The Creation of "Friends Like Mine"

5/30/2013

Champagne toast at wrap! Photo credit: Vanessa Champagne (How appropriate!)

Only two and a half months ago, I went up to a cabin in North Georgia for a little writer's retreat weekend and came back to Atlanta with a sweet little gem of a screenplay. My very first screenplay... ever. "Friends Like Mine" was born from the inspiration of a friend who had a strange experience, then morphed into a story from the other person's point of view. Not only did it turn out to be endearing and heartwarming, without even realizing what I'd put on paper and how it could be interpreted by people of varying backgrounds, the script turned out to be touching to every person who read it, and for completely different reasons. Reasons I hadn't even thought about in advance. I just wrote from

my heart and it's amazing to see how each person has been affected by it in a deeply personal way.

"Friends Like Mine" is the story of Lewis, a quirky, endearing shut-in who strives for perfection, but learns what so many struggle to come to terms with-- there's more beauty in the imperfections.

Photo credit: Vanessa Champagne

The wondrously gifted Vince Pisani brings Lewis to life in an honest, heartfelt performance, along side the talented Jamie Miles and Heidi Rew, who shine in their supporting roles. In our crew, we had the best director of photography that I could ask for, Dan Koterba, and Ben Wolf, who was a champ at recording all of our audio. Dominick Racano was not only the co-writer and executive producer, but he also assisted me in direction. I couldn't have done any of this without him, his wisdom and generosity. Principal photography wrapped up this past Monday, May 27th, and now we're on to the editing process with Eric Hollinshead. I can't wait to see everything we filmed this past weekend get pieced together.

Photo credit: Vanessa Champagne

Peruse a handful of my favorite photos posted here, then go "like" the Scattered Films Facebook page to see all of the photos we took behind the scenes. We plan to submit this to several film festivals across the US and internationally. We'll keep everyone updated of the progress and hope to see you at one of them! THANK YOU to our friends, family and fans for all of your support!