LOGLINE
A production assistant rushes to find a pair of important shoes and her roommate’s missing boyfriend.
SYNOPSIS
Lara, a PA on a photo shoot, loses the shoes of an important client. Meanwhile, Lara’s roommate Jenny's boyfriend, Steve, goes missing. Lara meets Pearl, an ocean-obsessed woman with a foot-fetish, and they crash Jenny’s dinner party. Mayhem ensues, Pearl’s boyfriend reveals he stole Lara’s shoe, and Lara moves out.
ARTISTIC STATEMENT
I’ve been increasingly passionate about stories focused on relationships like the two roommates central in our story. Over the course of ONE OF THESE DAYS, it becomes apparent that our main character Lara’s journey to find a client’s shoe and solve Steve’s whereabouts is dire, but the ridiculous, whirlwind tasks are actually wrapped up in Lara’s anxiety with her & Jenny’s changing relationship. Through the course of the story, Lara realizes her and her roommate Jenny are growing apart, an emotional blow to Lara understanding her place in LA. It’s a story sparked from personal circumstances, and spawns not only from my own life but friends around me, who have experienced friendships change in the years since graduating college. I find myself relating to Lara as time goes on. It’s hard to know whether a job in the “industry” is even worth pursuing when it often sacrifices time to work on my own art. It’s a constant debate between needing to pay the bills and also being aware that the energy to produce content outside of work gets lower as time goes on. Additionally, much like Lara, I also find myself in an outsider financial position to many of my LA entertainment counterparts. Much of the anxiety over a work-life balance comes from an insecure financial position, like Lara, as opposed to many of the other characters in the story who are financially secure, Jenny chief among them. Much of the characters and scenarios of ONE OF THESE DAYS reflect my own anxieties surrounding prescient creative and financial concerns, especially as someone who is still getting used to LA even as a place for expression. Like Lara, I question whether I’m inspired or stressed by the pressure to be in a rat-race here. The industry likes to say they promote a progressive way forward in terms of worker rights, yet there is still a visible, vicious cycle of people mistreating others and an expectation that entry-level workers have to sacrifice all their time and often physicality to an industry role in order to prove themselves, often for a lower rate. From my experience working over the years in entry-level positions like Lara has, the justification is often from older employees in power positions who feel they’ve been through a particular process. Many of these people in power positions come or have assumed higher-class wages, versus those who struggle to maintain minimum wage pay and may not have external support. Part of ONE OF THESE DAYS is tapping into these frustrations, the feeling like you’re running in circles and constantly pushing a boulder up a hill in order to please others and keep yourself afloat. ONE OF THESE DAYS is a necessary next step for my career and attempts to capture how many of my generation feel: displaced from original visions for our careers, drifting from friends, and feeling the pressures and absurdity of the everyday grind in equal measure. It'll be not only be cathartic for myself, but for many.
KEY CREW
Joe Blank - Writer, Director, Producer
Joe is a filmmaker originally from the suburbs north of New York City. Growing up, he made comedic shorts with friends through filmmaking courses at the esteemed Jacob Burns Film Center. He studied Film at Syracuse University, and at Prague’s FAMU. After graduating, Joe lived in Brooklyn, NY where amongst other works wrote and directed his first feature film ROMAN CANDLE, a romance drama that despite a limited production budget of less than $15,000, went on to have a successful festival run. ROMAN CANDLE won Best Director at the Blue Whiskey Independent Film Festival, and Best Drama through Film Invasion LA amongst other nominations at 12+ domestic film festival screenings. Joe's second feature film FRIENDS FROM HOME is a road-trip comedy that he co-created with Mike Koslov on a real cross-country road trip from NY to LA. FRIENDS FROM HOME premiered at the Big Apple Film Festival in 2023 and won the Spirit of Independent Filmmaking award through Stony Brook Film Festival.
Sofia Snyder - Producer
Sofia is an independent film producer based in Los Angeles, who is passionate about finding unique stories. She has over a decade of experience as a Coordinator in film and media production, starting her career at National Geographic Channel and most recently lending her expertise to feature films including CHA CHA REAL SMOOTH (2022), BEING THE RICARDOS (2021), and LICORICE PIZZA (2021). Her most recent project FINDING BEAST won Best Documentary Short in London, UK at The People’s Film Festival and is currently on festival runs domestically and internationally.
Collin Hotchkiss - Producer, Editor
Collin Hotchkiss is a bicoastal Producer and Editor whose experience in production and post enables him to balance the needs of any project he works on. He most recently served as a producer of the feature film MONTH TO MONTH and as the executive producer and editor of ROMAN CANDLE. While he typically works in the editorial department as an Assistant Editor on feature films including THE NIGHT HOUSE and THE BINGE, he is also known for his experience as an on-set VFX supervisor, VFX editor, and post workflow consultant.
Callie Robinson - Producer
Callie is an Alabama raised independent film producer and marketer. She started her career off in commercial production, working on the executive team at award winning production company SMUGGLER, where she also met Joe Blank. She has worked for Netflix and Hulu awards marketing teams, helping to promote award nominations and wins across Oscars and Emmy seasons, securing wins for films like Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio and groundbreaking television shows such as A24’s BEEF and Squid Game.
Javier Gonzalez - Executive Producer
Javier has worked in various Producer roles on the following Feature Films, Short Films and Web Series: “Halley” (Sundance 2013), “Valedictorian” (Rotterdam 2015), “Hepburn” (NY Film Festival 2015), “3rd Street Blackout” (LA Film Festival 2015), “The Transfiguration” (Cannes 2016), “In the Radiant City” (Toronto 2016), “Mildred and the Dying Parlor” (Tribeca 2015), “Honeymoon” (NY Film Festival 2016), “Sugar” (PBS 2015), “It’s Bruno” (Netflix 2019), “The Privates” (Vimeo Staff Pick, July 2017), “Swallow” (TriBeCa 2019), “This Teacher” (LA Film Festival 2018), “Tesla” (Sundance 2021), “Land of Dreams” (Venice 2022), “2nd Chance” (Sundance 2022), “Funny Pages” (Cannes 2022), “Still: A Michael J Fox Movie” (Sundance 2023), “Navajo Police: Class 57” (HBO 2023), “Cassandro” (Sundance 2023), “In The Summers” (Sundance Grand Jury Prize Winner 2024).
Indigo Casting - Casting Directors
Founded by Leigh Ann Smith and Conrad Woolfe, Indigo Casting is an ambitious, inclusive office that values trust, integrity and authenticity throughout the casting process. They have a combined 20+ years of experience and work in all mediums, including television, film, theater, commercials and voiceover. Projects include: someone spectacular, Motel Transylvania (Netflix, upcoming); Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies (Paramount+), Wild Animals, Pickleback, Sueño. www.indigocasting.co
Aislyn Murray - Cinematographer
Aislyn Murray is a cinematographer born and now based in Los Angeles. She attended Syracuse University concentrating on cinematography, studying in celluloid specific programs in both Italy and Prague. Since moving back to LA, she has worked as a technician at Panavision and since has pursued cinematography full time, with work spanning across narrative, music video, commercial, fashion and more. Aislyn has worked with top tier companies in all of these fields, and continues to focus on what matters most – a great story. She is currently in post on her largest narrative work to date, “Foxbody”, shot on 35mm Panavision cameras, with actor and director Cameron Monaghan, and has recently shot Angel Olsen’s music video “Mercury”.
Melissa Lawson - Lara
Melissa pursued her education in Acting at Syracuse University, where she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Her dedication to mastering her craft led her to immerse herself in classical work at the prestigious Globe Theater in London, further expanding her repertoire and understanding of the art of acting. Melissa’s talent and versatility have graced screens big and small, with her credits spanning across renowned platforms such as HULU, Disney+, PEACOCK, NBC, and NETFLIX. Her work has also been showcased in esteemed film festivals and featured in numerous commercials. You can see her most recent work as a Series Regular in Saint X on Hulu.
Claudia Sulewski - Jenny
Claudia Sulewski had her breakout acting role in the indie film I LOVE MY DAD, which had its world premiere at the 2022 South by Southwest Film Festival. After its premiere, I LOVE MY DAD was awarded the Narrative Feature Competition Grand Jury Award and the Narrative Feature Competition Audience Award at SXSW. Beginning her career on YouTube and Instagram, Sulewski quickly grew an extensive following with her vibrant personality in front of the camera. She has garnered over 3 million subscribers and over 240 million total views across her two YouTube channels, which features content focused on beauty, fashion, and lifestyle. She has also amassed over 2 million followers on Instagram. Sulewski’s success as an internet personality enabled her to explore other passions in the entertainment space, including hosting and correspondence work and acting. Sulewski currently resides in Los Angeles.
Emma Jenkins-Purro - Pearl
Emma Jenkins-Purro is dual citizen of United Stated of America and New Zealand. Arriving on the acting scene right at the time the world moved into a pandemic was no easy feat, but Emma didn’t let that stop her and as soon as New Zealand opened back up in 2020, she hit the stage in Tim Bray’s Theatre Company production of Greedy Cat playing the role of Katie as well as the short film Bygones (2022) which Emma won best supporting actor at the Prodigy Film Festival. In 2021 she was cast in the award-winning New Zealand TV drama The Brokenwood Mysteries (2014) playing the role of Olivia for New Zealand’s premier production company South Pacific Pictures. Straight after filming Brokenwood Emma was cast in the Ti West directed Feature Film starring Mia Goth, Pearl (2022) landing the major support role of Misty Douglas filmed in New Zealand followed by back-to-back series including My Life Is Murder for Jigsaw Films Australia and the US Netflix series One of Us is Lying playing the role of Giselle Ward.
Connor Burns - Colorist
Connor Burns is a colorist originally from Syracuse, NY. He has colored many shorts and features, including Joe Blank's romantic drama ROMAN CANDLE (2021), the road-trip comedy FRIENDS FROM HOME (2023), the slacker comedy MONTH TO MONTH (2024). He's worked on commercial spots including a Sharp magazine piece with Jeff Goldblum, and music videos for Juice. He currently resides in Los Angeles.
ACCOLADES
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