This movie started out as a short film. Then someone suggested to me that this could become an anthology feature film, where the box appears in each story. I liked that idea, so I decided to go for it.
The first story I wrote and shot was DINNER & DRINKS. From that concept, the rest of the movie evolved. I would write a story, shoot it, edit it, look at what we had, and then decide what the next move was.
As I wrote the script, the story started revealing ideas about the cosmic significance of the number eleven. I'm not a numerologist and that idea isn't what brought me down that path, but there must be something to it because the movie took eleven years to make!
The end result is a well-paced, well-shot, and overall reasonably well-acted low-budget sci-fi movie. The process of writing different stories and tying them altogether was a real exercise and that's where most of my criticism is. It's not bad writing, but I was so focused on driving the story in a specific direction that I didn't allow the characters to come full bloom. Therefore I think the writing, at times, is lacking in personality.
If I were to shoot this again, it might be a little more risky and visually dynamic. Visually, this was inspired by filmmakers like Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick - classic, somewhat slow, but purposeful. To see that style applied to a B-level sci-fi movie is interesting, but I don't think I would do that again.
All in all, I'm proud of making it to the finish line. It's always a great accomplishment when a person can complete a feature film under strained circumstances. And it's also a sense of pride to get distribution through a well-known company like Gravitas Ventures.
This is my second feature film and it's better than my first. My first movie is a very raw effort - a western called DEFIANCE that was distributed through Lionsgate. I learned a lot from making THE BOX, I'm moving in the right direction, and now it's time to move on to the next one!
