Serving in the U.S. Marine Corp, I realized it was a secret war happening in the background. To be honest at first I didn't know how to approach the subject matter. My best approach was to make was to taking different characters at different parts of their military careers and make them right in their own views. Ultimately I just want to bring attention to the suicide problem in the armed forces.

It's good to be hard on yourself. Don't think your a genius. Make mistakes and fix them. Ultimately make the film YOU want to make. It’s your vision. I enjoy every step of the process.

Every actor brought character into their roles. As I was working with them I made many changes to the script to implement my individual actors personalities. For example for Bellefontaine, I had really no lines for him. He was really just a background character. But when I casted Jensen, I realized if I didn't implement his talent, I was really doing Bellefontaine a disservice. So I changed my original story around and it changed the whole dynamic of the film for the better. Including Jacob for Hughes, he brought a human element for the Gunnery Sergeant. He knocked his performance right out of the park. Taylor for Roundtree, he really made the character his own. Working with Taylor on other sets I ultimately realized I wrote this role for him.

If you served in any branch of the U.S. military, you know how mad it can suck. Them just being veterans and understanding that world really reflects their professionalism. Including Jensen, who has never served but he was able to encompass the character of Bellefontaine regardless. As a veteran myself, we like to clown on other branches but ultimately we are the same team. By the end of reading and rehearsal my actors were walking, talking like Marines.

Overall paid around $3,800. It was a small scale project. I reference it as barracks tale. During the production our method was doing more with less. I didn't have the money to shoot my thesis in all reality. What got me by was my credit card and splitting payments into a three month span. We used what we had. No fancy equipment really because I couldn't afford to insure my schools equipment. I used my producers Blackmagic Pocket 4k. Love that camera.

I’ve DP on other projects. Wasn't expecting to DP my thesis it just sort of happened. I obviously approached it as professional as I could. Translating the vision from my head to paper was one thing, but now getting it from the paper and now being in charge of the visual aspect was awesome to say the least. I did overheads, location scouting, that's where I blocked the film. Did that process hundred of times. So by the time I got on set I always knew where I wanted to put the camera. The story was motivating it’s movement and I was always open to adjust the placement of the camera on set if I felt it helped the story. Overall loved doing it. I made mistakes obviously but I recognized them and won't do them again.

It’s very simple really, I want to bring attention to suicide in the armed forces. If it creates a dialogue and educates the public, then it does its job. Not everyone's going to agree with the message and how it’s told but I feel the perspectives on the film all have truth to them in their own way. I don't control what the film's about anymore once it gets out there. It’s not even my film anymore, it's the audiences’.