everything in between.

Could this work? Or rather, could I pull it off?

There wasn’t a lot of time though. I had to write a script, put together a cast and crew, and find locations, all in a compressed timeframe. And so I made the decision to go with Do Over, learn what I could, and then prepare for Shakespeare in the Diner when I had more experience under my belt.

And since Do Over has won an award at each film festival it has screened, I think it was the right decision.

The Summer of Shakespeare: Preproduction

Okay, I had registered for portfolio class for fall 2023. I needed to get cracking on the Shakespeare if I wanted to get this thing off the ground. So in between post-production on Do Over and my day job, I needed to figure out what play I wanted to adapt.

Initially, I was going to try Julius Caesar – so much plotting! So much leaning in and whispering over cups of coffee and scrambled eggs. So much stabbing! But Julius Caesar is more about wide spaces – the market, the forum – and it didn’t seem right.

And my favorite play, As You Like It, wouldn’t adapt well to a diner either, since it takes place in the woods.

Macbeth, though. Yeah. Macbeth is nothing but bad people doing bad things, but first planning the bad things, and then talking about the bad things, and then deeply regretting the bad things. Perfect for sitting at a table over black coffee and congealed eggs!

All summer long I read and re-read the play, identifying the dialog and scenes I wanted to focus on. By the time the fall semester rolled around, I wasn’t close to being ready. But if I was going to do this thing, I had to move forward.

The Cast

I am the first to admit that I got so lucky. I worked closely with friend and actress Kristin Johnson, who is well-known in the Austin theater scene. She agreed to come on as Lady Macbeth. Then I had to find the exact right Macbeth. He had to be able to handle the Shakespeare and bring a modern sensibility to the role.

“Is this a dagger I see before me, handle toward my hand?” Bryan Headrick as Macbeth.

It’s pretty much a given that Macbeth is a bad man who thinks he’s a good one, because when he finally goes bad, he can continue to lie to himself. “I deserve this, this is my reward for my goodness.” If that sounds familiar, it’s because Walter White in Breaking Bad is a total Macbeth, and Skyler White is Lady Macbeth (she breaks bad too).  

, it didn’t take long for me to see that I had found my Macbeth. So now I had my power couple.

Still, I was running out of time. There were a lot of roadblocks with putting together such a large cast. I was turned down by a lot of people! It was too weird, not the right time, too much work, too weird, they were busy with other projects, too weird (“I’m sorry, what are you trying to do?”)

But we put the word out and I begged, and I reached out to people, and my professor reached out to people, and somehow it touched people who were like, yeah, I can do this, and we got the following amazing cast:

CAST

Macbeth……………… Bryan Headrick

Lady Macbeth………..Kristin Fern Johnson

Banquo……………….Jason Graf

Macduff……………….Bryan Hearnsberger

Ross…………………..Judy Lee

Fleance……………….Ryan Fang

Duncan……………….Stuart Cameron

Witch One……………Ashley Salinas

Witch Two……………Elizabeth Ciolek

Witch Three………….Molly Burke

Waitress………..……Jeannette Junco

Cook………………….Gabriel Meyer

I can’t say enough good things about every single one of these actors. They brought enthusiasm and craft and creativity to their roles in a way that just floored me, both in rehearsal and during production. I ended up adding scenes and dialog for the smaller roles just because I wanted them to stretch themselves and have fun.  

The Crew

My cinematographer, Ethan Dubois, and lighting designer/gaffer, Andy Shaw, were the first people I reached out to. I’d worked with them before on various projects, and I knew they would get what I wanted to do. We discussed plans for the mood that I wanted. We developed storyboards, lighting maps, shot plans, and more. Not everything went smoothly – I discovered that sometimes we would agree on a concept but have very different ideas on what that actually meant. Oops. This wasn’t a bad thing though. We had strong ideas about how this project should work. I deferred to Ethan on all things camera, and Andy on equipment. (Well, with the exception of the smoke machine. Look, I saw Living in Oblivion, and I knew exactly what was going to happen with that damn thing. But the next one, Andy, I promise. You can have the smoke machine.)

The DP, gaffer, first assistant camera, and production assistant watch the actors at work.

The final say on lighting and effects though, was mine. And I couldn’t have done it without either of them.

Making a movie is a group project. I needed a strong producer and assistant director who could help me put together a crew and keep me on deadline. Together with Zachary Merritt, my producer and first assistant director, we put together a mighty crew of grips, soundies, scripties, A.C.s, and P.A.s (production assistants are the backbone of any film set).

Chuck Foster and I worked together on a 48-hour film a few years back and became friends through that shared experience. He came on as second assistant director, and his presence and experience in running a crew helped make the film set environment an extremely positive one. Chuck is one of those guys who is a rarity – born and raised in Austin. He’s embedded in the Austin community as a volunteer and nonprofit board member. He’s a good guy to know and I am looking forward to working on more projects with him.

Wardrobe, Set Design, and Hair and Makeup

I also needed professionals who could bring the production to life. Nancy Smith brought years of film set experience and set design. Aaron Torres and his brand Sleep Never, and Jennifer Rose Davis, of Archive Theater, elevated the wardrobe to great heights. Celisa Martinez brought HMU talents and an understanding of lighting design that took this production from a student film to a professional one.

Location

Now we needed a diner. My original plan was to film in The Omelettry, a local Austin breakfast and lunch space. It would be perfect. Just one little problem – too expensive. I thought I could make it work, but with four days of filming, it would have been prohibitive.

But Austin Community College had restaurant space. The Eatery 73 on the Highland Campus was  barebones and modern, but I knew we could transform it into a diner. So after getting permission from the Culinary Department, we were ready to go. Nancy, the set designer, got into gear. And with her hard work we changed this:

The ACC Highland restaurant, Eatery 73, before the set design team got their hands on it.

Into this:

With the help of the set design team, the Eatery was transformed into a cozy diner. Two weekends, Four days

October went by in a flurry. We had only a short window for two rehearsals, one with (almost) the full cast, and one with just five actors in Scene II. We were filming the third and fourth weekends in October. Saturdays were full days, just shy of 12 hours. Sundays were only six-hour days. Somehow we had to fit 14 scenes into that timeframe.

Complicating that was on our first day of filming, the school actually closed an hour early. We got a grace period to get two more shots, and then had to pack everything up. Fortunately, we were able to leave the equipment in the restaurant, now locked and patrolled by police.

Originally, Scene 10, the death of Banquo, was going to be filmed on the street near campus. But the forecast called for a cold front with rain, so I needed a plan B. I got permission from the school to film in the parking garage. In the end, while I remain wistful about the original setup, as the plan was to film along the street with natural streetlights and additional lighting adding drama, the parking garage setting was a great fit for a climactic and emotional scene.

The end result

Filming wrapped on Sunday night, around 8-ish. We produced a professional quality film in four days of shooting, albeit with weeks of pre-production. Cast and crew brought their A game. There were moments of sheer magic. While there are things I wished we’d gotten, and some choices I might make differently, I can honestly say that I got 95% of the shots and the performance I wanted.

The film is far from finished. We’re in post-now, which means editing, color grading, and finally audio, music, and more. I put together a trailer with music for the film department showcase, to show off the stellar production and acting. Realistically, there are about six more weeks of post before I can consider anything close to complete. I want to make sure the production values are as high as I can possibly afford, to honor the work that everyone put into this project.

What’s next

The next step after delivering the final cut is festival submissions. I’m aiming high on this project, because I think it deserves all the attention possible. I’m biased of course, but it’s not just me. Everyone involved knows we worked on something special. Someday everyone will know it.

So that’s Shakespeare in the Diner: Macbeth. A project born out of a “hey, what if?” that I had in lighting class has become a reality. It’s trite to say never give up on your dreams. More specifically, I’d say, always keep working to find a way to make your project happen.

Two and half weeks before we were set to film, I didn’t have my cast yet. I started to think about pivoting to a different project, a script that I already had on hand. With a quick modification, I could have had it ready to go.

But my professor encouraged me to stay the course, and he reached out to his network, and I tapped a few more resources. A week after that we were at our first rehearsal.

I’ll leave you with this picture of the last day of shooting. This wasn’t the full cast and crew. We’d wrapped on almost everyone by this point. But this gives an idea of how big a production this was.

Will I do another Shakespeare in the Diner? Already scheming on it. Stay tuned…

The cast and crew of Shakespeare in the Diner: Macbeth on the final day of shooting

The post The Making of Shakespeare in the Diner: Macbeth first appeared on Patrice Sarath.

My short film, Do Over, premiered August 18, 2023, at the Equinale Film Festival in Mecklenburg, Germany, and took home the award for best short film!

And then in November we follow up with a Best Student Film win at the Equus Film Festival in Albuquerque, N.M.

Do Over Movie poster, created by Drew Schwemer.

I never ever thought that I would become a filmmaker, let alone one whose movie screens and wins at an international film festival and then makes its North American debut and does it again.

There’s only one lesson to be learned from this, right?

“So don’t give up, okay? Don’t let
us forget what we want.”

Sometimes, things you didn’t even know you wanted turn out to be exactly what you needed.

So how did it happen?

Do Over: The Beginning

Do Over was my directing project for the spring 2023 semester. Along with my producer, Joy-Serene Adams, and a stalwart cast and crew, we filmed a sweet pony movie about a girl who time travels into the future at a low point in her young life, only to find out that her adult self never finished what she started. So together they set out to find happiness – a pony.

Do Over Actors

I was lucky enough to cast Kelly Fitzharris Coody, Marcus Barton, and newcomer Ramona Dinderman for the roles of Taylor, the Farm Owner, and Young Taylor. Shadow was played by Strider, a half-Arab, half-Andalusian gelding owned by Michelle Belisle of Rohan Stables (who provided the voice of the best line in the movie!)

All of the actors brought their A game to this little movie, including Strider, who was kind and patient with all of the actors and crew crowding around him with lights, camera equipment, screens, and more.

So Where Do You Go From Here?

Still a writer. Still a storyteller. In fact, I have a short story collection coming out early next year. What’s next is another film project for the upcoming Fall 2023 semester, an adaptation of Macbeth. This is going to be an ambitious project, and I’ll have more to share in December after filming.

More stories are welling up, as they do, and I’ve got two long works that need to get out into the world.

But I also have a feature-length screenplay that is a dream project so…

The point is, I’m still creating, still story-fying, still having fun being overwhelmed by learning to be a filmmaker.

What’s Next for Do Over?

For more information about Do Over, my books, random photos that I take of cool stuff and not so cool stuff, follow me on Facebook or Instagram (@patricesarath6).

The post Do Over Wins Awards at Film Festivals in Germany and in New Mexico: Wins Best Short Film and Best Student Film, Respectively first appeared on Patrice Sarath.

My short film, Do Over, premiered August 18, 2023, at the Equinale Film Festival in Mecklenburg, Germany.

Do Over Movie poster, created by Drew Schwemer.

I never ever thought that I would become a filmmaker, let alone one whose movie screens at an international film festival.

There’s only one lesson to be learned from this, right?

“So don’t give up, okay? Don’t let
us forget what we want.”

Sometimes, things you didn’t even know you wanted turn out to be exactly what you needed.

What? How? Aren’t You a Writer?

Yeah, that’s kind of what I’ve been thinking too these past few days. From the moment I got the notification I’ve been just so over the moon happy that I sometimes have to tell myself that storytelling is storytelling, no matter the medium.

So Where Do You Go From Here?

Still a writer. Still a storyteller. In fact, I have a short story collection coming out early next year. What’s next is another film project for the upcoming Fall 2023 semester. This is going to be an ambitious project, and I’ll have more to share in December after filming.

More stories are welling up as they do, and I’ve got two long works that need to get out into the world.

But I also have a feature-length screenplay that is a dream project so…

The point is, I’m still creating, still story-fying, still having fun being overwhelmed by learning to be a filmmaker.

What’s Next for Do Over?

Still waiting to hear from three more festivals. Fingers crossed that Do Over finds new audiences.

For more information about Do Over, my books, random photos that I take of cool stuff and not so cool stuff, follow me on Facebook or Instagram (@patricesarath6).

The post Do Over premieres at Equinale Film Festival first appeared on Patrice Sarath.