Good Grief is DONE

Big news: Good Grief is officially out of post-production, and we’re preparing for the festival circuit.

If you’ve been following us for a while, you may have seen a post or two about a short film we shot in Albuquerque, New Mexico, back in June 2025. That was Good Grief. If you’re just finding us: Good Grief grew out of the backstory of Molly McCleary, the lead character in my feature script Maid of Honour is Murder, which is in development. In the feature, Molly is thirty. In Good Grief, she’s fourteen, and what happens to her here is what she carries with her into everything that comes after.

Good Grief is a coming-of-age mystery drama. Molly McCleary is a fourteen-year-old skater whose father, Jack, suddenly dies. While she’s dealing with grief, family tensions, and a shifting friendship, Molly begins to suspect his death wasn’t as straightforward as it seemed. With the help of her best friend, Sass, she sets out on an amateur detective journey and uncovers secrets that challenge everything she thought she knew.

It’s a film about loss, but it’s also funny, and at its heart it’s about friendship and a kid who refuses to let something go.

The Shoot

We loved shooting in Albuquerque. Its landscape and light added so much to the story, and the city has a fabulous film community. Looking back, though, our schedule was too ambitious. The film really needed ten to twelve days, and we planned it for seven. We added an eighth, and it still wasn’t enough.

Much of that came down to something we underestimated: the film rests on two young lead actors, and minors can only work limited hours each day. We knew that going in, but we didn’t build the schedule around it the way we should have. Every day became a race against the clock. If my producing partner, Monica Lund, and I learned one lesson from this shoot, it’s to check the schedule, then check it again, and then check it a third time.

Even so, it was a great set. Our cast and crew were incredibly talented and professional, and everyone worked hard to make this film in the time we had. I can’t say enough about how lucky we were to have them. It was a joy to work with every one of them.

Even with so little time, our director of photography, Colmar Nichols, brought a keen eye for striking images and thoughtful, motivated camera movement that heightened the emotion in some of the film’s key moments.

An extra kudos goes to our two young leads, Emma Rose Smith and Samibah Straits. They brought it every single day, delivered strong performances, and understood exactly who their characters were. Their emotional intelligence is incredible, and both of them are uber talented. I’m sure they both have long careers ahead of them.

Our adult cast was just as amazing. Mo Beatty, Ronan Arthur, Lex Lotito, Joseph Kyler, and Zane Barber were talented and thoughtful with their characters, and they made my job easier. Each of them gave a carefully crafted performance, and each delivers a standout moment in this film. Our day players were just as talented. They made the most of every minute on set and brought depth to every role, no matter its size. I was fortunate to have such a great cast. Thank you to my awesome Casting Director Steve Maisel.

Post

Post-production is where the tight schedule caught up with us. In short, we didn’t have all the footage we needed to make the film we set out to make. On top of that, some slates were mislabeled, which made it difficult to find and connect some of the audio.

We went back to the edit multiple times with a different question. We stopped asking how to make the film we’d planned and started asking how to tell the best story possible with what we had. That meant reworking scenes, rethinking the order of events, and letting go of some things I’d been attached to.

Becoming Its Own Thing

When we started, I thought of Good Grief as a companion piece to the feature, something that would share its tone and its look. Somewhere in those edits, it stopped matching. With two teenagers at its center, Good Grief became lighter in tone than the feature, and its color palette moved away from the feature’s as well. At first that worried me. Now I think it’s was best for this film. Good Grief isn’t a trailer for the feature. It’s Molly’s story, told at the age when it happened to her, and it stands on its own.

Thank You

We wouldn’t have been able to make this film without Suzanne Weinert and Melissa Kirkendall. Thank you for your hard work and dedication to this film. Your guidance has been invaluable, and we have grown as filmmakers from this experience.

To our whole post team. Thank you for all your hard work, patience, and talent in bringing Good Grief to the finish line.

What’s Next

Good Grief is now preparing for festivals, and we’ll share news as it comes. Thank you to everyone who has followed this film from the beginning. We can’t wait for you to see it.