Completely in the Dark

I’d entirely forgotten that, in the spring of 2008, I almost produced my first short film.

The impetus for the project was a local short-film contest, which set a maximum length of 12 minutes (or 12 script pages), four characters, and use of a specific location—in this case the Witch’s Hat Water Tower in Prospect Park, Minneapolis. The film also had to address the theme of “Agony and Bliss, Unrequited Love.”

I’d written a script with Chars Bonin, an actor-director friend, who cast three other actors. We scheduled production for the weekend of May 30. We chose that date because it was the only time the tower would be open to the public, and we’d be able to shoot our final scene from the top.

Work on the story started as early as April 16. The submission deadline was August 15, so we had it all planned. Our working…