SHORT FILM: THRESHOLD — Marquee | Film & Video Production

I close my eyes

and I disappear

a calmness in the dark

I open up and the world is new

alone with only thoughts

There is something deeply insidious about isolation.

It’s been as common a theme in cinematic history as it has been a theme of human existence but in the quarantined-tinged year of 2020, it felt omnipresent. Even those of us who kept working outside of our homes and interacting with people, there was a new wall. An uncertainty of each other and the threat of a silent, invisible killer lingering in the space between our faces changed our concept of reality indefinitely.

We collectively stood on the Threshold of a new reality.

AVOID ENCLOSED SPACES

We started filming Threshold in March of 2021. The principal set was a small apartment, owned by actor and friend J.P. Lebangood, nestled in historic Old Louisville. For the purposes of the script, it was ideal. The tight corners and erratic layout were almost a visual representation of what co-writers Mike Thompson and Joe Stockton wanted to convey about the dizzying ways the human mind can spiral in isolation.

For the purposes of production, though, it was a jigsaw puzzle, to say the least. We were originally supposed to have access to a neighboring apartment to store gear during the shoot but when it was rented out a week prior to the shoot, we had to figure out a way to utilize every corner of the apartment for the scenes themselves without catching a glimpse of the reality behind the camera. It was a maddening choreography with gear moving in and out of rooms, battery charging stations being hidden inside of washing machine basins, and monitor stations squeezed beside cat trees in closets. But, we made it work.

One of the writers, Joe, is a composer and sound designer. During 2020, the owner of the apartment had converted one room into a sound booth to get voiceover work while productions remained indefinitely on hold. It was a perfect career to give the main character and we already had the room for it. What could be more maddening for an already agoraphobic woman than listening to her own voice in headphones all day?

But, that win wasn’t without its own complications. The room was perfect for most of what we needed to capture but the booth itself was too small to shoot a scene inside with an actor and gear. So, director and co-writer, Mike, did what anyone would do and enlisted his best friend and wife to build a second booth offsite in our downtown office that could match the existing booth and fit the gear and talent. With a few touches over the green screen from SFX artist Christopher Shiner, the viewer would be hard-pressed to know there was a location change at all.

STAY SAFE AT HOME

Home is where you should feel safest. It’s the most familiar space you can occupy, surrounded by your things, your scents, and your sounds. In Threshold, the maddening part of spending too much time at home alone is brought to the forefront, interpreting how many of us felt last year when we lost the ability to leave our homes and go about our daily lives.

Everyone who worked on this film lives in Louisville, KY. Our first day of filming was March 13, 2021. One year, to the day, after Breonna Taylor was shot by Louisville Metro Police Officers while she was in her own home. The COVID mantra “Stay Safe at Home” felt like a double-edged sword throughout the gut-wrenching summer that followed the original mandates being put in effect on March 16, 2020. Three days after Breonna Taylor taught the world that home can still be a dangerous place.

On that first night of the production, we were expecting to deal with police siren interruptions due to the set location in Downtown Louisville, but there were a lot that night. Something was going on. A quick tap to a social media app gave us the answer instantly and we ate dinner in near silence watching for updates on the nearby anniversary protest march knowing how they unfolded last year.

Seeing this short come to life was an ongoing exercise in gratitude for everyone involved. We had all made it to the other side of a difficult year with our health and were fortunate enough to live in a state with accessible vaccines early in their rollout. We are fortunate to be able to create things like this for the love of doing so, due in no small part to this city we call home. Louisville is a speck in the ocean of film and production hubs, but the people who stay here and keep it going are among some of the hardest working and most supportive people you could ever hope to meet.

The crew and the budget were small, like most indie shorts, and pre-production was fraught with the kind of unexpected tragedies and setbacks we should have come to expect after living through a year of ever-changing rules and premature death. In addition to losing access to the empty apartment to store gear right before filming, our lead actress and makeup artist were hit with the sudden deaths of their respective grandparents the week before filming. Amidst his grief, Trevor Thompson still showed up to set and laid the groundwork for make-up on day one. Actress Dara Tiller was originally cast in the lead role as agoraphobic and isolated Jo. After the loss of her grandmother, Dara made sure the production pushed ahead and subbed in her friend Abi Van Andel, who showed up to set with a tighter grasp of the script than most of the crew.

The next night, March 14, was Daylight Savings Time. We lost an hour of sleep after wrapping for the day around 1:30 am. We spent nearly every minute of that long weekend inside this tiny apartment cutting through each other’s stress, dancing circles around gearboxes to avoid the camera lens, and watching this character slowly lose her mind.

By the time it was all over, the descent into madness on the monitor felt like a mirror. I suspect that was exactly the point all along.

ROLL CREDITS

We premiered Threshold to a live audience at Planet of the Tapes on October 20, 2021. Every seat was taken and clusters of us stood in the wings of the small bar and theater to watch the final cut on the big screen. Seven months after wrapping, here we were in a room with people. Lots of them. All vaxxed and still mostly masked. It felt like a step back towards the threshold of the reality we once knew.

The digital premiere was hosted by the filmmaking hub Retrospective of Jupiter on November 10 and was viewed over 300 times in a matter of days. One week later it was featured on Think Shorts along with a 5 Star Review that touched on every point Mike and Joe were trying to make when this whole thing started nearly 2 years ago now. I don’t know that we could have asked for a more validating write-up than the one we received here.

‘Pulling off a 20-minute one-location short (with little dialogue) is not an easy task, but with a masterful script by Thompson and Joe Stockton, ‘Threshold’ is one of those shorts that should be placed on a pedestal. A beautifully crafted film that should be examined by film-school students or even adapted to feature-length. A triumph in short filmmaking.’ - Think Shorts

Thank you if you take 20 minutes out of your day to watch this story that we brought to life during a year of death and uncertainty. The reception it has received thus far has certainly brought us back to life in many ways and none of it would have happened without our crew. Our community.