On Nov. 22, a group of filmmakers, students, creatives and supporters made their way through the holiday season swarms of Times Square and midtown Manhattan to gather at The Producers’ Club for a pre-screening of “Someday,” a short film written, produced and directed by Erica Soto, assistant professor in the Department of Journalism.
After receiving the James B. Pendleton Grant from the Roy H. Park School of Communications, Soto was given eight weeks to shoot her film. She then decided that she would take on the challenge of filming an entire short film in one day after quickly learning that the expenses amounted to about a day of work.
The film was set and filmed in Brooklyn, New York, on May 10. Following two main characters during a wedding celebration, the maid of honor, lead actress Karlene Eve Rivera, leaves to get a breath of fresh air on the rooftop. Her character then befriends a young boy at the wedding, played by Ethan Nyborg, who talks to her about his own love life and encourages her to enjoy herself at the party despite her conflicting romantic feelings toward her best friend, the bride.
At the Q&A after the preview, Rivera said that the storyline of “Someday” spoke to her, and that it felt like she was communicating with the character when she acted.
“The biggest thing that really unlocked it for me was when Erica said ‘a coming of age at any age,’” Rivera said. “I understand that, just fumbling through the ins and outs of love and friendship and loss … and being unable to kind of articulate how you feel or let it even sink in and then feeling like it’s too late to.”
Soto said she received many auditions for the role of maid of honor, but Rivera outshone them all.
“She felt familiar, she had the acting chops beyond belief,” Soto said. “I started crying when I saw her audition. I just knew, so I offered her the part immediately.”
The venue for the preview was squeezed between two larger buildings, just off of West 44th street and had a narrow staircase leading to a room complete with a lounging area and bar. Colleagues, friends, students and locals soon trickled into a small theater room where every seat was filled as the lights dimmed and the film began, opening with a drone shot of the Manhattan skyline.
The concept for the film came to Soto 15 years ago, when she was noticing that her friends were blossoming into their sexualities at different times in their life. She said she wanted audiences to know that people continue to grow, no matter their age. Rivera said that Nyborg’s character showcased how sometimes kids get it right by saying how they feel, and that there is a page to be taken out of their books.
Soto said she chose to represent this feeling through the perspective of a Mexican wedding because of her own identity and because the experience of coming out can be different across cultures.
“Coming out feels more difficult sometimes in just certain minorities,” Soto said. “I also had the visual, because a Mexican wedding to me, I saw that immediately in my head, with the colors and the flowers and all that felt familiar and something that visually, I could come up with. I also wanted to make the jokes that were sort of Latin based.”
An important goal for Soto in the process of making this film was representation, both in front of and behind the camera. Soto said she wanted as many Latin and female-identifying people working on the project as she could.
“As a kid, I used to look through credits,” Soto said. “I used to look for Latin last names, really. And then I would follow them, always. And so part of that vision was [that] I just wanted to see the names in the credits … that was a big inspiration.”
At one point during the Q&A an audience member raised his hand to say that he loved the film so much that he was annoyed there was not more. At 10 minutes long, the film still required all hands on deck. At first A.J. Serrano, the first assistant director, had told Soto that she had too many shots for the one day of filming, but that they would make it work. Soto said that filming the rooftop scene was difficult because on shooting day there were helicopter tours overhead, a party next door and it was a windy day. They had to stop countless times because of the noise and the wind that would knock over the lighting equipment. Despite being told that they might need to move inside, Soto was determined to shoot outside, which ultimately made the short film feel much bigger. The crew amounted to 11 people, and included three IC students.
Soto said she decided to bring some students onto the project because she recognized how important the experience was. Sophomore Jasmijn Janse was in Soto’s Investigative Journalism class and said that Soto told her about the project after she heard some people in the class talking about a student film. Janse then recommended that Soto reach out to junior film major Anthony Ochoa, who happily joined the project.
Janse took on the role of production and set designer and Ochoa became the gaffer and second assistant camera. Sophomore Brendan Coyle was also on set as production assistant.
“It was just great to be able to [be on a set] outside of a class as well because working with a bunch of students is great, but Erica just gave me control,” Janse said. “She was just like, do whatever you think looks good.”
Janse said that on set she was able to hone many skills, she did everything from sewing and setting the scenes to directing the lighting.
At the premiere both Ochoa and Janse were called out in the audience by Soto to introduce themselves to the crowd and each received a hefty round of applause. She said that while the film was shot in 12 hours, the students were on set well over that number.
“They were amazing,” Soto said. “They worked probably harder than anyone on the set because they were young and hungry and willing to prove something, and they did.”
While the film was shot in May, Ochoa said he did not hear anything about it in the months in between, so walking into The Producer’s Club that evening was exciting.
“Just walking into that room again, seeing everybody that you hung out with for a weekend and had a good time with, it was nice just to catch up with everybody and watch this thing that you worked on a long time ago,” Ochoa said. “You walk all the way around again. And see it done, see it [as] this big thing.”
Soto said that the future plans in store for “Someday” include getting it into as many film festivals as possible and getting it in front of many audiences.
“I would love to [make a longer film in the future] and that’s kind of a dream,” Soto said. “Film is not my background. I didn’t study it. … We have moments where we … sort of doubt but I think it’s still about learning, and I feel like I can do that with the people around me.”
Assistant Life & Culture Editor Eva Leon contributed reporting.
