"Loveless," my first short, was shot over a three-day weekend and
was produced on a budget of $1500. Working with a small group of
actors and crew, I shot the entire movie in and around my mother's
house in Canton, MA. I wrote the script, bought the camera online and completed pre-production in a six-week period. This piece is about a twisted love triangle and I wanted a mix of genres, so I decided to add a macabre dinner scene. The scene called for the lead male character (portrayed by Dan Merriman) to cut a raw steak. Since the scene was proceeded by a body being buried, we had Dan's hands covered in mud and then out of frame Dave Silverman (my co-producer) poured a mixture of fake blood over Dan's hands. This created a darkly comic scene as Dan cut through the bloody steak. There was also a gun dealer in the piece that was played by Bill Sasso, a co-worker who didn't have any acting experience but was a fanatical film buff who had watched every gangster movie he could get his hands on. His performance became strikingly real. I purchased a leather jacket for him to wear and carefully concealed the price tag by tucking it into his sleeve. I returned the $200 black leather jacket unharmed to the store the next day.