Shorts 4: The 850 Block – Becky and Francis are in Deep $#!+

About the Filmmaker

When he was seven, Ethan Mitchell found a dead possum floating in his grandparents’ swimming pool in the dead of winter. Minutes later, he fell into the pool with the aforementioned possum. He thought it was an extremely serious, near-death experience, but everyone else seemed to think it was hilarious. At first, all that guffawing and hee-hawing bothered him, but he eventually discovered that he enjoyed making people laugh that hard. He has spent the 17 years since the possum incident secretly hoping he has another absurd, near-death experience he can use as material. That hasn’t happened yet, so he has settled for stories about normal things, like growing up home schooled near a swamp, the social customs of Southern Baptists, and the offspring of his great-grandparents’ fifteen children.

Director’s Statement

BECKY AND FRANCIS ARE IN DEEP $#!+ was not supposed to be especially good. It was a class assignment during my first semester at Florida State University’s College of Motion Picture Arts, and the requirements – or restrictions depending on your perspective – were so specific that I struggled to write something I liked. I felt like I needed to create something “serious enough” for film school: one of those gritty, baroque dramas about the human condition and death…or something.

Then, one of my actor’s – Grace Wu – said she had always wanted to play a role in her native language. Two things happened in that moment; I thought “it would be a great gag for my two characters to speak different languages the entire film and never acknowledge it,” immediately followed by “my favorite movie is The Naked Gun, why am I trying to recreate Se7en?” From there, I allowed myself to have fun and lean all the way into my concept and resources. There were challenges: getting the timing and focus-pulling right on transforming shots, choreographing slightly more complicated blocking, and working with Grace to figure out accurate Chinese translations of her dialogue. However, I was fortunate to work with a crew of extremely talented and professional people who helped realize my vision, and the end result has turned into one of my favorite things I’ve ever done. It has turned into a good reminder that art doesn’t always have to engage with the darkest, heaviest parts of life to have value (but also to never underestimate the value of house lighting).