"Coffee Nap" a short film directed by Kyle McCarthy

"Coffee Nap" is a short film that I wrote, directed, edited, and composed the music score for. The idea for the film began with my fascination with people who takes naps in their car. I always wondered if anyone had ever had their car stolen while taking a nap in the passenger's seat or in the back seat. This led me to wonder who would be crazy enough to steal a car with a person inside it? I concluded that it would have to be someone who is at the end of their ropes; someone in a bad situation who feels they have nothing more to lose. And so I started to write Coffee Nap with those two story lines in mind. 

The film was made in late May 2016 with basically no budget. I wrote the characters around friends of mine who I felt could embody them, and luckily for me they were all willing to be a part of it. I was also lucky enough to team up with Matt Degreff behind the camera. I had met Matt a couple of months before making Coffee Nap in Gentle Brew, the coffee shop we filmed in, and when I told him the idea for the film he said he would be down to be the cinematographer for it. Matt did an awesome job as DP and was able to really communicate the tone I was going for visually (this will not be the last time we collaborate for sure).

We filmed everything over the course of three days (one full day and two evenings) and it was a really fun experience. However, the only part that was not so fun was filming in that strange and desolate alleyway. It felt as creepy and desolate as it looks in the film and at one point while we were filming a man ran out of a near by building screaming at us because he thought we were trying to steal his car (we were not). Unfortunately for us it was the one location we had to film at on multiple days. On the third night we felt so creeped out by the area that we actually moved locations for some car interior shots.

I'm really grateful to everyone who helped make this project possible and to all the friends who were willing to watch early drafts of the film and give me some really valuable feedback. It was the first production of Young Historians Collective but it will definitely not be the last. Keep an eye out for more in the next couple of months.