Home was written around the same time as Viral, maybe even earlier. But at the time, it felt way too ambitious for what we had. I knew I wanted it to be grounded, but I also wanted to use suspense, editing, pacing, and practical camera tricks to create that feeling of a fractured reality. The hardest part was finding the balance between drama and spectacle. I didn’t want the style to take over the story, and I definitely didn’t want to disrespect the subject matter or what the character was going through.

This was also the project where I really started paying attention to camera movement. When I watch a movie, I usually don’t notice the camera if it’s working. It’s just part of the story. It guides you without announcing itself. That’s what I was chasing with Home: movement that felt natural, intentional, and emotional without calling attention to itself. Of course, that’s always easier said than done.

We ran into a lot of technical challenges, but that was part of stepping outside our comfort zone. This was our first time shooting outdoors during the day and at night. We had no idea what was going to happen. Would the cops stop us? Would traffic destroy the sound? Would the freeway overpass be impossible to shoot on? Any one of those things could have shut us down, but somehow, by the grace of the movie gods, we got through it.

We shot around my neighborhood again, which helped because people there know I make shorts and usually leave me alone. I tried to find locations that weren’t just usable, but visually interesting. We were running and gunning with a Sirui anamorphic lens, pulling focus by hand, and moving fast. Honestly, we had no business doing some of what we were doing, but we did it anyway. Roger, our DP, went through focus-pulling hell on this one.

We weren’t unprepared. We knew our equipment and we knew what we were going for. But things change fast once you’re actually shooting. You either adapt and pivot hard, or you fight the whole day and lose time you don’t have. And on our projects, time is always the thing we have the least of.

The cast really made the film what it is. Their professionalism, patience, and trust carried us through a lot. We shot over four days across two weekends, and some days it was literally just me, Roger, Daniel, our 1st AC, and Theresa, our lead actress. It was small, stressful, and stripped down, but everyone showed up ready to work.

Home was easily the hardest project we had taken on at that point. Could it have been “better”? I don’t know. I think it happened the way it was supposed to happen. We threw everything we knew at the time into that film, and the result reflects that, flaws and all.

To me, every project is a time capsule of what you knew at that moment. Have we grown since then? Absolutely. Will that show in the next project? We’ll see.

What we pulled off with Home honestly feels like a miracle. I’m grateful for everything I learned and for everyone who helped make it happen. When the right people come together and things click, even at our micro-budget level, you can still end up with something that feels special. To me, that’s the magic of filmmaking.