Yesterday, I held a rehearsal for Hayden’s Bars, a short film that is a 2010s on-the-street style interview turned modern rendition of Hamlet’s Soliloquy.

Markdown flop:
[Here is the latest script.](https://drive.google.com/file/d/10nsPILRR73FTo28bGWFbuadjnuSRHqtM/view?usp=sharing)

Looking back at some of the patterns in my work, this short contains many of the themes I’m interested in. Like:

• Sincerity and Irony: There is a blend of irony and sincerity. Hayden (Hamlet) and his boys alternate between being silly and serious.
• High vs. “Low” Culture: Blending very casual and slang-ridden(?) language with a historically significant piece of theater/literature.
• An Unexpected “Turn”: The film’s opening content + cinematography (camcorder look, front-facing light, run-and-gun style) gives the initial impression that it will be trashy but it turns into something sincere and vulnerable
• The Monologue: Hayden’s got shit to say!

Learning:

• Nobody sees the vision in your head: Everyone sees something different when they read your script (if they love you enough to read it). As a writer or director, you have to fill and close a huge gap. You need to be able to express what you see in your head. Whether that’s with language, acting out an example, or showing references, your job as a director is to help people see what you see. And then to support them in helping you create it.
• The Idea vs. Final Product: It’s difficult to see the potential of a project from a script.
• Professional actors are amazin’: I experienced one of those yuuuge ear-to-ear smiles during our first table read. The actors immediately came to life in their characters, standing up from their seats and fully immersing themselves into the scene. Chasing our dreams: For a fleeting moment, when I look around the room, all I see is a buncha kids chasing their dreams!!! Nobody forces you to go to art school. Nobody begs you to pursue the arts. We’re all here because we want to be. In fact, most have faced considerable opposition and skepticism when deciding to do sum’n creative. We’re here because we want to be. To me, that’s a powerful thing to declare!!!
• Directing is fun: In a traditional film/theater setting, everyone looks to the director for what they see. I think in many ways, they place a kind of trust in you. That you are the outside view, that you have a plan, that you see the bigger picture. They trust you are on the same team, there to help them play the character to the best of their ability.