Stay For The Weak was a short film created by several recent film school graduates. The story follows four friends who are coming to terms with the loss of their mutual friend who took his own life. While in the process of packing his apartment, emotions get the better of them, where everyone deals with their grief in different ways.

Filmed over the course of one night, this volunteer project was an incredible experience to be involved with as it was truly inspiring to see young filmmakers put everything they had into delivering such raw and real performances. After reading the script, I knew this would be a project I would be proud to be involved with.

DESIGNING THE SET TO TELL TWO SIMULTANEOUS STORIES

The parameters of this set created many challenges that I had to think outside the box for. I needed to create a space that simultaneously told 2 separate stories at once . The first was the actual events taking place, halfway through packing up the apartment. The secondary story being told was creating context of the deceased friend, telling his story, sharing his character through subtle set dressing.

The design process went through several stages with the director until we arrived on the concept of the room half packed to give context of the scene and practical depth to the composition of the frame. Original ideas included everything from the scene taking place at a funeral home to the room being completely empty excluding a bottle of wine and a pizza. The final result evolved from several meetings and we managed to achieve a much greater result.