Katelyn Brammer's Harmony

by Katelyn Brammer

When you hear of a featured MonsterBuster Entertainment short titled Harmony, you might think, that doesn't seem right. In fact, Harmony was far from the usual MonsterBuster short. I directed Harmony for my Master's thesis project at GSU this past September. I called on my friends at MonsterBuster because I knew that although this story was quite different from our usual work, they would help bring my script to life with great production value.

Harmony is a story of Sara, a young woman who is not where she wants to be in her life. Stuck in a mediocre job with a deadbeat boyfriend, Sara has lost touch with herself. After her boyfriend stupidly pawns her guitar, something Sara disconnected from long ago, she embarks on a quest to find her once cherished possession. The role of Sara was played by Jessika Cutts, an extremely talented and tireless Atlanta based actress. Jessika had a strict call time each night of production to get to her other commitment at the 7 Stages production of Dracula the Rock Opera where she played three other roles. Jessika's acting skills fit so perfectly into my perception of Sara's character and she did an amazing job despite car trouble, a wicked cold, and a 6 p.m. call time at 7 Stages. 

Sara's boyfriend Will was played by Joel Coady. After finishing my first rough cut of the film I'm so pleased with Joel's performance. He showed enough carelessness towards Sara to frustrate you but just enough redemption to make you understand why Sara stays with him. The pawn shop clerk was played by Theresa Ihrig-Gause. It's funny to watch Theresa play such a careless retail worker because in reality she is such a sweet and smiley person. Lastly, the role of Jack, who purchased Sara's guitar from the pawn shop, is played by Robert Thomason. Not only did Robert fit the role perfectly, he spent a lot of time practicing the piano song written for the film; it really looks like he's playing the song you hear, and that's partly because he is! Such dedication was much appreciated and really sells the character of Jack: an awkward, sweet, talented musician.

My DP was Torey Haas, who needs no introduction. He was such a help to me with this project. When I was tired and didn't even know what I wanted to do anymore, he helped me figure it out. When everyone was getting distracted and talking about "man-babies" and other inappropriate topics (i.e. Jay, my mom), Torey stayed focused and helped me finish on time. Not to mention it looks great. 

Now you may think I'm unappreciative of the distractions that went on during the production. That may have been the case during production, but looking back on it, I have to thank everyone for keeping it light-hearted. The never ending suggestions to somehow make Harmony into a horror film were priceless. My favorite idea was to have Sara drive away at the end and accidentally hit Jack, who was blindly wandering around. I have to admit, it would be funny.

I want to give a big thanks to everyone involved with helping me direct this project: Kevin Hicks, Jay Holloway, Ricky Hess, Quyen Tran, Neil Gordon, Sidarth Kantmneni, Greg Garrison, Pat and David Hicks, my parents Martha and Ken Brammer, and that creepy guy that worked at the music shop who doesn't want to be mentioned.