A short comedy I wrote and directed is debuting at film festivals next month.

It’s called I Got This. It’s a 22-minute reworking of a feature film script I wrote a few years back, about a young couple who scheme to get DNA samples from three men who could be the father of the daughter he has been helping to raise, believing she was his.

You can watch the trailer below, get more info with the film’s website, or even follow my festival progress by liking its Facebook page. 

I GOT THIS Trailer from Erik Bork on Vimeo.

I haven’t directed since my film school days at Wright State University in Ohio (where the new motion picture production building is named for Tom Hanks!), but I decided a few years ago that I wanted to pursue the writer-director route, and of course a short is a classic way to begin doing that. I was fortunate to be able to enlist a few younger graduates from Wright State who have moved to Los Angeles in recent years, who helped me get it made affordably — including its producer, cinematographer, and composer.

The cast includes a couple of actors I worked with on Band of Brothers, two others who were recommended by friends (including female lead Rome Shadanloo). I stumbled upon the actor who would become the male lead, Jack De Sena, while surfing through IMDb profiles of actors about the right age for the role. He has a very strong sketch and improv comedy background, and recently has been seen on series like Veep and Lie to Me. A casting director I worked with on Band was willing to reach out to his agent to make the introduction, and thankfully, he liked the script enough to agree to do it.

If I had to choose a favorite genre as both a fan and a writer, it would be “smart edgy comedies with heart.” That’s not what I’m known for professionally, at this point, but the features I’ve been writing lately all fit into this category — one of which I would like to direct next, after raising the financing (probably about $1,000,000).

I definitely learned a lot in the process of making this film, including where you can save money and where you might need to spend more than you hoped. Locations were particularly challenging, as we needed a coffee shop and several other retail-type businesses, which required us begging owners to shut down their operations, or let us use them when they weren’t open. One thing we didn’t spend money on was permits, meaning that the cities we filmed in (Malibu, Agoura Hills, Thousand Oaks and Oak Park) didn’t legally sanction us shooting, so in theory the police could’ve shut us down on any of our five days of production. We took a chance with this, because permits could easily cost $1000 a day, and most of our scenes didn’t seem like they would attract a lot of attention, or interfere with the public.

I made sure all the actors had enough film and TV credits that I could feel pretty secure about what kind of performances to expect. This meant they’d all be members of SAG-Aftra, so I’d need a contract with the union. Fortunately, it offers a pretty sweet deal to short film producers. In the end, it was really gratifying to see how the cast elevated my script into something I found to be pretty delightful.

On-set sound recording is an area where you really don’t scrimp, because bad sound can kill a film’s chances even more than issues with camera and lighting. So while some crew members might work for free or very cheaply, it’s usually worth doing to pay a professional sound recordist’s closer to their asked-for rate (which we did).

I also learned that if you have any kids in your film (we had a delightful 3-year-old), you need to hire a “studio teacher” to be on set to watch out for their welfare, even if their parents are there, and they’re only working a few hours, and aren’t being “taught” anything.

Mostly I came away confirming that I love directing and have an affinity for it — and that it will be great, in the future, to have more money and more help — as the “prep” process got pretty overwhelming leading up to the shoot (though the shoot itself was a blast).

At some point the film may be available for watching online — but while it’s making its festival run, it can’t be. But if you happen to be in Orlando or Dubuque next month and feel like watching some shorts in a theatre, you’re in luck! And hopefully there will be many more festivals to come — which will be announced on the film’s website and Facebook page.

Please leave comments if you have any questions about making shorts (or web series or low budget indies in general) that you think I might have thoughts on — and I will offer some!