Release Date:
December 20th, 2021

Starring:
Nazira Bah-Traore • Ahneim Chillis

Directed by:
Steve Sanchez Rosales

March - October, 2021

Where the River Starts:
I wanted to make a film about work, I worked multiple jobs during the inception of Swimming and they were all boring. The only thing keeping me sane were my co-workers and my daydreams.

In the summer of 2021 I was working a job testing people for COVID-19. Everyday I was testing people for the virus and because this is what I was seeing all day I kinda wanted to make a film about it. I remember there was a hesitation for producing films set during the COVID-19 pandemic. After all, people watch movies for leisure so why remind audiences of global pandemic?

I would see workers handing out masks in busy areas around the city, I thought this would be an interesting job to capture in a film. I sorta knew that job wouldn't last long and I was in a unique point in time where this was happening. It was now or never to produce a film set during the COVID-19 pandemic.

March - October, 2021

My first idea was to write about friendship. I had these two characters that were best friends at work but as I kept writing I didn't have a good story for them. I was still a beginner when it came to screenplays and I had to send that idea to the back of my mind.

I wrote instead about one of these characters wanting to escape to the park. The river was a late addition to the script, I was looking for unique parks to shoot in and then I thought it would be nice to film by the river.

Below you can read the shooting script! October 27th, 2021 Final Screenplay

July, 2021

When You Jump Into the Beach Shore and It's Freezing Cold and It Takes a While to Get Used To:
I began the test shoots at the Maria Hernandez Park in Brooklyn. I initially wanted a dazed look to the film. I wanted the summertime setting to feel weird and cold, I tried by messing around with the colors and even trying 'Black and White' photography. The tests had interesting results but none of which were used in the film.

October - November, 2021

Testing the Waters:
I now had the river written into the script so I had to test how it could look. I love water and I had a good time trying to photograph it.

I also returned to the park to test the new autumnal setting for the film. It's a little odd taking a photo without a subject. I just had to imagine what the picture would look like with an actor in it.

Casting and Scheduling:
I casted the film in November with about two weeks to prepare. Nazira and Ahneim had no time to rehearse with each other because I didn't think that would be necessary due to how short the lines were. In retrospect I would've liked to have done so just so they could meet before the shoot and be more familiar with one another and myself.

I planned for a one day shoot because that's what worked in the previous short film Subterranean. This was a mistake, the script had too many locations and it should've had one more day of shooting to cover the two major locations. At the time however, I thought I could do it in one day so that's what I planned.

November 21st, 2021

Into Troubled Waters:
The day was planned so that Ahneim would arrive first and get her solo shots done first, followed by Nazira's arrival to shoot the two actors together, and lastly shoot Nazira's solor scenes.

The whole production was behind on schedule and we didn't shoot all the scenes, or shot scenes with missing moments. It got to the point where we were shooting scenes to fulfill our shot list and not so much to film a creative and engaging scene.

Maria Hernandez Park:
We spent most of the day shooting the scenes at the park. I was had very little experience with directing actors so I was nervous, but Nazira and Ahneim were wonderful to work with. We did do our best under the circumstances and it was a good working relationship.

Because we couldn't shoot the whole script we had to come up with dialogue on set to make sense of the story. As the day went on the park grew louder and our microphone became unusable with how much noise there was. Most of the dialogue was recorded separately at the end of the shoot in a quiter area of the park.

The East River:
We finished the park scenes and went straight to the river. Time was of the essence as we had an hour to film before it got dark.

The emotion for this scene was bliss, and that's something I could feel while shooting. I just tried to capture as much raw beauty as I could, the sky glowed purple and the water sent out dreamy roar against the rocks.

Nazira and I finished shooting and it was a good end to a stressful day.

The Long and Winding River:
Once Principal Photography was finished I went out to film the river sequence. I spent days travelling to the shores of Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan to get the best shots of the East River. I tried using landmarks such as bridges and skylines so the audience knows where in the river we are.

This was not as relaxing as it sounds, a lot of these shores are hard to get to, especially when I tried to film multiple locations in an evening. Once I got there however, it was relaxing. I sometimes would even catch the sunset.

November - December, 2021

Editing:
The anxiety set in that I did not have a finished project. I worked with the footage I had and did my best to make sense of it. Not much footage was cut, everything we did is here.

Water Under the Bridge:
Swimming released and went by. I think the film is decent, there's some good ideas but it's not exactly what I had in mind. I wanted more emotion and a longer scene at the river.

I wasn't happy with the film when it released, but today I see that it was important as a way to learn as a director. This short film included a lot of firsts for me: Dialogue, Story, Multiple Characters/Actors, and Locations. All these things would be improved in future films but it had to start with this one.

I've learned to appreciate the time I spent on this film. We put in our best and got some good out of it.