Bianchi's thoughts:

Week Six’s inception began as a proposal to my friend, screenwriter Malena Lloyd, to craft a story based on a few principals I was interested in for my thesis film – no college aged actors, serious subject material and little dialogue. A few days later, she presented me with the hauntingly beautiful idea: a man tries to enter the bedroom his wife passed away in and fails to do so, every morning. From there, Malena and I worked to write a script that stayed close to both the father and his son, while keeping their relationship as distant as possible. It was a chance for us explore death and acceptance. Loss had destroyed their rapport. It tucked them away into completely separate worlds, until real life shoved them into each other’s lives.

With the mentorship of SUNY Oswego professor Jacob Dodd, we decided to film on a Black Magic Pocket Cinema Camera. The device's Super-16mm sensor offers an organic quality with a touch of a “home movie” vibe. Combined with Zeiss and Kowa lenses, originally paired with an Arri SR, the image became an assemblage of old and new technology. Together they helped give the film an emotional, timeless quality.

Shooting the film was a different process than I had perviously experienced. Instead of trained actors, we brought on two non-professional actors, co-producer Emily Stott’s father and brother, Kevin and Jack. They were able to give us genuine performances that felt authentic and true to the characters. On our first meeting, Jack Stott talked to me for fifteen minutes straight about his character, Travis, and how hurt he must have been. He brought that focused energy into every single shot…and as soon as I called cut he was laughing, joking, and learning everything he could about the structure of a film crew. As newcomers to the film world, he and Kevin were forced to absorb the aspects of a film set fast. They did just that. Because of their efforts, the bonds between our cast and crew grew.

Four days were spent filming in Liverpool, NY; other locations were gathered over three more days in Central New York. A majority of our time was filming inside the main house, which proved to be a challenge. We quickly learned it would save time to keep the lights set up in one area of the house, adjust them for different times during the day, have the actors change wardrobe, swap our props on set and jump around in the script rather than film sequentially. Doing so cut hours off our production schedule. We wrestled keeping watch of every other aspect of continuity; we needed to make sure everything flowed properly, absolutely nothing stuck out as out of place, and most importantly that it felt like a house that was being lived in, not a set.

Jack and Kevin taught me about relationships, family dynamics, and how bonds can be strengthened if we open up and listen to one another. My crew showed me how to push forward, to tackle what was daunting. This was my final film at SUNY Oswego – my final accomplishment – and I’m honored to have spent that time with the cast and crew of Week Six, as well as the Stott family.