The Bench

At the end of 2019 I decided to try my hand at writing my first screenplay. Having recently graduated from the U.S. public education system, I watched the different directions taken by friends and pondered the prescribed paths that we had been taught to value. I wrote the screenplay in a frenzied purge.

This was my first attempt at a technically professional film and I knew I wanted to start with something logistically simple that could be shot by a small crew on a tight budget. I wanted a single setting and a limited number of characters, just enough so they could each find commonalities and differences over the course of a brief encounter. Many of us have had momentary exchanges with a stranger at a park bench at some point in our lives. The camaraderie of a shared park bench can console and inspire in unexpected ways.

I had not yet planned what my next steps would be for this screenplay, but a couple of days after finishing my first draft of The Bench, I saw a post from a DP on a film chat group. He was looking to collaborate on a narrative project. Even though I wasn’t quite sure if I was ready to move forward, the timing and the opportunity were so fortuitous that I sent him my freshly penned screenplay. He liked my attention to the technical requirements of setting and was up for shooting my film. We spent the next month or so planning and creating the story boards with a goal of shooting in March of 2020. I reached out to a friend for AD and Production assistance. A crew was starting to come together. As we began compiling the crew and equipment needs and posted our audition call, Covid 19 was making itself known and we had to quickly adjust our plans. We switched to online/video auditions and pulled together a crew of professional and semi-professional experience levels, who were willing to commit to an undefined shoot date in the future. Once we had cast the film, we began rehearsing virtually, which ended up giving us more time to prepare and develop.

By the end of summer 2020, we were able to start making tentative plans for our shoot date and get our permits approved. The film was shot over two wonderful and cold days in early October at the Washington Park Arboretum. The crew was fantastic and everyone worked together to bring The Bench to life. The next ten months were spent doing post production via remote communications and learning what we missed in the planning and shooting phases! And yet we still figured out how to pull together the vision that inspired the screenplay a year and a half earlier. I've always been someone who learns best by doing. The Bench was a marvelous learning experience every step of the way, a wonderful collaboration of talented and hardworking people, and a great introduction into the professional culture of filmmaking.