Laurie's Day is loosely based on the screenplay Being There by Jack Lent-Degele, which was a beautifully written argument between two estranged siblings over what to do about their dying mother. I sought out an interpretation of his script that was visually expressive, and so I expanded on Jack's characters and prose with a spoken word theatrical performance.
Laurie's Day was my third film and continued a trend that holds in my shorts even today. They all have some kind of purple prose in the VO. I place great stock in the expressive capabilities of spoken language, and monologues allow certain freedoms where dialogues do not - and extraordinary circumstances such as the play in Laurie's Day allow yet more freedoms.
I wrote, directed and edited Laurie's Day for the 2017 Santa Barbara International Film Festival's 10-10-10 Contest, where it won Best Student Film. It went on to receive UCSB's Corwin award for Best Directing and Best Family Drama at the Big Hero International Film Festival. You can watch the full film below: