When a lonely social media enthusiast eavesdrops on an attractive young stranger’s video call with her hot-mess bestie, they’re in for an electrifying night.

This provocative 15-min short film explores social media’s influence on dating and desire. We’re raising funds to cover post-production, festivals and marketing.

Filmmaking is an involved and costly art form, and my team and I have worked hard to stretch our budget for IRL. It is also a time-intensive process which began over a year ago.

In June of 2024, I wrote the script and brought on cinematographer Jordan Sommerlad and producer Nathan Bielski. I then held auditions with casting director Johanna McGinley. We were thrilled to find three Ohio-based actors: the amazing Ben Viccellio, Lizzy Miller and Montez Jenkins-Copeland. With several months of pre-production, we tackled test shoots, table reads, locations scouting and rehearsals. In summer of 2025, we completed a 4-day shoot with a small crew of film professionals on location in Columbus, Ohio. This fall, I edited the film with support from the Film/Video Residency at the Wexner Center for the Arts.

Nathan and I raised our production budget with a combination of grant funding, in-kind donations, and a generous gift from executive producer Cheo Ramsey. We now need $6500 to get IRL over the finish line.

Your donation means our creative team can put the final, critical touches on the film:

It will also help us launch a robust festival run, so audiences around the world can experience IRL.

With adequate support, I’m confident that my team and I will make a sexy and unsettling short film that will elevate the Columbus filmmaking community and spur dialog about technology that’s in everyone's pockets but completely under-explored in films and TV.

We hope you’ll join us on this exciting filmmaking journey. Please support indie filmmaking and donate to IRL today!