Inspiration and Pre-Production:
The original idea for this short focused mostly on a guy that would check his smart phone to look smart on the outside. I was thinking about how many times I’ve relied upon my iPhone to find information in the moment (not necessarily with the goal of looking smart, but because I’m so hungry for information in the moment…hmm, maybe sometimes the former actually did play out).

I started to play with that idea and developed Pretentious. As a confession, I had only written the first scene by the time it was time to film (note to self: don’t do this… often).

Production:
I was actually in San Luis Obispo to film another video (“Rhythm of Love,” to be released soon) and since I had the luxury of having many actors at my disposal (friends from Cal Poly), it would be good to try and tackle filming Pretentious. So on the afternoon that I was supposed to leave back for SF, I gathered a few willing souls to take on the parts that the script called for.

After filming the first scene, we pretty much improvised. I had a few loose ideas in my head of how I wanted things to progress and end, but I have to thank Joel, Bandy, and Ryan for helping me along in that process. Not surprisingly, however, was Joel’s uncanny way of taking on his part as Charles as his own… I guess he was naturally built for characters like that.

We shot the video in 3 hours in my old house’s living room.

Final Product: