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For the 21CF Directors Lab I have decided to submit my short film "A Reprise" and my feature film "The Colours of Desire" - both of which are very different kinds of films. A Reprise was made in 2013 with a very modest budget and a crew composed of local Cleveland-area creatives. Filming took 2 days in the middle of summer. I've always wanted to do a film that involved a mental health, and particularly the vastness of the imagination within someone who suffers from severe mental health. Its a subject that is very near and dear to me, and I hope to someday make A Reprise into a more dynamic and complex feature film that dives deep into a character who struggles with severe mental instability. The Colours of Desire was an extreme exercise in surrealist filmmaking. Made with a shoestring budget and a cast of talented theater actors, I wanted to create a film that felt like stepping into a dream. I wanted to play with atmosphere and setting. I was heavily influenced by the works of Ingmar Bergman and David Lynch particularly the films: The Seventh Seal, Persona, Wild Strawberries, and Mulholland Drive. We shot Colours in 15 days in various parts of Cleveland, and post-production took several months to complete. I am extremely proud of the work we did with this film, particularly because we achieved something so different. I didn't want this to feel like a contemporary film. I wanted this film to feel aged but not dated. The process of making such a strange and stylistically different film gave me confidence and certainty to tackle any project to come no matter the scale. The film is currently touring festivals around the world.