Shotgun Love is a romantic comedy with a dark twist. It's an unsentimental examination of love in the 21st century. Andy is a writer who spends too much time in his favorite watering hole. It's not that he's much of a drinker, but this happens to be a place where SHE comes after work. She is Alma, and Alma doesn't exactly invite strangers to approach her. So Andy watches. But all that is about to change when Dino walks in. Dino is a shotgun-wielding lunatic with impeccable manners and a king-sized romantic streak. Dino thinks that love needs "a little push" and Andy and Alma are the perfect specimens to prove his theory. Can love really blossom at gunpoint?
        The idea for Shotgun Love originated, like many great ideas, over a couple of beers. My brother, John got the ball rolling with the concept of a violently aggressive Cupid. I let this germinate for a couple of weeks and it finally poured out in one long writing session. This, in itself, was unusual for me since I usually tweak my scripts endlessly, but Shotgun Love came out in an almost stream-of-consciousness fashion. John subsequently made one re-write and we had a finished script for a short film. Enter Laura Coleman, an actress friend of ours who was enthusiastic about our script and presented to SWELL PICTURES. SWELL was holding a script competition to finance and do the post on a short film. They picked Shotgun Love. We were in business.
        I structured the script to be very doable on a low budget and we proceeded to the casting. Laura, of course, was our Alma; she had that perfect mix of comedic timing and toughness. The male parts proved more difficul; specially Dino. But once Sam Porreta walked into the audition room, we knew we were going to end up with something special. With Andrew Kottler, Jason Ahlstram, and Shawn O'Donnell rounding out the rest of the cast we moved into production planning and location scouting. Finding the right bar was crucial, since the bar in the story is really another character. We got very lucky with Alive One and I even added a couple of lines to the script to reflect its Rock and Roll spirit.
        We shot the whole thing over two days. Zet Smith at Artisan Stage and Lighting provided all the lighting gear and served as the film's gaffer. We had about forty set ups, so we were moving quickly. It helped to have two cameras, though my personal preference is to shoot traditionally with one. But this method gave us better coverage and helped us enormously in editing. The editing took longer than we'd hoped for due to scheduling, but Jill Bzibziak our editor, was absolutely brilliant and I'd love to work with her again.
        Everybody at Swell Pictures was extremely helpful and we ended up with a terrific film that perfectly captures the spirit to our initial concept and the script. The performances, the wonderful lighting, the music all came together for a unique film experience. We're all extremely proud of Shotgun Love and hope the initial enthusiasm we've experienced from preview audiences is a sign of great things to come.