Voicemails
Cal has recently lost his brother Dan in a tragic car accident. Cal and Dan were the closest of brothers, and they were more like best friends with each other. Cal has always had alot of difficulty in opening up about anything, and he has a habit of holding in everything that he is feeling. When he gets the news of his brother's passing he does not want to accept it, or even talk about it, and he just holds on to everything he is feeling inside. Cal has a lot of guilt about his brother's death, thinking that if he had been there with his brother, he would not have been involved in a car accident.
Cal decides to listen to a group of voicemails on his phone alone in his brother's room hoping that they are about something other than his brother to take his mind off of his death. He expects that all of the voicemails are all going to be spam, or pointless things that he can listen to to try to distract himself from everything. All of the voicemails are about his brother and they keep his mind on him but not in the way he died, but rather in the way that he lived. Cal leaves listening to the voicemails with a now positive outlook. Cal now knows that his brother will always be with him, even if that does not mean in the physical sense. He will always be with him in his heart.
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Andrew ShafferDirector
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Andrew ShafferWriter
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Ben DonnellyProducer
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Gabe StoneProducer
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Jonathan CoradinKey Cast"Cal"
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George NicodemusKey Cast"Dan"
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Bertem DemirtasKey Cast"George"
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Sydney SchepisiKey Cast"Catherine"
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James FedorkoKey Cast"Answering Machine"
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Kajwan AlaviDirector of Photography
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Isaias SeguiSound Mixer
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Jack KellyBoom Operator
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Bailey KearnsScript Supervisor
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Aidan MorrisAssistant Director
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Liam TiplerSound Designer
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Patrice PannellEditor
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Erica WorthingtonColor Grader
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Tania GarciaProduction Assistant
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Project Type:Short, Student
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Runtime:9 minutes 27 seconds
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Country of Origin:United States, United States
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Country of Filming:United States, United States
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Language:English
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Shooting Format:digital
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Aspect Ratio:16:9
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:No
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Student Project:Yes - GMU
Andrew Shaffer is a senior film and video studies major at George Mason University whose short films have been screened at the GMU Film Festival and the Widescreen Film Festival. Andrew is a screenwriter whose main focus is directing, and his topics of choice relate to real-world struggles. Andrew's short film "Sight" deals with trauma-induced blindness, and his senior thesis film "Voicemails" explores one young man's experience with grief after the loss of his younger brother.
I made "Voicemails" because grief and loss are familiar to everyone. I wanted to create a story to convey the following message: just because someone you love has passed away, that doesn't mean that they are gone. That person will always be in your memory, and in your heart. I wanted this story to resonate with anyone, but most of all with people who have experienced loss. I started working on this script shortly after my grandfather passed away, and it was difficult for me to fully express my feelings. I hope that my experience, as reflected in the script, wlll be therapeutic to audience members who have lost a loved one. Making "Voicemails" has certainly been helpful to me.