A High School Student-Led Project
(Interested in hosting a screening? Click here)
By Heidi Swan

Ethan Nahlinder, Director
William Dobak, Cinematographer, Editor
Actors
CAPTAIN: Charlie Scola: www.charliescola.com
DANNY: Travers Tobin: blankcanvas@gmail.com
Reaching teenagers has always been the goal of this story. I was thrilled when the award-winning high school-aged director, Ethan Nahlinder, showed interest in directing a short film of it. Click here to see behind the scenes photos.
When we initially decided to go into production, Ethan was in the middle of his Sophomore year of high school. Our window to shoot the film was early summer. Our local paper, The Beach Reporter, came and interviewed us on the set:
"Homelessness, schizophrenia and drug addiction focus of short film from local writer and students"
Location Dilemma
The location for the jail cell was not so easy to find. We tried to find a local space which was empty: a storefront, the garage of a home for sale. We considered my own garage but it had two cars in it and it was full of supplies, bikes and boxes. Ethan and I spent a couple of months scouting but didn't find any would work. We realized my garage was our only choice.
Several days prior to the shoot date, I had to clean out my garage (yikes) to make room for the jail cell. It was good for our family to purge some items we didn't need. One of my neighbors let me store our bikes in their much cleaner and emptier garage. Two days prior filming, Ethan and his dad brought their set over and set it up. They attached the walls to our ceiling and floors, adjusted our light, did some caulking and touch up painting. It fit exactly as they measured it. It looked just like a jail cell. We were amazed. Our friends, family and neighbors were amazed.
End Credits Song



Role | Crew |
---|---|
Director and Producer | Ethan Nahlinder |
Writer and Producer | Heidi Swan |
Executive Producer | Joe Swan |
Director of Photography | Will Dobak |
Production Designer | Anders Nahlinder |
Production Assistants | Caroline Alley and Christofer Nahlinder |
Artists | Caroline Alley, August Thompson, and Giovanni Wang |
Music Composer | Connor Swan Smith |
Role | Cast |
---|---|
Danny | Travers Tobis |
Captain | Charlie Scola |
Officer Beef | Jess Moss |
Steve | Evan McMahan |
Officer #1 | Mike Snakenborg |
Officer #2 | Breyon Burk |
































