● Who were some of the people you got to meet and collaborate with on this project, and what was that like?
There were so many incredible people I got to work with on this that I can’t name them all. People like my assistant director Daniella Berg, a filmmaker I met in Philadelphia, and Anthony D’Amato who let us use his awesome song for the ending, to name a few. Also, working with Simple, the online bank that became our sponsor, was a dream. I genuinely thought what they were doing was really cool and fit in perfectly with our story. It was so cool to have them come on board.
One person I’d really like to mention was Jen Ng of the podcast, The Heart. There’s a really great community that I’m apart of in New York and once a month we meet at someone’s apartment in Brooklyn to play and discuss pieces together. Early on I made what they call in the film world, a “test shoot” to play and get people interested in the project. Jen came up after and immediately started giving me a critique of the piece. I’m always drawn to people who aren’t afraid to critique your work in a constructive way. They’re the sorts of people who see the best in others, and that’s the kind of folks I like to have around. She became a consistent editorial advisor throughout the creation of The Cohabit from then on. I’ll never forget when I had made the very first rough cut and I played it for her. I felt it was lacking substantially but I couldn’t admit it to myself because it had taken an enormous amount of work to get it to that point. She wasn’t afraid to tell me that. After staying up until 4am and going through an intense white board session, we agreed I had to go back to the drawing board on the overall script. It wasn’t easy, but that decision is what ultimately lead to what The Cohabit is now, which I feel overwhelmingly satisfied with. Jen has been an integral collaborator every step of the way.
I also have to mention Mariah Rose Butler who played Abilene. She couldn’t have played a more important role in getting this project to the next level and she really delivered. It was 4 days of shooting and countless reshoots, doing the same scenes over and over and over again. A little more than 4 days doesn’t sound so bad, until you realize there are less than 10 scenes that last only a couple of minutes each. She was a champ though and really embodied the character of Abilene well, taking direction and cues from me but also adding a lot to the character herself. I had a great experience working with her.