A young girl runs from the house after hearing her parents arguing. Her entire faith in the concept of love has clearly been shattered by their turbulent relationship.

Her journey is re-directed by our Cupid, disguised as a policeman, causing her to nearly collide with our young man's car. After a heated exchange they warm to one another and she accepts a ride. He takes her to the junkyard where he works and they spend the day getting to know each other. Sparks fly until they eventually fall asleep in one of the junkyard cars.

Next morning, she leaves her number in the dusty window, followed by an ‘x’. He texts and she replies. Again she adds an ‘x’. He replies ‘sure…’, no ‘x’. It doesn’t go down easy. She realises she’s left her camera on the backseat of the car and storms off to the junkyard.

She arrives to find a Polaroid on the ground with a finger pointing up. She looks up and sees him on a pile of tyres. Still fuming, she climbs up to join him. As she looks down from above, our heroine sees the forgotten ‘x’ formed out of junkyard cars.

Because X-PHOBIA was filmed in Los Angeles, our budget had to increase to $55,045 from an original lower $43,000 because permit fees, location rates, and insurance requirements had to be contracted locally and couldn’t be applied directly from resources MOFILM already had in place in London - but which were essential for achieving the look and feel of the piece.

The specific nature and variety of locations dictated in the short - a wrecking yard, a comfortable home, and a closed off street - required that we had to spread the shoot over three days, which would drive our labor costs up to over half our budget, and those costs included cast and crew, as well as additional personal such as a required full-rate police officer to oversee the closing of the alley we used. For location and travel expenses, we faced $8,700 - owners of wrecking yards realize they have a unique commodity on their hands, so it’s not like renting a house location.

Our insurance requirements, with special wording to rent props and wardrobe from Universal Studios, came to $2,600.  Editorial and finishing  costs were negotiated to come to $4,500, while our camera and equipment costs came to $6,805.  We filmed on the RED Epic camera, and chose slightly pricier anamorphic lenses because of the quality of the out of focus elements, and because of the shape of the glass: when things go out of focus they get a special blur and vertical stretch effect that is really unique and cinematic.  Also, when the lenses flare, they produce a horizontal streak that was used subtlety to provide a unique, artistic quality and look.

On this production, we were faced with a few unique challenges due both to the specifics of the script, as well as the turnaround for shooting the short.  We essentially had a month to prep and cast, but because it was December in Los Angeles and production shuts down for essentially two weeks, our casting process was consolidated just a week out from the shoot.  Since our lead actress is a union member, mounds of paperwork  had to be filed and processed at the last minute.

Cupid in the short comes in the form of a Police Officer, and obtaining and filming with a police car, as well as having an actor dressed as a policeman, requires certain preparation and coordination with the city, county, police and fire departments, as well as notifying all of the residents of a neighborhood in which we intended to film.  The script also required an “X” to be formed on the ground at the wrecking yard, and coordinating this with the yard itself had to be accomplished.

Ultimately, we feel we were able to stretch and maximize the funding by smart producing and filmmaking, and believe the result of the hard work reveals itself in a smart, beautiful short.