Experiencing Interruptions?

My Marilyn

A cautionary tale about a young, Marilyn Monroe-obsessed Actress (Courtney Morse) new to Hollywood who struggles with naiveté, delusions of grandeur and her own identity. As her Mother (Beverly Hyde) begs her to move back home to their small town, the aspiring Actress grows increasingly fond of her much older and suspiciously manipulative Boyfriend (Spencer Gibb).

  • Marcus Mizelle
    Director
    Actor For Hire, Half Empty, Snitched, The Reliever!
  • Jillian Longnecker
    Co-Producer
    Sausage Party, 20th Century Women, The Bad Batch, Wiener-Dog, Actor For Hire, Snitch, End of Watch
  • Marcus Mizelle
    Producer
    Actor For Hire, Three Skeleton Key, The Reliever!
  • Andrew Kolo
    Writer
  • Courtney Morse
    Key Cast
    The Perfect Weapon, Eleanora, Lost & Found
  • Beverly Hyde
    Key Cast
    Emma, Charlie and Hope, Moving Millie
  • Spencer Gibb
    Key Cast
    Hostage, The King, McCartney's Genes
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Drama, Romance, Cautionary Tale
  • Runtime:
    8 minutes 55 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    October 25, 2016
  • Production Budget:
    8,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    RED
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2:39
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Santa Barbara International Film Festival
    Santa Barbara
    United States
    February 9, 2017
    World Premiere
Director Biography - Marcus Mizelle

Multi faceted LA based film Director, Writer, Producer, DP and Editor, most recently of feature satire "Actor For Hire"- now being distributed by Gravitas Ventures after a 25 screen tour and much press in outlets such as The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, Indiewire, NoFilmSchool and more. Notable Accolades include: Virginia Film Festival - Narrative Staff Pick WINNER, Audience Award nom, Int. Film Festival North Hollywood - Best Narrative WINNER, Orlando Film Festival - Best Ensemble WINNER, Temecula Independent Film Festival - Best Comedy WINNER, Laugh Or Die Comedy Festival - Best Music WINNER & Director/Feature/Actor nom, HollyShorts - Best Narrative Monthly Screening WINNER, Other Venice Film Festival - Best Narrative nom and The Valley Film Festival - Best Narrative Jury Award nom. The film premiered at the historic Chinese Theatre in Hollywood with Dances With Films 18.

Producer of the upcoming film "Three Skeleton Key" and Director of music videos for G-Eazy, Aloe Blacc, Kevin Gates, Skizzy Mars, Roach Gigz, Kreayshawn, Poet of the Black Eyed Peas and more. Other past work includes over 30 short films including the award-winning comedies "The Reliever" and "The Buck Johnson Story" and award winning crime comedy feature "Half Empty". Among several other projects, Marcus is now in development on his next feature film "Chameleon", a crime thriller.

With 7 years in the lighting and camera department on over 50 major productions across the U.S. such as "21 Jump Street" and "Dark Places", Marcus is a technical minded, story-first director with emphasis on strong performance and theme within an engaging framework.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Meeting with writer/exec producer Andrew Kolo, who was looking for a Director/Producer to get the project going, was the beginning for myself. He loved my reel/past work and we just hit it off moment one. Once I read his initial script, I responded to the themes of persona, the allure of Hollywood etc. The icon that is Marilyn Monroe plus Hollywood itself are things I know many people respond to and that in itself was a motivating factor for me to begin developing the script into an engaging short film.

We felt a short was a perfect way to tell this story- engaging enough while also not wearing out our welcome with the audience. A glimpse into a young, impressionable girls life, new to Hollywood from her small middle America bubble. The simple structure: 1. A young girls love affair with Hollywood and older boyfriend Sonnet, and her resistance to her Mother’s concerns, 2. Her continued struggle with the two and 3. Her ultimate choice between the two. I felt this simple structure would make a nice, little short.

Working with writer/exec producer Andrew Kolo was a joy because he supported the project financially and also trusted me and my creative decisions the whole way through. Great energy and positivity which goes a very long way in the process of making a film.

CHALLENGES
Shooting on Hollywood Boulevard with a 3-person crew (myself included) and with no way of controlling foot traffic/sounds etc was just plain difficult for everyone. The solution was to simply over-shoot and do as many takes as possible, which I then used to find the final scene in the edit. The scene works well enough, thankfully, though flexibility with the final result was a must.

CASTING
Finding the right Marilyn was obviously essential. I put up a casting call and narrowed about 300 submissions down to 100, then down to 50. We held auditions for those 50 and Courtney Morse (18 years old) became the clear choice by the end of the week, due to her age, look and delivery- all fit the character in a way we thought would be most effective.

AUDIENCE INTENTION
What always shines definitely ain’t gold. To not buy something at face value, and to maybe look a little deeper sometimes instead of believing what is said but not shown. Oh, and to listen to your Mother, no matter how annoying that might be!