You Ruin Everything
PRE-PRODUCTION
At the end of April 2022, a few weeks before I turned 27, my friends Vogue (writer/director) and Tori (actor) decided to come visit me for my birthday. Why not make a film while they’re here? The last one we worked on together was a life changing experience, and of course, this one would be too. I was excited to show them what the Salt Lake City film community was about.
Vogue had written a fever dream of a script on a plane that week. She sent it my way, we discussed, edited it, I called my DP, they were on board. I got the number of a talented production designer - he wasn’t sold. “This film is like everything you’d ever want to say to an ex, someone who cheated on you, didn’t treat you right, broke your heart.” He was in. Vogue found a stylist, we built the rest of the crew, she asked her cousin who happened to have an apartment in SLC if we could shoot at his house and voila - we’re ready to go.
PRODUCTION
The night before we began production Vogue, Tori and I all got tattoos. It’s my first and I think it’s cute. Anyway, we began production on a Saturday, all in one location. Our prod designer replaced the posters as our stylist made our ladies look uniquely sexy and angry, we had an amazing gaffer who blasted the big garage window with a dreamy source light, and we filled the room with enough haze to make Cypress Hill proud. We filmed into the night, repeated the next day, and wrapped the shoot with a golden hour scene of our star Miah sprinting down the street. The film was in the can.
POST-PRODUCTION
On Vogue and my previous film, “Are There Bobcats in New Jersey?”, we found her style of editing. Jumpy, jarring, confusing, and above all, unsettling. I brought in a younger editor Yein to help me cut the film, translating our style into another film. As the edit started to take shape, I followed up with a talented composer Brendan Void who had reached out to me about the Bobcats film. He built us an eerie, heartwarming sonic landscape to complement the story in the film. We locked, Vogue and I fought over whether the color should be cold “Terminator” vibes or warm “Chungking Express” feels, and we leaned towards her sensibility to give the film a loving energy. Her friend Javi mixed it, we conformed, and sent it out to film festivals. Time to start marketing!