I Directed My First Short Film
And Had Too Much Fun Using My Photo Archive to Dress the Set
I was out to lunch with my friend Brian Michael Smith when I decided, fuck it, I’m writing and directing a short film. You might know Brian. He’s a talented actor, an LGBTQ advocate, and, fun fact, featured in one of those People magazine “Sexiest Men Alive” issues. He spent the last five years playing Paul Strickland, a firefighter on 9-1-1: Lone Star, a role that showed the world how magnetic and nuanced a trans character (played by a trans actor!) could be.
Off-screen, Brian is just as impressive: thoughtful, grounded, charming, and extremely organized. Like, he’s a super spreadsheet guy, especially when it comes to his creative pursuits and tracking his projects and growth as an artist. I love this about him because I wish I had that kind of structure in my own process.
He’s also got quite a range.
When Lone Star wrapped, Brian went into full make-your-own-work mode. Like many of us in TV and film, he suddenly had some downtime – but instead of taking a break, he dove straight into creating. He started writing and collaborating on short microfilms, usually under five minutes, to stay sharp and gain experience with friends who didn’t want to sit still either. He’s been focused on everything from choreographing complex fight montages to landing quick comedic scenes that have made me cackle with joy. So when he told me to hit him up if I ever wanted to collaborate, I was like, wait, yes, duh, of course!
I went home and wrote a one-scene psychological thriller with Brian in mind—something we could shoot at home, using what we had, not for studios or profit. This was all about trying something new and seeing what we could pull off together. This short is about a guy named Marcus who sells scammy timeshares from a cozy remote job, and what happens when a carefully scripted phone call goes… completely off-script. The idea was inspired by the four months I spent selling timeshares in the year 2000. We weren’t allowed to hang up or let the person on the other end say “no” and had to stick to the script, always responding with, “I can appreciate that,” before pushing the sale again. With a small team of generous, creative friends who said yes to filming over a single day, including the brilliant Jamie Manelis as the woman Marcus connects with on the other line, I CAN APPRECIATE THAT was off and running.
One of the most unexpectedly joyful parts—outside of writing the five pages, prepping to direct, having a mild panic attack in the days leading up to the shoot over the height of a chair, and then finally seeing it all come to life on the monitor with Brian’s take—was the set decoration! We transformed Brian’s real-life home office/gym into Marcus’s workspace. During prep, I kept asking myself: What do we want to say about this guy based on what’s on his desk? Who is staring back at him?
Naturally, I raided my archive of vintage photos to build his history. I picked a short stack from the 1950s to the early 2000s that felt like they could belong in Marcus’s world—imagined family and friends, photos he might keep to remember where he comes from, who he lost, or who he’s trying to protect. I’ve found these photos from various estate sales and antique store tubs in Brooklyn and Los Angeles.
The day before the shoot, I showed them to Brian and asked him to pick a few. Here are a couple shots I took of corners of the set with some of his choices.
It’s exhilarating to not just write a world, but to visually build it from scratch and decide which parts to reveal to the audience. Even though the entertainment industry feels a bit unwell, and is like completely unrecognizable from how it looked to me when I landed in my first writer’s room in 2017, this slowdown/shift has nudged me. Or, maybe it shoved me. I was always scared to make a short film. It felt overwhelming. Impossible. And for some reason much harder to write than a TV pilot. But thanks to Brian – and the way he’s making things happen for himself to stay creative in a time when a lot of us desperately miss working and want to prove we can still do the thing – I did it.
We officially wrapped the shoot and I’m now in the paper edit stage. I’m handing off the footage to my editor in a few days. It’s a collaborative journey—and hopefully the first of many (or at least a solid handful) film adventures.
When I CAN APPRECIATE THAT is complete, don’t worry, I’ll share updates and the link right here on Brag Book! Thanks for following along, and flame on, dear friends!
What a feat, Amos! Can't wait to see this.
CAN'T WAIT TO WATCH!