An open letter

 Dear Insignis Community,

I felt a need to write this, as I think I need to be clear going forward what my, and the groups intentions are. In a gist of nostalgia, I began to re-watch Baz Luhrmann’s “The Great Gatsby”. I was so excited when this movie came out. I watched trailers on repeat, had a count down for this film, and bought the 5:05pm showing the Friday it came out, and asked for the night off (I worked at the movie theater itself back then), so it was a big deal to me. When I watched it, I couldn’t help a strong, strong sense to go back in time when I was so excited for a film to release, and just excited about everything in general. The film came out in 2013, and we were to make two feature films before I transitioned to short films. One of them, Brugato, was inspired by the film, and the sweet, slow pace of Lana Del Rey’s “Young and Beautiful” made it as a big part of the story. One of her lyrics wistfully says “hot summer nights, mid July, when you and I were forever wild”, and this hits hard (I say as a measly 25 year old). COVID aside, I can’t help but think there was such a wonderful period of carefree time when we made those films.

But then, I and Insignis pretended to be something we’re not. We cast professionals, you guys, starting in 2015. I tried to put up a professional front, and I tried to film so we wouldn’t be judged (by outsiders, and the cast and crew alone), but truth be told, that’s not who we are at heart, and I don’t have a problem admitting that. All of you may have sensed a very lax atmosphere on set, and whether it’s your style or not, that is how we did, and will operate. I tried to portray a facade that we are a professional group (which we are, I do not doubt that), who has established set rules, which we don’t. I think our past work, speaks for itself that we are fully, and more than capable to make a film with a different style on set. Growing up through this period, while making our shorts with you guys, I always felt I needed to prove something, that we needed to be “better” than other groups, and that we had to be at a certain point in our groups "timeline” to “keep up” with others. This, along with personal reasons made me slowly drop out of filmmaking in general, which is why we haven’t had a real film since Affair Game (48 hour project). While this was a personal decision, I feel like you should know why I did. Going forward, I know that I, and Insignis Films have what it takes to tell powerful stories, but do it in a way that I have no pressure to keep up with “the others” and without the need to do things “the real way” (that’s not to say we won’t have any structure on set). While this is not everyone’s cup of tea, and I understand that, I truly think that Insignis has a special way of telling stories that we will continue to do at our own pace. I personally believe this fear of “not fitting in” made me so preoccupied with the technical aspect, we fell short on the actual storytelling at times.

The million dollar question as to when filming will resume still lingers. I was hoping by April 2022, however, this is fully dependent on COVID-19. We have a social responsibility to keep our set safe, but I do not wish to have constant mask wearing on set, nor do I wish to have those who are not vaccinated on set due to my desire not to have masks on set (I’m all about safety, which is why I am not taking a careless approach to this). While we won’t stay behind the curtains forever, I do wish to see how hopefully, the final chapter of COVID plays out in our favor.

If you’ve read this all, thank you. I’ve been wanting to get this off my chest to an audience that eagerly awaits our return.