When the Covid shut-down first started, I was finishing a film shoot in Louisiana for a film I wrote and produced called A Cry for Help. After arriving safely back in LA and quarantining for a bit, I reached out to a friend and talented cinematographer Mark Giles to see if he was interested in shooting something.
Since he’d been sitting for a few weeks and the idea I proposed involved the two of us quarantining while shooting a short film with JUST US - he agreed.
I’d had some ideas rolling in my head for months and wanted to address in a short film the cyclical nature of abuse in families. No Escape was born from those thoughts and came to life with just two dedicated friends who focused on making a movie with what they had.
After writing a flexible script, securing a location we could shoot/live in, gathering and building props, pulling costumes and packing enough food stuffs to stay alive, I met Mark at a cabin in the Lake Arrowhead area and we got to work.
Mark is uber talented and shoots for super high profile clients regularly, so I considered it an honor to work so closely with him to create a little film to tell this story. We had a great time sussing out the story, setting locations and doing everything ourselves from scratch. I am so grateful to him for being willing to work with me to handle the lighting, gear, backups and rough edit without any assistants (except for me bringing him rounds of coffee to keep him going).
Needless to say we’re proud of this little film, and hope you’ll take a few minutes to take a gander. We were able to hire the talented Eva Contis (editor/director) out of New Orleans to finish out this little piece, and her expertise helped us to make the most of our hard earned footage.
Hope you’ll enjoy. As usual my films don’t try to provide answers, but are more focused on being conversation pieces to encourage you ponder and discuss with others more experienced and knowledgeable than me… I’m just really good at asking questions.
I hope that, if like me, you’ve lived through some or many forms of abuse/neglect/trauma etc. that you’ll do what you can to evolve and grow. I know first-hand that with the right tools and team, change and healing are possible.
Sending so much love to everyone who’s survived and striving to overcome.
Sincerely, Shanna