House Lights
House Lights is aabout eighteen minute film in length, and is a short film about a group of actors and their dynamics on the stage, and off.
Directed by Micah Taylor, the film starts with the poignant line of ‘Aspirations are a collection of desires that we spend our lives ruining, or self-sabotaging.’ The truth is, we can also spend our lives achieving, and this film does for the most part.
The films begins with auditions, and the director and her actor-roommate, helping her to make casting decisions. There is a mix of comedy and drama, as our characters perform on a short run production in an off-broadway production. This ensemble cast is a dysfunction collection of characters who all have their own agendas. The director/writer of the play wants critical success, but is thwarted because she kicked the cat belonging to her roommate, and that roommate has now become a renowned theater critic. Natalie, the most current roommate of the director and female lead of the play, is pursing her own career as an actress, but also pursuing a romantic relationship with her leading man. However, a love triangle is developing between the leading man, Natalie, and another male actor in the play. Together, the neurosis of all character threaten their futures, their friendships and romances, and their theater careers.
House Lights are when the lights come up in the theater, and reality is exposed. With this film, the realities are faced by each character and their relationships, their ambitions, and their futures. When the director-writer kicks the cat of her former roommate, she threatens her future as a budding playrite, and assumes that she will never be forgiven for this egregious act. And when the lead actor lets his leading lady know that he is moving to Los Angeles to pursue his acting career, she feels betrayed at not knowing and that he would consider leaving without her.
This was a low budget short film that utilized camera angels and performances well. Lighting and music were effective and appropriate, and costumes worked well for the characters. This simple film benefited from a small cast, and a budget-sensitive script that was shot in a single location and maximized the budget. It was somewhat dialogue heavy, but the dialogue was natural-sounding and suitable for the story.
HOUSE LIGHTS is an honest reflection of what the opening line was all about. Like our leading man said, ‘Aspirations are a collection of desires that we spend our lives ruining or self-sabotaging.’ That is often what making movies is about. We work so hard to get a short film, or a feature made, and sometimes we can ruin the opportunities or sabotage ourselves because we don’t truly believe we can or should succeed. In this story, that nearly happens with each of our characters, just as it happens with the play itself. We must all be careful of this dire warning and be aware that success really is ours for the taking, if we simply don’t sabotage our opportunities and the hard work they took to achieve.
