Often times, our lives take us on a lot of different paths. Often times, these paths provide us with opportunities. These opportunities can be seized, fall into our laps, or disappear entirely into the ether.
The man I am meeting up with today, one Orrey Severet, decided to seize his opportunity.
You see, he has just recently had his first fully fledged screenplay made into a short film of his own. The film, titled Counsel, has popped up on my radar recently with the debut of its first trailer online.
Produced by Green Studio Productions, and directed by Claire Haines, it follows James, played by Uriel Wolf-Blank, and Annalise, played by Dana Dae, as they begin a fledgling relationship amidst trying to tackle their own mental health issues. To try and get a bearing on their problems, they both seek the help of a therapist. However, unbeknownst to them, they both wind up with the same therapist, played by Alysse Fozmark. From there, the stage is set for a very interesting adventure.
As I sit down across from Orrey on this particular day, I am hopelessly curious as to how he started out on this particular path. He leans back in his chair and explains,
"Since I was young, I've loved writing and stuff like that. My god-sister [Claire Haines] ow this production company out in Oregon [Green Studio] and she told me one day, 'You should write a script, or something.' So I just, for the hell of it, wrote this short, little script based on, kind of, mental health issues...because, I think that a lot of people, especially, like, in our age group, have a lot of those [issues]..."
He also adds,
"As well, I deal pretty badly with anxiety, so I was looking to tell a story, without just having to make something up..."
This piques my interest, because drawing from your own experiences is always the best, and most direct form of storytelling. He even adds that some of the lines in the movie are from actual conversations that he and his own therapist have had in real life. When I ask how he came up with the plot line for the film, he explains,
"I was driving with my girlfriend one day...and we were talking about this whole 'mental health' thing, and she brought up that maybe I [his girlfriend] could do with seeing a therapist, which led to me saying, 'Wouldn't it be funny if we wound up seeing the same person? But, like, he wouldn't be able to tell us?'"
And from there, Orrey had figured out what he had to write about. Once the script was complete, he explains, he sent it out to Claire at Green Studio, who read it and got the green light from Orrey to direct it herself. This proved to be advantageous because, in Green Studio Productions' hometown of Portland, Oregon, they have made a name for themselves as is. One of their previous productions, Waldgeist, took home the award for "Best Horror Film" at the Oregon Independent Film Festival. Under the direction of Claire, along with founder Brad Burke, Green Studio has consistently proven itself in its film production capabilities.
With them at the helm of Counsel, which finished filming at the end of August, Orrey is optimistic for the future, to say the least. He is also optimistic about the film in regards to its run-time, which from about 18-20 minutes as of this stage in the editing process. He clarifies this by saying,
"I hate when I see a movie and you can tell that they could have wrapped the whole thing up an hour ago...I just wanted to get my message, if you will, across..."
Once everything is wrapped, and the film is all set, Orrey and the team at Green Studio fully intend to throw this into the film festival scene. One stop is going to be the Oregon Independent Film Festival again, but there are also possible plans for a release of the film on high quality steam sites, like Vimeo, as well as even here in our back yard. Orrey explains,
"I'd really like to, after our festival submissions and stuff, to do a showing here in Sacramento...maybe even Portland, too. It'd be fun to show it..."
Another aspect of this film to get excited about is the music. Orrey attended Berklee School of Music for a good chunk of time, before coming back to Sacramento, where he made quite a few connections in that school full of massive talent. One of these is his good buddy, Austin Shupe. Orrey mentions,
"[Austin] who lives down in SoCal...I saw a lot of th stuff he was making [commercially], and I thought, 'Ah, man!'...He's doing the original score, that's it, he's the final step...I thought it'd be cool to have a hand in an original score for the film." He also goes on to clarify,
"[The score is] mainly instrumental. I love motif's, like Jaws and the whole 'Da-nuh, Da-nuh' thing...I told Austin I kind of want to write good background music, with one central motif that comes back."
One of the big inspirations he mentions for the style of his upcoming score is the work Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, and Scott Rudin did on the soundtracks for films like The Social Network and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The music in these films blended seamlessly with the film's overall production. Orrey explains what he wants for his film, by saying,
"I wanted the music to instill a sense of anxiety in the viewer...which I apologize for in advance, but I want to bring the viewers on the same wavelength as the two main characters, who are going through all of this themselves."
Well, despite the semi-ominous musical warning, the hype for this release remains real. With an author that has lived these experiences and an award-winning film production crew behind it, there is no reason to doubt the success of this upcoming project.
Stay tuned for regular updates at counselmovie.com, as well as 'Like' them on Facebook, follow them on Twitter. You can also see the full trailer on their Facebook page. Be sure to not miss out on this piece, which has all the makings to be extraordinary.
