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JANUARY | PAGE 14 | 2015 week or two. I was on a skiing trip in Chile, summer before last, and I was too injured to ski. I holed up in my room and probably wrote over half of it in that one week. LOCATION, LOCATION. I chose all of the general locations for the film. (Marty did details on things like scenes in our house.) On all, I went around with my cinematographer, San Banarje, and we painstakingly sought out restaurants, hotels and a few outside-Houston locations. It is not easy to find the right location, and once you do, then the proprietors have to agree to let you film there. Rick Ferguson at the Houston Film Commission was very helpful in making film-friendly suggestions such as Hotel Granduca in Uptown Park. Fortunately, we were able to film half a dozen or so scenes at my house, and Michael Zilkha, my friend and office landlord, graciously allowed us to film in his incredible offices. My uncle, Marvy Finger, allowed me to film at One Park Place, the great high-rise apartment downtown next to Discovery Green. I went to New York a day in advance of everyone to scout locations. Although a very film-friendly city, there is so much to consider when choosing a location — car traffic and street traffic being two big ones. Also, ambient sound must be somewhat muted to both hear the actors and feel the ambiance. Several scenes are done around Gramercy Park — nice scenery, not too loud or crowded, so plenty of room for the dolly and to maneuver the camera. PENNING DIALOGUE. Originally the screenplay was around 110 pages, but I made the mistake of many first-time screenwriters: I had way too much dialogue and not enough action. A little "action" can tell a few pages of dialogue in 30 seconds. A cousin of mine who had worked in Hollywood as a script editor made some constructive criticisms. After various revisions, my dialogues became cleaner, more concise and flowed much better. We shot 15 hours of film. At the end of the day, a writer has to divorce himself from personal feelings and be objective to keep the film moving. TRUTH OR FICTION. The story for the film comes from no particular incidents or biography of any particular couple. That said, marriage and infidelity are universal and have existed since shortly after the Garden of Eden. ON CASTING. We did a casting call in L.A. for two days and probably auditioned over 100 actors. At that time, we were not a SAG [Screen Actors Guild] film. SAG, the union, has many constraining work rules and paperwork requirements, which add a lot of cost to a film. That said, Charlie O'Connell is a SAG actor, so in order to get him, we took the leap to become a SAG film. This opened up a lot of opportunities to get other actors. For example, we were then able to cast the wife of Gene Simmons [of KISS fame], Shannon Tweed and daughter, Sophie Simmons. ABOUT THE IMPECCABLE SIR EDWARD. He is British actor Gary Raymond. We started looking for UK actors when, after auditioning about a dozen in L.A., we couldn't find anyone with a proper accent. Also, I wanted someone with an aristocratic air, which I think he played perfectly. ON OLIVER'S LOVE INTEREST. We auditioned Caroline Tudor in L.A. Marty is great friends with her mom, Phoebe Tudor, so I knew that Caroline had graduated from USC theater school. I like the idea of working with bright people. ON CASTING YOURSELF AS THE ROMANTIC LEAD. I had no prior experience as an actor. Trisha Ray, my producer from Next Actor Studio and Lake Camp Productions, gave me a couple of lessons, but that was it. As writer and director, I had a vision for what I wanted my character to be, so it really wasn't that hard. LOGISTICS. The film took 25 days to shoot: 22 in Houston and three in NYC. It is critical to stay on time, because each extra day costs a lot of money — paying actors and crew, hotel rooms and meals, camera rental, etc. We were only one day over our schedule, which in retrospect I thought was pretty good. WHAT YOU LEARNED ABOUT FILMMAKING. I had no idea how many steps and how complicated it is to complete a film — two months of preproduction (getting locations, signing actor contracts, SAG paperwork, assembling camera crew, sound people, production assistants, equipment rental and scheduling). After filming, you have editing, re-editing, acquiring music licenses, arranging the music, filling in all the necessary background sounds. In my case, I also hired an opera singer to make some original recordings. NEXT STEP. I've entered about 20 film festivals, including some big ones like Telluride, but have not been accepted to any yet. PARTING THOUGHTS. When you are the writer, you have a vision for the film — how you want characters to look and act. So even though I was nervous at first, I pretended like I had done it 50 times. I tried to read a book on directing but got really bored. One day on the job is probably worth about 10 books. Directing is also about improving. Even though I had been to every location and mapped out a plan for each scene, things don't always go as planned, and many on-the-spot decisions must be made. I loved it. I definitely want to do it again. I am kicking around ideas, but the muse has not visited yet. MARTHA FINGER Set Designer THE PERFECT LOCATIONS. Our home was used in much of the movie. The home in the movie was in New York, so I took the area in front of our fireplace and made it the dining room; in New York brownstones, the spaces are small and intimate. YOUR PROCESS. This is my first film. I would dream of the scenes every night, visualizing how to set the tables, cook the dinners and figure out colors and if the food and flowers worked together, and how it would play off each other in the camera. HOW YOU CAME TO BE SET DESIGNER. I was not planning on being a part of the film. Richard hired a stylist and set designer, but after about a day, he was, like, "This is not my vision." So all of a sudden, I was giving him ideas for the set and the main characters' clothing. Then Richard said, "Would you just help?" I did all the clothing and styling for Richard and Emily and Ava. I did the set designs for many of the scenes or was on the phone giving ideas. Emily, the main character, was exactly my size, so I scrapped the clothes the stylist brought and dressed her out of my closet. AVA FINGER Supporting Actress ACTING CHOPS. I haven't had any real acting background besides the eighth- grade play I was in last year. I also did drama class last year and am currently enrolled in Theatre 1. MOST MEMORABLE LINE. My favorite quote is: "If not, you should be." I say this after I ask my Dad [Charles] if he's embarrassed for his actions. CAROLINE TUDOR Female Lead THE ROAD TO ACTING. I didn't do any high school plays; mostly I did music and dance. I was really involved with the Lamar Chorale [Lamar High School]. I've been singing and studying music all my life. I was in a group when I was living in London with my family as a kid. We were called the Capital Children's Choir and would travel around performing, doing things like performing for the Pope at the Vatican and singing on the Spice Girls reunion tour. We would record albums every year at Abbey Road Studios. That's what taught me to love to perform. I've been acting since I was about 16. I got started through my modeling agency, Page Parkes, in Houston. They also represent actors and asked if I wanted to try it out, so I did and found that it was something I loved. ON-SET HIGH JINKS. When shooting the scene when I find out that Oliver is cheating on me, we had to figure out how to throw huge pieces of breakable objects at him without causing a mess. You have to film scenes multiple times from different angles so that when you edit it, you can cut it up and put it together. So we couldn't be breaking our props. I ended up throwing these huge heavy things into a towel that one of the production assistants was holding. It was hard to aim for it and make sure I was hitting my target so I didn't hurt Charlie (aka Oliver) and I didn't break any props. It was cool to be able to go crazy and totally lose it. That's something I never get to do in real life. Richard Finger Ava Finger Caroline Tudor Martha Finger