Shooting “The Perfect Place to Cry” in a single day felt surreal, with the help of great friends and trusting my instincts.

      MovieMaker interviewed writer-director Shane Bannon about his experience creating the short film “The Perfect Place to Cry,” which was shot in just one day. The film has been screened at notable film festivals such as Dances With Films and Fantasia and is currently available on Alter.

      As with many dreams, I can only vaguely recall the process of making my latest short, “The Perfect Place to Cry.” The entire experience flew by, feeling more like a midnight adventure in the woods than a film shoot.

      In late June 2022, I was lying in bed around 4 a.m. when a concept struck me: a man stumbling out of a dark forest, illuminated by a car's headlights. It was slightly unusual and a bit ominous—a perfect idea for a short film. I jumped out of bed and wrote. In about fifteen minutes, I had completed a two-page screenplay. The following morning, I shared it with my roommates and closest collaborators, Celina Bernstein and Matt Kleppner. We had been working together since college, and they have become my first readers for everything I write. They immediately resonated with the story, and we began brainstorming how to bring my insomniac vision to life.

      Celina took on the roles of Producer and Lead Actor, while Matt was the chosen Director of Photography. They were my first and only selections for these positions. However, there was a challenge: Celina would be out of the country for all of August, and Matt was about to start his second year at AFI shortly thereafter. Therefore, if we wanted to make “The Perfect Place to Cry,” we needed to act quickly. We quickly assembled the rest of our crew and prepared to shoot three weeks later on a single summer night. Everything came together so swiftly that I didn’t have time to reconsider or elaborate on the initial two pages. I simply tried to maintain that ephemeral sense of dream logic. Despite the usual stresses of production, the whole experience somehow felt effortless.

      Everyone knows that filmmaking demands time, money, and a fair bit of logistical juggling. In my experience, some of my projects have seen post-production drag on for years. With all the work involved in production, it's easy to lose sight of your original vision. Budgets, actors, and locations can change unexpectedly. Your favorite story ideas can confront the unyielding barriers of reality.

      But sometimes luck is on your side. Sometimes, you write a script overnight, assemble a production team on impulse, and shoot it as fast as possible. With no time for self-doubt, we had to trust our instincts.

      It’s a wonderful feeling when everything aligns perfectly. In filmmaking, it's often said that whatever can go wrong will go wrong. However, in my experience, if you know what you want, trust your collaborators, and find joy in the hurdles that arise, a lot of luck can come your way.

      The production itself posed its own logistical challenges. As a filmmaker, I consider myself somewhat of a minimalist. I aim to shoot only what I need for the edit. But this time, the pressure was greater than ever: we had one night to shoot “The Perfect Place to Cry,” and with mid-July's limited darkness, we only had nine hours. Our shooting schedule did not allow for takes that might not work. A week before the shoot, I gathered Celina, Matt, and our 1st AD, Sofie Somoroff, to create a video storyboard of the entire film on the dirt road behind our home in Los Angeles. Compiling the footage served as a rehearsal for the story we aimed to tell. Ultimately, we filmed only one shot that was omitted from the final cut. Everything else matched our planning.

      One of my favorite moments during the shoot perfectly captured the essence of making “The Perfect Place to Cry.” While most of the crew started to pack up for the night, Celina, Matt, and I climbed into our picture car to film the opening shot: the interior of the car driving along a dirt road. I felt exhilarated, sleep-deprived, and deeply appreciative of my friends and collaborators who made this film possible. The sun was just about to rise, and in our hurried attempt to capture that last shot, I felt all the excitement that originally drew me to filmmaking. It felt as if we were high school students shooting a low-budget horror film on a camcorder. It's moments like these that make filmmaking worthwhile. When surrounded by the right people, they may just help you realize your dreams.

      “A Perfect Place to Cry” is currently available for viewing on Alter.

      Main photo: Celina Bernstein in a still from “The Perfect Place to Cry” – Shot by Matt Kleppner.