Sincerely, Catera

I always dreamed of playing a superhero, and that dream became a reality last August. A classmate of mine from my university, reached out to me with an offer of a lead role of her short film. At first, I wasn't sure that I'd be able to participate. Between working at a theatre here in the city and working another job on the side, my time was very limited. But, I soon found out that the three days that were needed for being filmed were during the dead week that I had no shows to perform in, so I worked my schedule out and decided to dive into the project.

The synopsis immediately excited me:

When Danni gets caught in the middle of an experiment gone wrong she is left with an astonishing and life-changing super power.”

I thought this was a very bold move for a lower budget student film. I remember thinking, “how're they (the crew members and editors) going to pull that off?” and sure enough they did! A lot of my questions were answered during a video call I had with the director and film major, Brandi King. Brandi and I were a year apart at the university so we were very familiar with each other, and she had seen my work in various other student films as well. During this call we began a lot of preparation work. I discovered through dissecting the script that Danni recieved her superpowers by accident, due to a lab explosion. She gained the power of psychokinesis, the power to move things with the mind. We discussed a lot about what the project what will be like in the future, where it was going to be filmed, and a lot of the deeper character work as well.

There is a lot that goes into creating character work. It's part of the preparation work that even the best actors go through. You really get to create your own version of a your character by diving into the specifics:

**“Who Am I?”
“Where Am I?”
“What surrounds me?”
“What're my given circumstances?”, etc..

**Something that I've found helpful is creating playlists as if they were “soundtracks” for the short film itself. It's like when designers or artists create mood boards. There's usually a lot of time between doing the character work and learning the script to actually getting to film the production, so being able to tap into the playlists as a reminder of who you've created keeps the process afloat.

I had a wonderful time on set as well. Each day we began at 8am until about 8pm so it helps about be around crew members you enjoy. The majority of the crew members were younger women who were gaining their degree in film so I was in full support. We were able to share laughter, yet remain focus whenever we needed in a jiffy. Here are some photos from my time on set!

Me with makeup designer, Caitlin Pottebaum.

In preparation for the explosion scene

My scene partner, Doyle Haverfield and I

The office scene – No worries, I look sick because of the amazing makeup lol!

If you have yet to see the BTS of BOOM on Cinnamon Video check it out here!

For my subscribers, I posted my Spotify playlist for this project below, so you can get a feel for the emotions that Danni experienced, as well as a call sheet from the production.

Continue reading with a Coil membership.