In the summer of 2015, Mike Rutkoski was hunting for a director to help bring his zany comedy script called ‘Baby Frankenstein’ to life. When he reached out to me via Facebook, I didn’t know Mike in the slightest. 14 months later, I can proudly call Mike not only my partner — but one of my best friends.
Both on-screen and off, Baby Frankenstein has always had this intrinsic ability to bring people together.
In the weeks leading to principal photography, I watched in guarded horror as our shooting days dwindled from 17 to finally 7-straight. Although it was not ideal, I knew from shooting my first feature in 10 days that it was certainly possible. I knew that creative problem solving on any front usually led to brave, exciting choices if you were flexible enough to roll with the punches and embrace the controlled chaos.
I was fortunate enough to have pieced together a team that was confident in our abilities as a unit to pull off this sweet, funny tale in such a short period. And filming in our home-turf of Northeastern, PA didn’t hurt either.
The film you see, besides a bit of b-roll, was what was shot in those 7 days. This film has been my life for these past 14 months: writing, producing, production designing, directing, second unit DP–ing, editing, and even doing the graphic design work you’re looking at now.
I am extremely proud of this little ‘cinematic experiment’ of ours and I cannot wait until audiences can fall in love with Baby Frankenstein like we all have.