In town since late June, Katie Tibaldi has been moving at her usual frenetic pace.
While writing scripts for her double thesis in graduate school at New York University and assisting at the Traverse City Film Festival, Tibaldi has also been laying the groundwork for her short film, "Lydia," which began shooting yesterday. Her efforts over the past few months putting together the funding, personnel, locations, wardrobe, props, equipment, transportation and catering culminates this week with a four-day shooting schedule.
She will take her 20-person crew, which includes local West High School students and recent graduates, three actors and equipment to locations including Traverse City West High School, Interlochen State Park, the Walloon Lake area and Long Lake Township.
A calm, can-do person, Tibaldi crafted a complex story line where a nursing home volunteer is kidnapped by a patient who is physically strong but in the early stages of Alzheimer's Disease. The young woman reminds the patient of his daughter at an earlier time, before their father-daughter relationship became volatile.
"It's really a drama that sort of plays tricks on the audience at the beginning," said the project's writer, director and producer. "They think it's a thriller but really it's a drama — ultimately she ends up getting free, but he ends up putting himself into danger and she has to say, 'Do I get myself free or help him?'"
The finished film will be approximately 15-20 minutes, one of the growing genre of short films that are finding a niche both among audiences and in the industry. Making a short film costs much less than a full-length production and it also provides industry power brokers with a calling card of a writer/director's work.
"You can really have intense scenes in shorter format," said Tibaldi. "I actually tend to have really big ideas that I want to follow through in a full-length format, but I've started getting into shorter format because in directing that is the way to get jobs. You can show: this is a drama [I made], this is a comedy."
Tibaldi, a 1999 graduate of West High School, studied for two years at the University of Michigan and then transferred to New York University, arriving there just before the terrorist attacks of September 11. She completed her undergraduate degree in 2004 and has filled her resume with jobs at MTV and Saturday Night Live as she climbs the rungs in the industry. A partial scholarship plus her love of New York's vibe and her connections there kept her at NYU for graduate school. She completed her first year in May.
In town for the summer, Tibaldi tapped local residents — many of them college or high school students interested in film — for help as production assistants. Area professionals including local actor Mike Kelley and Rich Brauer of Brauer Production are part of the crew. Veteran filmmaker Brauer is loaning both equipment and expertise this week.
"It's been great, we have a great mix of people from out of town and in town," said Tibaldi. "It's been great for me personally to come back and get involved with people in the area."
Jeff Willecke, a 2006 graduate of West High School and a freshman at Northwestern Michigan College this fall, will be a sound assistant this week. One of the young film buffs on the crew who aspires to a career in the industry, Willecke is thrilled to participate.
"We've all done little projects ourselves and learned things," he noted. "But here, there's an equipment truck and everyone has their own positions — it's huge."
For more information on the film "Lydia," which Tibaldi intends to screen locally at a future date, see www.katietibaldi.com.