“who keeps these lights on?” was the first short film produced by shotfourstudio. it was also the first short that was shot in the year 2025.
the dialogue/quote at the end of the short is from Duke Ellington in a 1958 interview. the quote describes his inspirations when creating music.
“the prodigal son, “lights”, also happens to be my most ambitious. of-course in the sense of never having on-set lines in a ShotFour production before. in January of 2025, i was hungry to make things and execute ideas that rattled my brain for a long time. so i gathered what i could and who i could to produce a short script i wrote back in December of 24.
i particularly remember the weather being a major issue. we were originally supposed to shoot on the 12th but snow was hitting every weekend since the 4th. unheard of. i was convinced it was to stop me. we ended up shooting on the 19th despite all the warnings of a potential hit. it didn’t snow, but tiny hail along with rain fell heavily mid shoot. on lunch, i was really nervous, just staring out the window of the local dominos, thinking it may never stop..”
HULU’s “The Bear” Season 4
“the script for the short scene was heavily inspired by the acting work done in HULU’s “The Bear.” Particularly, the alley-way scenes. i wanted the chance to tackle that kind of nuanced performance and truth on film. i wrote about things that i know of and can understand, then decided to build from there. I'll leave it up to you, dear reader, to decide how i did. i have my own thoughts on it. believe me.
this project will always be valued to me. i can say that with determination and lots of improvising, this short met the eyes of an audience and i feel like that is worth celebrating. there are so many things i would fix, or do over if i could. but in the process, at some point you have to let go and let it be it’s own thing. this was my first project of the year and I was technically challenged. but overly correcting wasn’t going to save it. i did decide to let it go in hopes that what could be relatable would carry it. considering the feedback, i believe it did exactly what it was supposed to.”
