Experiencing Interruptions?

FADE OUT.

An immunocompromised performer, grounded by the pandemic, goes stir-crazy as she attempts to keep her passion alive while her connections to the world slowly slip away.

  • Lexi Danielson
    Director
  • Lexi Danielson
    Writer
  • Ciara Naughton
    Writer
  • Seth Alkhuja
    Writer
  • Lexi Danielson
    Producer
  • Devin Brimmer
    Producer
  • Ian Morley
    Producer
  • Atticus Rubottom
    Producer
  • Karin Edsall
    Key Cast
    "Vanessa Craine"
  • Ian Morley
    Key Cast
    "Doctor"
  • Sheila Wallis
    Key Cast
    "Stacey"
  • Agnes Scotti
    Key Cast
    "Theatre Group Member"
  • Jacquelyn Chin
    Key Cast
    "Theatre Group Member"
  • Linnea Carchedi
    Key Cast
    "Theatre Group Member"
  • Franchesca Cabrera
    Key Cast
    "Theatre Group Member"
  • Freddie Rabines
    Key Cast
    "Theatre Group Member"
  • Marley Schwarz
    Key Cast
    "Theatre Group Member"
  • Sophia Egner
    Key Cast
    "Theatre Group Member"
  • Ian Morley
    Editor
  • Devin Brimmer
    Director of Photography
  • Atticus Rubottom
    Sound Designer
  • Devin Brimmer
    Colorist
  • Ian Morley
    Set Photographer
  • Project Type:
    Short, Student
  • Runtime:
    10 minutes 30 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 10, 2021
  • Production Budget:
    1,018 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    Yes - Ithaca College
Director Biography - Lexi Danielson

Lexi Danielson is a filmmaker who believes in story being at the center of every piece. Her journey began as a book-savvy child obsessed with recreating those alternate realities. After a trip to a local car show with her father and a camera, she realized that these written stories could be recreated through images, and a newfound love of film was born. She began in an intensive Performing and Visual Arts program in public schools concentrating first in Creative Writing and then in Film and New Media for seven years and is currently completing her B.S. in Cinema and Photography at Ithaca College.

Danielson has worked in a variety of settings ranging from live sports broadcasting with the Washington Capitals to interactive programming with the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. Works include "How A Spark Dies," winner of Best Film at the PVA Film Festival, "Art Heals the Soul," her senior capstone about art therapy in Maryland and winner of the Performing and Visual Arts (PVA) Senior Capstone Outreach Award, and "What Happens to Light," an experimental short shot on 16mm film. 

She aims to infuse every piece she creates with a layered story based in personal connection, ultimately working to turn the ordinary themes underlying our society into extraordinary stories.

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Director Statement

When the spring 2021 semester began, the world looked drastically different than it had a year ago. Social gatherings transformed into Zoom calls or webinars, a normally bustling downtown became a ghost town, and the college experience was thrust into a new level of uncertainty and rigor.

As an introvert, this didn’t initially bother me. I had always been happiest in my small close-knit group of friends, preferring to collaborate in small chunks of time better suited to Zoom calls than in-person meetings. Yet the constant grieving of missed connections, isolation, and entrapment slowly ate at me. In normal times, I would often prefer solitude, but when the constantly collaborating, vibrant community of filmmakers and fellow artists was ripped away, I longed for it.

Vanessa functions as a reflection of my experience over the past year. She’s a wanderer, unable to stay in one place for long, kept aloft by her passion rather than a steady social network. She works in a collaborative art form, one that lends itself to constant connection and changing ideas and doesn’t translate well to the virtual world. When she’s forced into isolation, she turns to creative pursuits to stay sane, unwilling to give up the community that had provided comfort for so long. Yet this mindset ends up being her downfall.

Humans are extraordinarily social creatures - in fact this is what makes us so unique. Social patterns, connections, and communities are what has sustained us for millennia, and it is what will hopefully keep the species alive in the future. Connecting with other humans, even if it is by mere proximity, is what keeps us sane. To be forced into isolation is to destroy the very thing that makes us human, and it is this slow descent into madness, especially as she strives to return to her community again and again, that Vanessa acts as a warning against. I hope that this film acts as a reminder of the importance of connection, and the dire consequences that come with uninvited solitude.