Reservations is the story of Oliver Jenkins, a chef who inherits his grandfather's hotel, but the story of Reservations is about 13 individuals who worked and toiled together to bring about the short film that could.
THE FILM
2015 Official Selection - Traverse City Film Festival
2015 Official Selection - YES Film Festival
2016 Official Selection - Ozark Shorts
MY STORY BEHIND THE STORY
In August of 2014, 14 Michigan State University students sat down at large conference tables to begin a year-long collaborative endeavor. Wide-eyed and bushy-tailed, only 13 would make the journey, because the final member studied entomology and shouldn't have made it into the class in the first place.
In early meetings, we settled on a script about a young man, Oliver Jenkins, who unexpectedly inherits a hotel from a grandfather he never knew, inheriting all the eccentric characters (the "Luckies" - named for the Lucky Star Hotel by which they are employed) and mis-managed problems that came with it. It was my suggestion at this time to make the working title, "You Get What You're Dead Grandpa Leaves You," which as clunky as it is, stuck for the rest of our production.
At this point, my job was to juggle the schedules of 30 individuals to figure out when, between class, work and the occasional home football game, we could make a film.
The film is about family. That's the short of it, but in its utopic little worldview, it's about having a family, knowing their flaws, knowing when they'll let you down and when they'll pull it together and smiling through it all no matter what, making jokes and sly comments along the way.
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