It Came to This, 25min,. USA
Directed by Sheldon Schiffer
It Came to This is a short romantic fantasy comedy about a woman writer and her boyfriend whose plans to move in together are interrupted. Love should inspire compromise, right? At least until an ugly lamp becomes more than just a light, but the flame that could light their relationship on fire.

https://www.instagram.com/sheldonelias

Get to know the filmmaker:

1. What motivated you to make this film?

I have lived through many romantic relationships. I was recently going through a process of reflection on those relationships. One day, while teetering a little depressive cycle between remorse and regret, I took a break by doing some stress-relief thrift shop cruising. I was perusing the aisles and found the lamp that is the main prop of the film. When I saw the lamp, I picked it up and thought, I am going to make a movie about this lamp, and two lovers are going to fight over it. And because it is so weird, mysterious and culturally distinct, the audience is going to laugh, and then maybe learn something about creativity, the imagination, and the exotic.

2. From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this film?

Three and a half years. But in that time, I fathered a new born with my spouse. Moved to a new city. Started a new job, and lost one too. And sadly, we also lost our little girl.

3. How would you describe your film in two words!?

Absurd Jealousy

4. What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?

The pandemic. We wrapped production one week before the shutdown. It was very hard to complete a few pickups and get postproduction started when everyone was afraid of getting sick by sitting in the same room with others.

5. What were your initial reactions when watching the audience talking about your film in the feedback video?

Delight. Wow, these folks totally understood my film. So happy that it resulted in the smiles that usually come with completing a puzzle.

6. When did you realize that you wanted to make films?

Age 15, after watching an old film, Ordinary People, directed by Robert Redford with Donald Sutherland and Mary Tyler Moore. I knew I wanted to make films about relationships.

7. What film have you seen the most in your life?

Le Ecclisse (Antonioni), Quest for Fire (Anaud), Blade Runner (Scott), The Sacrifice (Tarkovski), kind of a tie

8. What other elements of the festival experience can we and other festivals implement to satisfy you and help you further your filmmaking career?

It would be helpful if festivals could provide some audience architecting direction and templates for social media campaigns. I think many filmmakers are a little under-informed on how to use social media to find, define and expand their audience in sync with festival events, whether in person or online. With a template and a timed events, festivals could coordinate or simply inform filmmakers on what could they do and when they could do their outreach on a day by day basis leading up to the event.

9. You submitted to the festival via Film Freeway. How has your experiences been working on the festival platform site?

Film Freeway works well.

10. What is your favorite meal?

Breakfast. Smoked salmon omelets

11. What is next for you? A new film?

My new film has a working title of The Collector. It's about a street art collector who collects postcards. He finds a postcard that describes a rendevous decades into the future. But that future date is coming up. So, he hijacks the romantic date and shows up as the man in the postcard. What becomes of him is a lesson in getting more than what you wanted.

Yep, another relationship film.