Kate and Pete are on their first, and possibly, last date. Although the dissonance between them is no obstacle to sex, Kate wonders if she can get what she really needs from Pete, and Pete plays the guitar. Zoe Dahmen was born and raised in Austin Texas.
She is currently pursuing a BFA in film production at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design where she has written, and directed numerous short films. Zoe is an aspiring screenwriter and director. This film started out as a way to process my own experiences with dating and with sex.
Often times the end result is so cut up, homogenized, and skewed by the years that the resulting film is so far from the original inspiration it is unrecognizable. This film is the exception that proves the rule. I wrote it, then forgot it. I revisited it every year or so, paring it down to its bare bones, re-interpreting it as I gained distance from the actual events. Over time, a film written in angst became a comedy. By seeing myself in the third person I was able to nurture, and care for the girl that I was, and, to some degree, still am.
So too did I begin to understand my partner. Through Pete I was able to know him. And while I could never understand him in the same way I understood Kate, the challenge of treating his character fairly made me more empathetic. I gained a deeper understanding of myself, and my actions. By the time I brought the film to production I was ready to let it go. The original script was bare bones, a lot of dead air with one liners scattered throughout.
By the time I cast my principal actors and began rehearsing them I realized that I was under-utilizing the talent in front of me. I started rehearsals with improv exercises to get the ball rolling. I had the actors interpret the beginning of the scene before the film cuts in.
