My thesis, Unsettled, is a short dramatic comedy that follows a dissatisfied, middle-aged art teacher who reconnects with a lost love by helping his student get the girl he likes. It’s a touching story about regret and acceptance that is loosely influenced by an art teacher who was very inspirational to me.
Unsettled came to me when I was going
through a marital separation, and I experienced a lot of guilt for the
way I felt as I wrestled between satisfying myself or somebody else.
But then I was accepted to USC and my life changed; I realized that
people do get second chances, and that nobody should feel guilt about
the way they feel – the most satisfying life is one that satisfies only
you.
Robert and Charlie are
every bit of me as they are of each other, as I have recently been
forced to relive some of the choices I made and reconcile with them,
evaluating where they have taken me and what might’ve been; Robert is
the result that one path may have taken me, Charlie another. Though Unsettled
is a film about the disappointment that reality can present, it is also
a film that shows dreams never die and that regret can turn into hope.
By telling this story I want to show that failed dreams don’t mean
wasted lives, that there is deeper meaning in not letting chances slip
by, and that you can't ever predict which choice is the right one. In a
way, the story is therapeutic for me, but I believe the themes are
ones that most people experience, and through Robert and Charlie,
they’ll see that second chances do exist.
I am bringing the production to the Lake Geneva area of Wisconsin this June to shoot at my old high school and around town; it is important to me that the movie have an authenticity in its locations, and I want to bring business and recognition back to the area I grew up in and that had been such an important and influential part of my life.