Cycle of the Blessed

“In entering a multitude of short film, 24, and 48 hour film festivals, I noticed several trends. Most prominently, I noticed that many of the submissions tried to, for a lack of a better phrase, do too much. They try to expand these great treaties on life and philosophy, without taking into account their time constraints. I believe many of them were artistically solid, beautifully shot and acted, but given they hand under 10 minutes to tell their story, it just didn't translate. Not that it’s not possible, it is, and has been done, but it’s incredibly difficult. I had even fallen into this pitfall. So I wanted to do something radically different. I thought, why not do the opposite? Instead of taking them on a journey from the beginning, why not start at the end? So in writing CYCLE OF THE BLESSED, I decided to throw the audience into what immediately felt like the climax to a longer, feature film. As if, when flipping the channel, they landed on the last 10 minutes of a film. I purposefully wanted the viewers to feel like there was story that they didn’t see, I wanted to temp the imagination with little clues as they filled in the
story with their own thoughts and ideas. We believed this method would allow us to properly tell a story, without the constraints of exposition.
Just throw them right into the fire, and take them on a climactic ride. So once my team and I decided on the concept for the story, I fleshed out the idea for the final script. Our idea was to simplify the actual production, since we only had 24 hours to shoot, edit and present the film. One location for the finale then; check. However, once the foundation was set, we knew we had to expand on the idea. To take it further. So to add to the juggle, we decided to shoot the entire movie in a single, elaborate one-take. Our thought process was such: if we can streamline the story and production, throw the audience into the narrative full force, make them fill in the blanks from the small cues as to their situation, we can create a story that was captivating and compelling, even if your head is spinning the whole time trying to get a handle on what was happening. The process was such a joy to champion, I’m so proud of my team for all their hard work.”
- Peter Herold

“A directing mentor once taught me that we only show about 10% of our emotions since we fear the judgement that others may cast on our full emotional complexity. Due to the hidden nature of our own emotions, we subconsciously become masters of reading emotions from others. With Cycle of the Blessed, Peter, Adam and I wanted to explore this idea by creating an emotionally ambiguous moment of crisis with absolutely no context.
We wanted the film to act as a Rorschach test, encouraging viewers to imprint their own emotions onto the characters during the climax of an unknown story. Since we are all a product of our past, we shape the story based on our own emotional responses to the characters. 
Shot over the course of 24 hours on a bare bones budget, this production would not have been possible without the collaborative spirit of our 8-member crew of friends. From coffee runs, to lugging gear, everyone eagerly pitched in, wearing whatever ‘hats’ were necessary to ensure the production’s success. CYCLE OF THE BLESSED was made possible through their tireless commitment to creating a film together, and I am immensely grateful for the opportunity to have worked with them.
- Jack Anderson

“For me CYCLE OF THE BLESSED is about the necessity of walking through something rather than around it, even though it terrifies us.”
- Adam Wright