About the movie
I Love You, I'm Sorry, And I'll Never Do It Again
is a 14-minute musical noir comedy.
This is about the business side of things, and gives away the film's ending. Creative stuff is covered thoroughly at the film blog and the downloads page.

It was important that this short film be three things:

  • A cool little film I was proud of, that cracked me up, and that festivals would want to program without knowing anything about my business considerations
  • Representative of the kind of feature I want to make next (a musical)
  • Representative of my abilities to potential investors

Since music and lyrics already existed for three musical numbers in CUPID & PSYCHE, the feature-length musical screenplay I've been working toward since Credo, I decided to make a short film out of one of them. I chose LOVE YOU, I'M SORRY, AND I'LL NEVER DO IT AGAIN over the other two possible numbers for two reasons:

  1. LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER didn't make sense when removed from the context of the feature.
  2. YOU'RE GONNA DIE would have required more special effects than this budget would allow.

I wrote a new story to contain the existing musical number. The thugs are the same characters as in the feature, and the essential idea is also the same; but in CUPID & PSYCHE, money isn't what the thugs are after. The role of Eddie (Peter Linari) also doesn't exist; the luckless husband is one of the main characters in the film, and the thugs don't shoot him at the end.

The main difference between CUPID & PSYCHE and I LOVE YOU, I'M SORRY, AND I'LL NEVER DO IT AGAIN is the tone. This short is a black comedy. CUPID & PSYCHE is warmer, lighter, and more hopeful, with the thugs and this situation as a dark comedic contrast. So the tone of this number is the same in the feature, but the overall story is fulfilling and optimistic.

Mike Faircloth (Executive Producer) and I agreed at the beginning that we would structure this in such a way as to get practice for a feature and prove to investors that we know what we're doing. My previous short films (CREDO and SELL IN HELL) have been creatively successful, technically innovative, and won multiple awards. This time around, we hired SAG actors, took competitive bids on services, commissioned an animated title sequence, established strict departmental lines and department heads, and hired nearly fifty people over the course of pre, production, and post.

Could we have achieved the same festival success less expensively, and with fewer people?

Yes.

However, festival success is just one part of the plan, and not necessarily the primary one. The rest (besides just making something great that we could all be proud of, which we did) was to show experience and competence in all the areas we'll need for CUPID & PSYCHE.

To contact us, email Keith Snyder (writer/director).