A New Amwell Road actor, screenwriter and director has a new calling card, a short film titled ‘Life is Short.’
By: Charlie Olsen
Christopher Rollings, a local film director, thinks somebody is out to get him. His suspicions compound until he’s sure it’s his wife; but is he really sure, or is it all in his head?
Mr. Rollings recently finished shooting his short film, "Life is Short," at his home on New Amwell Road, directing from in front of the camera, while portraying the part of the paranoid main character who feels his wife is trying to kill him.
"It’s a ‘Twilight Zone’-esque story of a husband and wife … the guy feels somebody is trying to kill him but is it hallucinatory or is it reality?" Mr. Rollings said.
Like the old black-and-white television series, Mr. Rollings plans to mix monsters and morals, ending his film with a message as an homage to the show’s creator, Rod Serling.
Mr. Rollings is a 45-year-old actor, a screenwriter, and now a director. His previous work includes a number of scripts, and a 2004 feature-length film, "Savage Faith," that he co-wrote and co-produced with his production company, Open Doors Production.
The filming of "Life is Short," while substantially less than that of a feature film, took a marathon 18 hours to set up and shoot an hour of footage.
Although he usually uses a digital movie camera, Mr. Rollings is trying out 16-mm film for this project he budgeted two hours of film, but only ended up using one.
By the time the film emerges from the cutting room, it will have been trimmed down to 10 minutes.
Mr. Rollings said that he learned his craft on the job, through acting and classes in N.Y. In college, he studied music at Berkeley College of Music in Boston and at Rutgers.
"I got started ‘late’ at 30, and began doing this more or less a decade ago," Mr. Rollings said. "I’ve always love film."
Through small roles in films such as "Devil’s Own," where his part as a detective ended up on the cutting room floor, and in "I.Q.", Mr. Rollings learned about filmmaking.
"They weren’t stories that captivated like ‘The Godfather,’ but I found it fascinating," Mr. Rollings said. "The more I got involved, I knew it was the direction I wanted to go I act in front of the camera and behind it, like Clint Eastwood."
Before shooting, Mr. Rollings enlisted the help of his girlfriend and co-producer Dr. Marian Russo, and artist Jim Baldessari, who graduated from the duCret School of Art in Plainfield, to illustrate storyboards.
Mr. Baldessari said that he studied fine art graduating in May but "wanted to get into comic books eventually." Among the piles of storyboards that litter a table in his house, he finds one and explains excitedly that it’s a tribute to Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 thriller "Psycho."
"It’s a hell of a lot cheaper to shoot on paper," Mr. Rollings said, gesturing emphatically. "You can say, ‘Well, I’m not married to this let’s try this.’ It makes things smoother."
Mr. Rollings said that he plans to enter the completed short film which has a budget between $5,000 and $10,000 in a couple festivals, such as the Trenton and Poconos film festivals held in May and August respectively.
"I want to show producers what I can do with a script," Mr. Rollings said. "It’s like saying, ‘Here’s 10 minutes on film, imagine what I can do with two hours.’ It’s a calling card."
Mr. Rollings said he plans to use the remaining hour of 16-mm film for another short in January.