​  Everybody needs a “wing man.” The traditional formality of courting has long passed and when people actually make a romantic connection face to face (rather than virtually), they often need someone to give an assist. It seems that the more technology allows us to meet others in search of a spark, the less deep and meaningful those connections can tend to be. In the movie “Heart Felt” actor Edwin Perez does a great job of contrasting that via his character Romeo. While he is not the focus of Molly (played by Emmanuelle Vaugier), he is the romantic center of the story. Playing matchmaker to Molly and his best friend Jackson (Matthew MacCaull), Romeo is the springboard for the second chance in this romance. Perez has appeared as a cartoon character, the lead in horror films, yet he seems so perfectly suited to his role in “Heart Felt” that it seems hard to imagine him fighting to the death against (and alongside) monsters or singing as a bilingual musician uncle…until you see how perfect he is at these roles.
  The character Romeo is a true believer when it comes to romance. He’s a sensitive and honest guy who is in love with love. An optimist at his core, grand gestures of love and sweeping romance are as intuitive to him as a hard day’s work. This rule applies to his friends as well. He sees Jackson as a brother and Romeo always takes care of family. Edwin reveals, “He is a heightened version of myself, or at least what I aspire to be. I like to help out people, maybe not to the extreme that Romeo does but certainly more often than I should. Ha. I'm definitely an optimist so it wasn't too difficult to channel that into the character. We've all been heartbroken at one point or another, myself included, and in those moments we need friends to lean on. In playing Romeo, I wanted to create the kind of friend that I would want in my moment of need. I was inspired by my own friends in the past; the friend who would listen, the one who thought going out to show you a good time in order to cheer you up, the friend who constantly checks up on you, the counsellor, and so on. Romeo is an amalgamation of these qualities from friends.”
  In addition to being an endearing person, Romeo supplies a great deal of the comedy in “Heart Felt.” His complex and overly elaborate plans vetted the idea that he is passionate as well as perhaps a little too involved in cultural fantasies that are part of his heritage. Director Jason Bourque gave Perez a good deal of latitude when it came to improvisation. This gave the actor an opportunity to benevolently represent his Latin roots. The ad libs, Edwin’s own style of comedy, and the additional Spanish that wasn't already on the script were all parts of what came naturally to the actor and served to enrich the personality of the overall film. At one point during an argument between Jackson and Molly, Romeo makes a reference to the events being like a Telenovela. The idea is part of the shared consciousness of both Perez and his character. Everyone knows the Telenovela stereotype, the intense stares, the dramatic pauses, and the over the top emotional arcs. Here Edwin took the opportunity to represent the best parts of Latino humor in its broad and overt manner of not taking itself too seriously by appearing to take itself too seriously. Bourque cast the actor as Romeo from his audition for his instincts as well as his talent. The director declares, “Romeo was an incredibly challenging role due to the combination of comic timing and sensitivity. Edwin’s hilarious performance more than paid off. ‘Heart Felt’ was a hit as the official Valentines movie for Ion TV. It garnered rave reviews and we submitted Edwin for a Leo Award nomination for Best Supporting Lead. I simply found his work to be exceptional. He is one of the most dedicated, prepared and skilled actors I have had the pleasure to work with. His level of professionalism surpasses many of the actors I have encountered throughout my career, both as a writer and director. As a filmmaker, I’m always looking for cast members who can exceed my hopes for their performances; Edwin Perez confirmed my suspicion that there’s an immense well of talent inside him.”
  Yes, “Heart Felt” is a romance but it’s also a redemptive tale for both of the lead characters. Even when you try to do everything right, your past can haunt you. Early in the film, Jackson expects to settle down with Molly but when his ex shows up with a paternity test proving that he is the father of her child, there’s nothing that anyone can do to convince Molly to stay with him. When they both seem to have lost their belief in their true love, circumstances bring them unwittingly back to each other. The hinge that connects all romance in this film is Romeo. He serves as a proxy for the audience who wants to see these two people let their guard down and look at the character of each other rather than the circumstances that have driven a wedge between them. While many people and situations point to the ease of Molly and Jackson to pursue separate lives, it’s Romeo who continues to set their paths to a junction. It’s not at all a far stretch for Edwin who states, “Whether you are acting or in real life, it’s all about really listening to the person you are in a relationship with. You can’t be overly involved with yourself, how you look, what other people think of you, etc.  When you focus on the other person and their ability to be comfortable, in a loving relationship or while filming a scene…the other person is allowed to be a better version of themselves and they want that for you as well. I’m a romantic. I bought a star for my partner. I know it's kind of cheesy but she is a huge fan of Space related stuff. We weren't together yet and she was going to move temporarily to another city for work so I really needed to win her over. When I gave her the gift, just before she left, I told her if she ever felt alone or lost to just look up and follow her star. It worked because we're going onto 4 years together now in our relationship. They say that as an actor you make your weakness your strength, being vulnerable is hard but it can pay off in big ways.”

​  Canadian actress/singer/dancer Karlee Squires is most known for her musical theater work in productions such as “Sugar”, “The Music Man”, “The Wizard of Oz” and others but she is just as comfortable working in dramatic non-singing roles. In Sholanda Shaw’s “5 One Act Court Drama” Squires more than proves that her acting ability is able to be untethered to her other talents and gain notoriety for this young entertainer. Shaw had seen Karlee sing and was impressed but needed her acting talent alone for this production. Sholanda professes, “Karlee was integral to this production. Her contributions shaped the success it received. I was struck by her confidence when she auditioned. It doesn’t come from a place of hubris but rather from an inner belief and excitement that is infectious. Her abilities, her commitment, and her positivity spread throughout our cast with benevolent repercussions. When you see her perform, you can understand that this is someone who takes great care to actualize and manifest her character.”
  Squires performed two roles in the project: that of Bailiff and Court Reporter. As the Court Reporter , she opened the play stating the facts to the judge and jury, and most importantly setting the scene for the audience of what was about to happen. This role required clarity as well as comedic timing. Legal jargon can be confusing both to the listener and the speaker and Karlee notes that, like medical “speak”, it can be quite unusual to memorize and deliver as if it’s second nature. Her character was constantly present in the scene even when not speaking, sometimes taking notes and then asking questions. Because she would close out the play by interviewing the plaintiff and the defendant, this role saw Karlee as the proxy for the audience in encapsulating a great deal of the statements and action of the play. The Bailiff role gave an opportunity for Squires to perform with a lighter side. The Bailiff’s main job in the show was to have comedic facial expressions, prompting the audience to respond.  Having very good comedic timing was paramount.  The Bailiff didn’t say much other than ushering in the characters, introducing them to the audience, and getting the characters to swear in but the Bailiff was on stage during the entire play.  As the Bailiff, Karlee would react to what other characters were doing. For example, when the husband started dancing, it was her job to stop him and calm down the room. When the ex-wife started lunging at the husband to strangle him, Squires was there to save the day. The Bailiff was a crucial role to the plot, even with few lines said. These less dialogue centered roles can be quite challenging as they are dependent on non-verbal cues and intonations. Anyone who has been unable to speak and still communicate in a social setting has an appreciation for the skills required in this type of role.
  The well-groomed, well-dressed talkative court reporter was the polar opposite of the no nonsense, conservative Bailiff; it’s an aspect that greatly attracted this actress. She tells, “The manner of dress of these two characters was very different and that always helps an actor get more into the role as well as gives the audience a step towards believability of them. What I was most attracted to was the opportunity to play two very different types of people in the same production. These two people live and work in the same world day after day yet their purpose and status in the courtroom demands that they conduct themselves very differently. In my interpretation, they enjoy their manner of conduct in their professional lives. It speaks to them and they are comforted by it. It’s not something they ‘must’ do, it’s something they ‘want’ to do.”
  One of the great responsibilities Karlee had in this production is that she was the audience’s first and last connection with the cast and the story. This meant that she set the tone for both the story and the audience’s reception of this, a fact that she was keenly aware of. Squires delivered the opening monologue to introduce the action as well as the closing monologue to resolve what they had seen. It’s an indicator of the writer/director’s belief in this actress that she allowed her to have the first and last word of her creation. For Karlee, the experience with Shaw was unique and rewarding as she explains, “Working with Shalonda, who was the playwright and director of this show, was an incredible experience. This was the first time I worked in a production where the director was also the playwright. She knew what she wanted from the actors and worked to achieve the clear vision in her head from them. This was truly her creation and the fact that she wrote it and directed us made the process easier in terms of communication.” Both Karlee Squires and Sholanda Shaw are proof that many of the professionals in the theater world are multitalented and this production is yet another indicator of this. 

​  Powerful female action heroes are more prominent these days than ever before. Wonder Woman, Lara Croft, Jessica Jones, these are just a very few of the famous characters and roles for women in modern film and television that prove women are no longer the frail creatures who need the protection of men. The indirect effect is that it affects the way both men and women see the gender and the preconceived ideas they hold about them. The direct effect is that the opportunities for women to portray these parts have become much more numerous, a welcomed occurrence that will hopefully continue. Australian Ebony De La Haye is on the frontlines of this trend with her roles in live shows like “Waterworld.” Matthew May (former Operations Manager at the Waterworld Stunt Show in Singapore) had seen Ebony’s abilities up close when he performed with her at a waterski stunt show at the Moomba Masters Festival in Melbourne. Through his work with Action Horizons, May recommended De La Haye and she flew to Singapore to train as “Helen.” The action oriented production comes with the type of potential danger that requires an elite stuntwoman in the role of Helen, a lead female character in “Waterworld.”
  This live show, coordinated by Action Horizons, is an adaptation of the 1995 film Waterworld, starring Kevin Costner. The cast is made up of professional stunt men and women who act out the story while exhibiting such abilities as jet skiing, water skiing, high diving, martial arts, gymnastics, and of course acting. It takes place on a recreated ‘Atoll’ which is brought to life with high action stunts, watercraft, and pyrotechnics. The show is performed at Universal Studios theme parks around the world in the USA, Japan, and Singapore. Ebony performed as the female lead Helen in the Singapore production. Helen is an independent and brave voyager. In an era of hopelessness, her optimism and caring nature drives her attempts to create a better life. She is very capable of achieving this and is willing to fight to survive. It’s a role perfectly in balance with De La Haye’s impressive skill set.
  Waterworld’s live performance does require acting ability but there’s no doubt that the source is the athleticism and the mastery of water based sports on the part of the cast. There is a specific set of skills that Waterworld requires but people come from a wide variety of athletic backgrounds to achieve them. The cast consists of professional water skiers, gymnasts, martial artists, dancers, and of course stunt performers. There is a bit of a global community of live stunt show performers, as it does require such a specific set of skills. Ebony’s years of competition in waterskiing that utilized acrobatics made her ideal for this role. Performing as Helen in front of  a crowd of 4,000, Ebony exhibited her mastery in driving boats, jet skiing, high diving, stunt fighting, and acting. One might presume that the death defying feats would be the most challenging but not so for De La Haye who concedes that working with a diction coach to master the perfect American accent required a lot more work than flying across the water at high speeds surrounded by explosions. She relates, “The experience of working with pyrotechnics isn’t intimidating to me as I have worked around them in most live shows I have been a part of as well as in film productions. You train for safety around this just as you train for safety in sports. You must always be aware of it and it becomes part of the performance training in the same way you are aware of the lights, the audience, and the other performers.” Witnessing Ebony careening on any number of forms of water vehicles, fighting, and avoiding the explosives/attacks of her enemies…one might forget that the show is completely live with no deceptive camera angles that reveal the danger isn’t truly there.
   No doubt it’s the very genetic makeup of an athlete that transfers so aptly to this type of entertainment for De La Haye. In the case of Waterworld, this is almost literal. The show lasts approximately twenty-five minutes. It is an extremely physically demanding show especially for the Helen role as she is on set for the complete duration of the show. Ebony was required to deliver the lines while performing at a high cardio rate, performing incredibly physically demanding stunts… all while on a live microphone. In an era where a vast amount of singers lip sync while dancing, this is an achievement in itself. George Hartmann (of Action Horizons)
Operations Manager Singapore professes, “The role of "Helen" can only be played by a handful of talented females, so we feel very lucky to have had Ebony as part of our team here at Action Horizons for the past 6 years. Ebony's role of "Helen" in the Waterworld show is a powerful lead female character which requires lots of strength, stamina, and stage presence. Waterworld is a water based stunt show which is physically demanding for all of our performers.  Ebony’s commitment is inspiring, which can be quite challenging as she is constantly being pushed to her limit by running around the set, climbing ladders, driving boats, swimming, and overcoming all of the obstacles on our set.  It’s a test of any person’s determination and abilities. Performing the role is 50% Olympics and 50% theater. Throughout the storyline, Ebony takes place in several stunt fights and performs stunts all across the set, including a zip line and jumping from heights.  Delivering her lines in an American accent while doing all of this makes it much more challenging. The immense concentration required is astounding and she never faltered. Ebony is a consummate pro on all sides.”
  De La Haye’s role as Helen in Waterworld was the perfect bridge between her award-winning athletic career and her involvement these days as a professional stuntwoman in feature films. The soon to be released Sweetheart and Prey show her performing the same precarious stunts with the intensity and ability that she has used the world over. Ebony De La Haye learned from an early age that she can achieve her aspirations with determination. The venue may have changed but the drive and talent applies wherever she focuses it.
 

​  An individual who scores films often finds themselves in an odd predicament. At their core these professionals are musicians and composers but they operate outside the normal parameters of others in the music industry. They do not perform for audiences yet their music is heard by an enormous amount of people. They do not create music for their own self-fulfillment or satisfaction but rather to serve to augment the creations of other artists. In the midst of all this, they must find a way to place their heart into this music to feed the part of their soul and psyche which originally led them to this path. Composer Jayden Lawrence concedes that scoring a film is almost never an easy path. It’s a high pressure situation which calls upon one to serve the sentiment and moods of the director/client in artistic form…which is always subjective to the person you are working for/with. Big budgets and tight deadlines (in which the score is often one of the final stages) only exacerbate this situation. For the film Head Above Water created both the score and source music in this sports mockumentary. This combination gave him a chance to flex different parts of his composing muscle and create both an intense and at times playful mood for the story.
  Head Above Water is the story of the “greatest rivalry in sporting history”. This feature-length comedy is the story of two renowned surfers whose rivalry reaches new heights when one of them rises to international stardom after fighting off a shark attack. In addition to creating the underscore for the film, Jayden composed the source music for the interview and fake TV spots of the plot. The diverse nature of these different approaches in terms of style and genre required a great deal from Jayden’s diverse musical sensibilities and talent. His compositions ranged from Hip Hop to epic Orchestral, late-night-talk-show themes to sports bumpers, even melodramatic soap opera. For the overall sound of the film, Lawrence created a laid-back “surfy” vibe with the use of warm pads, guitar, and contemporary “indie” elements such as vocals and electronics for the Australian beach community.
  To set the tone in the opening sequence, director Connor Fairclough required a larger than life musical backdrop. He needed to create the sense that the competition between these two surfers was grandiose, even bordering on super heroic. In the same way the audience’s attention is captured in the first few seconds by music on the radio, a film gets a very curt amount of time to engage the viewer. Connor knew it had to make an impact immediately as it was the opportunity to give the viewer a glimpse of what lies ahead, introducing the premise of the film as well as the main characters, their fierce rivalry, and their journeys. He turned to Jayden to maximize the impact. The opening sequence itself is nearly three minutes of various documentary-style interviews intertwined with an enthusiastic radio broadcast. The music was the major factor in creating the necessary excitement. Jayden describes, “I approached the first cue as if I was writing music for a blockbuster trailer. It’s orchestral with deep hits, large string section, epic horns, and of course, a choir. The cliché of big drums and an aggressive cello ostinato were the big stars of this cue, creating momentum, drive, and anticipation. The use of a large ensemble such as an orchestra really helps to portray grandeur and the epic scale of the film. The cue is split into two halves, sandwiching a short commercial for one of the main character’s line of swimwear. This required its own piece of music. The film is a comedy and thus many of the scenes are tongue-in-cheek. In this case, the swimwear commercial is poking fun at celebrities who go on to release their own fashion or fragrance. Normally these celebrities are classy, sophisticated individuals. The character in this case [Ricky] is quite the opposite, evident by the way he delivers his lines as if struggling to read from an autocue. I wasn’t really given any direction for this, so I had complete freedom in how I wanted to approach this. I decided to play into the clichéd class and elegance of a typical fragrance ad for the start of the mock-commercial as the voice over announces ‘Passion… Competition… Australia…’ over black & white imagery. I did with this with an unobtrusive swelling pad, only to obtrusively ‘hit’ in with a hip-hop beat. This change in gears helps create some attitude to contrast with the ‘class and elegance’ preceding it, while also conveying ‘confidence’, another contrast with the fumbling demeanor of Ricky. I used a DJ Horn towards the end to add comic effect and appeal to an audience familiar with memes, making it even more difficult for the audience to take Ricky seriously.”
  Lawrence is a modern composer who enjoys the solace of watching the film by himself and taking cues from the action on screen. In his home studio he is the sole creator and performer using software to manifest the presence of sonics spanning an orchestra to rock band. This streamlined approach not only allowed for the budget to be maintained but enabled the music to switch gears so quickly. When you’re the director of the film, this alleviates a great deal of pressure. Fairclough confirms, “Head Above Water was the biggest project I had personally undertaken, so I knew that I needed somebody who I could trust to handle such an important part of the production and was a good team player. This includes not only working to a high quality standard but being reliable under strict time restraints and pressures. As always, Jayden delivered the goods. His musical chops and picture sense take a film to the next level. I’ve worked with Jayden on a number of projects now and it’s always a highlight of the film-making process for me. It doesn’t matter what style of film; he nails the score every time. I’m sure I could simply dump a film in his lap and say ‘Here, score this’ and he would do it…and it would be perfect! I wouldn’t do that though because I’d miss out on being a part of his process, which is always insightful and often exposes elements of my film that I didn’t even know were there. As a filmmaker, you want professionals around you like Jayden Lawrence to inspire your creativity.”

​  Makeup is something that you likely take for granted. It’s the thing that most adolescent girls are excited to start wearing. It’s the thing that many women spend a lot of money on at a local high end department store or through a company representative. What you may overlook is that Makeup is a tool that has been used for numerous decades on some of your most beloved films. Yes, it has been used to make Elizabeth Taylor, Brigitte Bardot, and other women more glamorous but it applies to much more than this. The Makeup artists of the film and TV production world have evolved along with the rest of the entertainment industry. While a fair amount of the films we see are about spectacle, the Makeup artists of this industry bring a subtlety and believability to the stories on the big screen and the small screen. Christina Spina is a respected artist who has used her skill and talent in a host of productions. For the film Octavio is Dead, she transformed the human condition by turning a glamorous actress into a boy and aging a man forty years. The public has a preconception that Makeup in the entertainment world is only for glamour and monsters but Spina’s work exhibits that the uses are for creating the character no matter how fantastic or deceptively mundane they might seem.
   Preproduction discussions between director Sook-Yin Lee and Spina focused heavily on Lee’s insistence that the transformation of lead actress Sarah Gadon from female to male in the film suspend the viewer’s disbelief. Rather than hinting at this look, she required an extreme authenticity which would cause the audience to question Gadon’s very gender. The director wanted to exhibit a young girl exploring a world as a boy, and convincing enough in her world that her boyishness is real. This was a demanding request as Sarah Gadon is quite known for her femininity and glamour, known for her work as the face of Giorgio Armani Cosmetics. As Head of the Makeup Department, Christina discussed with Gadon the process of transforming her feminine face into masculine one. The look was designed meticulously using makeup techniques that transformed her naturally feminine features into an angular boyish appearance. Jawline, cheekbones, brow, all roundness was removed and replaced with angular shaping. Skin tone and color was made more bland. Gadon’s transformation was stunning, but Christina work was far from complete. Sook-Yin Lee stated publicly that Christina was key to the success of this film in the same manner as the editor, music composer, and even the director herself noting that the professionals on this film “Are the best!”
  The other dramatic task for Spina as Head of the Makeup Department was to make Raoul Trujillo (appearing as Octavio) age forty years during the course of the story. This work was just as much about what was not seen as what was visible. Spina concedes that she does a great deal of aging makeup for films and brings some very unique skills to this (Christina has a BFA in Sculpture from OCAD and studied Anatomy for her science credits, which included the study of specimens at the medical morgue; far from the typical makeup artist). She explains, “Aging skin isn’t arbitrary in form, wrinkles occur by various means: gravity, genetics, diet, sun exposure, skin elasticity, and age all play their part. The shapes and locations of wrinkles are specific to the movement and underlying facial muscles. Understanding these forms is essential in creating a true aging makeup. Creating crow’s feet, for example, requires that skin is stretched vertically while the makeup material is applied in several layers with some drying time in between, powdered to set, and released to then reveal horizontal wrinkles. This technique is then applied in small sections all over the face, stretching out each area in the opposite direction to create the desired wrinkles. Once the three dimensional forms are created, in this case all the desired wrinkles are established, we can then apply the color. Age spots, liver spots, freckles, enhancing darkness in deep wrinkles and creases. Color is applied using an alcohol-activated makeup, a product that looks like it is sitting below the skin, and is waterproof and longwearing. It takes a lot of work and a bit of science to mirror what time does on its own.”
  While what can be seen in Trujillo’s appearance is thoroughly convincing, just as prominent is the work that Christina and her team did that goes unnoticed. Tattoos are extremely common these days, even among professionals such as actors who use their body in their profession. During the actor’s first day on the shoot Spina learned that he had a nude scene scheduled for day #4…and that his body is eighty percent covered in tattoos. Added to this was the fact that during this scene is when his character would appear as his oldest age in the film in this scene. For one day only of shooting, three makeup artists airbrushed tattoo cover-up makeup on Raoul and then Christina (with her makeup partner Jessica) placed him in the makeup chair to age him by four decades.
  Spina’s role is that of assisting the artist and the audience to realize and experience the characters in the film in the most realistic and believable manner. The interaction between makeup artist and actor is not one-sided. Christina discusses with the actors and director how they will present these characters, along with research to fully develop this concept. Those who sit in her chair often find themselves altering their body language, posture, and mannerisms as the outward appearance helps them to further inhabit their character. During this process for Octavio is Dead, Spina recalls that upon witnessing her own appearance Gadon’s her posture would change, her facial expression looked more vacant than her usual lively self, her speech, her actions were all different, she truly became the male version of Tyler that appeared in the story. The reaction from Trujillo was great and expected. He was admittedly freaked out and self-conscious as anyone one would be when faced with such a radically aged version of themselves. The Yin to Spina’s Yang on this film was Hanna Puley (Costume Designer). She describes the process of working with Christina commenting, “She is always a calming force. Things can be very hectic on a set and I think what seperates those who are great from those who are really good is not only talent, it’s the ability to remain calm and problem solve when things get crazy. Christina is an exceptional makeup artist, anyone who has seen her work can tell you this…but what makes everyone want to work with her is that she does this even while in the eye of the storm. It’s an enviable attribute and something everyone on our set admired about her.”

​  (By Luigi Paglia)
​  Watch any of the films penned by writer Shreekrishna Padhye and you’ll instantly recognize his style. It’s biting, witty, and teaching. Instead of preferring hyperbolic antics, he revels in stories of everyday people who do things uncommon and often pay the price for it. There is an implied sense of fate and justice in his work which serves as a warning to those who violate the social contract. For every bit of darkness and tragedy, Padhye balances it with comedy…though often with a dash of irony. There is a positive correlation between the tales he composes and the ancient Aesop’s Fables as they contain truth and the misdirected/often ill-conceived plans of humans. It’s this writer’s constant preoccupation with the study of human behavior that fuel his many scripts and film productions. For the film “Sick Leave”, he wanted to challenge himself to find comedy in a situation that would seem to be void of the potential humor. While that might sound like an odd starting point, it’s indicative of the process that Shreekrishna uses to grow as a writer; find a situation that is dark and discover the ridiculousness of it all. You may laugh as much as you wince at the actions of the characters in the films of Padhye but you’ll likely learn a lot at the same time. It’s what the writers of all the great classics have attempted to do and this writer is simply the modern subscriber to this intent.
  The idea of writing about something very wrong often resides in the brain of Shreekrishna, until it finds a way out. He had long wanted to write a dark comedy built around the idea of the Swine Flu. This is not a typical topic around which to build a comedy tale. For Padhye, looking at the same story/event from multiple angles is a requirement of being a good writer. If you only look at things one way you are missing the vastly majority of the story and experiences, which is what people most often relate to. It’s his curiosity about the motivations of people that finds its way into his subconscious to challenge how he personally views things, and transfers these in his writing. The process creates a myriad of possibilities which he feels is exponentially multiplied by the actors, directors, and other professionals who then contribute to his original ideas.
  “Sick Leave” is a cautionary tale but not in a heavy handed manner. The subtlety of the writing is closer to candlelight, warm and friendly, than that of a blinding beacon. The film is as much about personal ethics as it is about love and the consequences of each. The main character Jacob is a twenty-one-year-old student who finds himself more interested in the attractive girl attending the same Pathology class than he is in his studies and the lecture. Following class one day, Jacob sees a sign “Anatomy quiz tomorrow at 10:30am. Don’t miss. Absence is excused only in cases of illness. Sickness certificate from school nurse mandatory.” A serious procrastinator, Jacob avoids preparation and then hatches an age old plan to feign illness to avoid the quiz. Using a variety of methods to mimic illness, He greets the nurse with a dull face and constant shivering. Jacob systematically delivers a performance that anticipates each of the indicators of his illness convincing the nurse. She gives him medicine and writes him a sickness certificate. Feeling proud and clever, he takes the note and spends the rest of the day playing computer games. The next day when he goes to college with the certificate in his hand, he recognizes the girl he admired in class reading the Notice Board with other students. He approaches them, smiles, and reads the notice which states, “Swine Flu epidemic rampant. Sick People will be quarantined.” Noticing the certificate in Jacob’s hands, the focus of his amorous intent and the other students quickly walk away from him.
  As with all artists, Padhye places a little of himself in all of his work. He admits that like many of us, he found himself looking for the easy way out in his earlier years. In an approach very similar to an actor, Shreekrishna tries to find a piece of himself in the characters of his stories. Even if a character is doing something seemingly horrible, Padhye will place himself in the shoes of this person and find a way to relate to even a seemingly awful act. The producer of “Sick Leave”, T.M. Malones, was drawn to working with this writer because of his empathetic and deep insight into dark and misdirected characters. Malones confirms, “Shreekrishna was able to turn a simple narrative into something wholly original. The film has been a hit on the Internet, garnering over 127,000 views on YouTube, which is a prominent form of commercial success for short films in today’s day and age. This success would not have resulted if the film had not been crafted by someone as talented as Shreekrishna. This is a sign of success to the public but the true magic of his writing is the way that he creates characters who you can both dislike and feel an affinity for. One dimensional characters are uninteresting to the audience and those portraying them. Working with Shreekrishna means knowing that, as a filmmaker, you are going to be challenged…which is always a pleasurable situation in which to find yourself.”