During my Fall 2023 semester at Kent State, I took Production II, which is the Capstone class for Digital Media production majors. Students are expected to showcase everything they learned during their time in the program. I had gone through a lot of ideas for what my short film would be in the months leading up to the summer semester. Originally, I wanted to do a neo-noir film, until I realized I don’t know how to write noirs (yet). Then I wanted to do a coming-of-age comedy-drama in a similar vein to Lady Bird, but the only idea I had for the climax. Then, I opened up a script I had written the summer before.
Those who know me, know that I am a big pro-wrestling fan. I started watching WWE in 2014, just before WrestleMania 30. I only got to watch the pay-per-view events for a while because the weekly shows were only on cable, but I was watching nearly every event I could. Eventually, I was only watching every year when WrestleMania happened. During spring break in 2022, I suddenly got into a hyper-fixation with the deeper aspects of things in the pro-wrestling world. I was watching and reading interviews about the behind-the-scenes life, watching documentaries about pivotal moments in the industry, and rewatching events from before I was a fan (and before I was alive). I started studying how matches were structured, the in-ring storytelling, and the psychology and styles behind wrestlers like Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Seth Rollins, AJ Styles, and Kurt Angle.
During this deep dive, I got an idea for a TV show I wanted to write. It was a pro-wrestling show (obviously) but would focus on the backstage life and politics of the characters and business in addition to the in-ring/wrestling storylines (kind of like the show Heels, but focused more on the company as a whole, rather than two characters on a wrestling backdrop). I created 40+ character sheets in roughly a month, complete with gimmicks, move-sets, and what their theme song would ideally be. In late May/early June, I started writing my first pilot episode. When I finished the script, I thought I could have been in the same conversation as Shakespeare. Boy, was I wrong. It wasn’t until I had received five pages of a page-by-page script breakdown and notes explaining everything wrong with it that I realized how flawed it was. I went back and revised my script, cutting out unnecessary scenes, dialogue, and moments, and brought my 56-page script down to around 30 pages. I cut it down again a few weeks later, and then I took that script and rewrote it into a 12-page short film for my Producing for Picture class, but it was very anti-climatic, so I rewrote it again, and again, and again. By the beginning of August 2023, I had the script for “The Man Makes the Title,” which would be what I directed and produced for Production II.
Heading into the Fall 2023 semester, I felt like I was on top of the world with this script. It had two wrestling matches in it, along with unique characters and settings. I planned on working alone for this, meaning I was both the director AND producer. I raised $900+ through GoFundMe and had a pitch video that was done like a WWE promo, with the title belt and all. I was in talks with one of the Ohio-based indie-wrestling companies (which will remain unnamed), who was going to let me use some of their wrestlers in the movie, use their ring, help me find extras, and find a location to film the wrestling scene at. Everything was looking like a dream come true for this project, until I sent a follow-up email after our meeting, and heard nothing back from them for a month. I sent one last email to the company to set up a meeting. That meeting would never happen. The shooting dates were two weeks away, and I had no actors, no locations, no costumes, and no props. A month earlier, I was told by my professor that I was ahead of schedule. Now, I was worried about having nothing to turn in.
I would rewrite my script one last time, removing the wrestling sections, and changing the final scene. To my surprise, the story still worked, and it worked a lot better than I was expecting. The character arc remained unharmed, and the ending still had that satisfaction that I wanted. I secured my lead actor at 9:45 on a Tuesday night and shot his two solo scenes that Saturday in an Air BnB in Lorain with a skeleton crew. A shoot that I was expecting to only take three hours ended up taking seven, but we got some incredible shots that remotivated me until I realized that I had two more shoot days the following weekend, and still needed to find locations for one of those days.
At 11 am Friday, I met with my professor because I had no locations for my shoot on Sunday. By 3 pm, he had helped me secure both of the locations that I would need. I met with my DP that night, and we checked out one of those locations, made a shooting schedule and storyboard, and prepared for the weekend. Saturday’s shoot went very well, even with us having to start an hour late due to a crowd problem at the gym and the Uber driver canceling on one of my actors moments before he was supposed to get picked up. We wrapped with two hours left of the shoot, and that was with extra shots that my DP and AD wanted to try out. Sunday also went well, but we had to make several changes during the shoot. Nearly every shot that day required the gimbal, but the gimbal decided it didn’t want to hold a charge anymore halfway through the shoot. Instead of doing several with only one or two shots and lighting set-ups, we had to bring out the tripods and change lighting for every shot, slowing us down by a lot. We ended up getting wrapped in time, and we got all of the footage that we needed.
After we finished loading gear into vehicles, I ended up having to go on a cooldown walk with two of my friends (who were also the 1st AC and Grip on my set). I was beyond physically and mentally exhausted due to the rollercoaster that I had to deal with during pre-production. I went from being the most confident I had ever been, to doubting nearly everything. The only things I never doubted were my cast, crew, and script. Being able to finally say “That’s a wrap” was a huge relief for me, and I owe a huge “thank you” to everyone who worked on it.
My experience directing AND producing “The Man Makes the Title” was a rough one, but I learned a lot about my strengths and weaknesses, and I’d like to think that I’m not going to make those mistakes again.