The short film “Trust” follows two college students dealing with pressure from their affluent families. The film spurred from a love of a film dating back five years and a love for photography dating back ten years. Those passions then led to a major in screenwriting at Loyola Marymount University (LMU) in Los Angeles and an admiration for Wes Anderson’s films, Beasts of the Southern Wild and Marie Antoinette, because of those films’ combination of quality storytelling and beautiful aesthetics.

This story and the one examined in “Trust” belong to Revere graduate Annie Devine, who wrote, directed and edited “Trust” for her Directing for Screenwriters course. She had to cast, write and edit the film in an effort to learn how to properly direct actors and shoot a scene. Devine started writing the script in March of this year. Devine described her job as director.

“As director, you have to analyze the characters and figure out who they are…and what their goals for that particular scene are. You then have to help the actor understand what they need to be conveying in the scene, using different methods,” Devine said.

The production of the film was not without obstacles. During filming, Devine’s camera and tripod broke, three actresses dropped from the film and Devine changed a female character into a male. Despite these obstacles, Devine shared what she has gained from the experience.

“It has really helped me understand the breakdown of scenes and how much thought has to be put into it. It is great to be able to think about a script from both a writing and directing standpoint. Hopefully I am able to communicate my thoughts on characters more coherently after this,” Devine said.

Before working on her solo directing project, Devine had worked on other people’s films by acting as a director and editor for a few films during her freshman year and most recently a production designer and assistant director. Devine worked on the films of fellow LMU students Laura Jansen and Sydny Gonzalez.

Jansen is a Film and Productions major and Devine helped her on her thesis film by acting as a production design assistant and set photographer. Devine attended meetings with Jansen and the production designer to figure out what they needed and where to buy them. Jansen noted that Devine “was very generous and allowed [them] to use a lot of her clothing and personal items” because one of the main characters is a college student. Jansen expanded on Devine’s role in filming Jansen’s thesis.

“While on set, she was constantly on the move, dressing all of the different sets we had. We used the same location for two characters’ apartments, so the production design team had to be on their feet. She worked particularly hard on creating Chelsea’s living room. It was a very messy and cluttered room and Annie took advantage of all of the set dressing and props that we had. She thought creatively to produce this room and had fun doing it as well,” Jansen said.

Gonzalez acts as the writer, director, producer, and editor for her short film “Measurements.” The film serves as her thesis for a 300 level course, so she is in charge of everything from pre-production to post-production. Gonzalez voiced how helpful Devine was during the production of Gonzalez’s film.

“Annie was in charge of gathering props for each scene prior to the shoot. While we would be shooting one scene, she would be
‘dressing’ the next with all of the necessary props, furniture, etc. As the Set Photographer, she captured every little detail on my set with more than 600 photos,” Gonzalez said.

Both Gonzalez and Jansen praised Devine’s work on their film and described her as great to work with. Gonzalez talked about the characteristics that make Devine great to work with.

“She is hardworking, dedicated, and shows up every day with a positive attitude . . . I do not trust easily, and she is one person that I trust 100% to get the job done. My set would not have been the same without Annie and her work ethic,” Gonzalez said.

Devine finished the short film at the end of April and has discovered that she is more interested in the writing as opposed to directing and would like to explore writing for television.