Role and name:

DEVIN REYNOLDS: Samuel María Gómez

ERIKA REYNOLDS: Marie Dinolan

BRANDON REYNOLDS: Zach Shinske

SANDY REYNOLDS: Lizzy Plimpton

CARL REYNOLDS: Ron Austin Jr.

YOUNG DEVIN: Austin Munroe

YOUNG ERIKA: Tess Romero

YOUNG BRANDON: Robbie Crandall

RENEE: Ashley Lauren-Elrod

JEREMY: Grant Schumacher

JASMINE: Natalie Miolan

PORTIA: Joanna Pinto

JULIE: Monica Gronchi

LIAM: Sam Encarnacion

MEREDITH HILL: Cherie Mendez

SUSAN: Alyssa Watson

Crew

Director: Tony Germinario

Written by: Zach Shinske, Joanna Pinto, Monica Gronchi

Executive Producers: Zach Shinske, Joanna PintoProducers: Catherine Hogan, Stacey McHugh, Monica Gronchi, Alyssa Watson

Associate Producers: Maria Florencia Smith

Director of Photography: Austin Lee Smoak, Steven Carmona

Second Unit DP: Bruno FerreiraEditor: Bruno Ferriera

1st AD: Holly Furman

1st AC: James Cernero, Rachel Gwozdz, Carmelo de JesusGrip: Paul Illge, Max Frega

Gaffer: Stephen Ohocinsky, Naomi Saito

Sound Designer: Paul Illge, Sean Boote

Sound Mixer: Michael Ruggiero, Jonathan Lau, Cameron Martinez

Boom Operator: Maxamilian Arias

Production Designer: Michelle Siracusa

Wardrobe: Amanda Carmona

Hair and Makeup: Dena Olivieri, Frannie Bromley, Lily Li

Music Supervisor: Ronald Jordan

Composer: Shehdaat Hussein

Colorist: Aram Bauman

Legal: Catherine Hogan

Inspiration behind the film:

In 2017, I was an ambitious actor who kept being told "no" fresh out of my conservatory training. I produced an Off-Broadway production but was very eager to transition to film/television. I had a vision for a story I wanted to tell, one from the perspective of an adoptee. I felt like my perspective had been hugely overlooked in the film/television/theatre world, and I wanted to tell a story that was as authentic as possible. I wanted to make a television show that was diverse and toed the line between drama and comedy, and ultimately settled on the story of a blended family with three adopted siblings trying to make their way through tragedy while trying to sort through their respective feelings about their identity as an adoptee. The adoptee community is incredibly diverse in thoughts and opinions, each forged through their own circumstances, so it was important to me to capture as many viewpoints as possible. So I bought an Ipad, and slowly but surely started to teach myself the ropes of screenwriting and formatting. In 2018, co-producers and I filmed a 25 minute pilot, with the intention of using that pilot to crowdfund to film two more episodes. Admittedly, through most of this process there was a huge learning curve. All of us had come from the theatre and had never experienced film production. We successfully reached our crowdfunding in late 2018 and went into pre-production to film the remaining two episodes in 2019. Since we put most of our budget into production, we greatly underestimated our post-production needs as many first time producers do, and needed to hold off on starting post-production until we recouped finances. Before we knew it, it was 2020, and obviously that year changed everything for my team. People started to take up other projects and interests, and in 2021 we finally completed production. We never found a home in the festival circuit, but are still incredibly proud of what we accomplished as first time producers.

Information
Maturity Rating:
TV-MA
Community Tags:

Millennial, Family Drama, Adoptee, Multi-Cultural Families, Independent Television

Filmmaker:
Zach Shinske / Howl at the Moon Entertainment
Social handles:
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