CulDeSac

CulDeSac is influenced by true events I witnessed growing up as a native of North Jacksonville. This inspired me to create a story focusing on young characters who have yet to discover the weight of the world. An authentic and personal view of troubled teenage children coming-of-age in a present-day world where gun violence is becoming a larger and larger issue in America. I felt the need to address the impact it can have on a young victim and the surrounding community.

This film is designed around the resources I have immediate access to financially, and thematically. This is a challenge for me in certain ways and a supporting element to the inherent style of the film. This approach to filmmaking required me to be creative with the build of my production without limiting my range storytelling and world creation. Many of the ideas in this film are centered around the need to work on a “no-budget platform” and as a result the film is based in real world experiences that I have observed growing up around my childhood home. I believe the story I am telling is one that benefits from this financial influence.

Cul-De-Sac focuses on a neighborhood of empty fields and claustrophobic scenery. The area of North Jacksonville being depicting has a void of businesses, several abandoned houses, overgrowing greenery, and a pre scene of decaying and rusted objects. Something about the character of this environment is rooted in its bareness and the fact that it is untouched by gentrification. To an outside perspective it may seem empty, but from the perspective of my child protagonists, Jeremiah and Kevin, it is the source of their imagination, a playground, and a backdrop for staging their lives. The result of using an “empty” location is that it immediately gives a tone and inherent character to the set and requires me as a filmmaker to use imaginative storytelling to paint a picture for the audience that there is more that meets the eye.