Q: I’ve seen you as an actor on Sons of Anarchy (FX), Oz (HBO), and The Office. Is this your first time writing and/or directing?

A: Yes it is both my first time writing and directing for film. I’ve written and directed a bit for the stage previously.

Q: How long have you wanted to write and direct your own work?

A: I started writing the movie about 8 years ago, it was something I resisted for a long time but with the encouragement of my friend Matthew Del Negro, who’s in the film, the damn burst and over the course of a couple of sleepless nights I poured the idea onto the page. After working on the script for years and doing everything I could, but not being able to find financing I realized that I was just going to have to make it myself by any means possible. By then I had come to believe fully that I was the person to direct it. Let me add that from the moment I started working as an actor I held a vision for myself as a future filmmaker…I wasn’t sure exactly what that meant but I was always observing and absorbing all on set activity with that future in mind.

Q: How did you learn to screenwrite, direct, and get it produced? That’s a lot to do!

A: Much of it was observation as an actor as mentioned in the previous answer..but in truth I didn’t know much of what I needed to know when I set out to make this movie. I had to trust my ability to learn as I went and to proceed anyway. Its the old saying – sometimes you jump off the cliff and build your wings on the way down. I needed to surround myself with people who knew alot more about filmmaking than I did and inspire their confidence and their willingness to collaborate in the support of my vision. Its not the things you know, or the things you know you don’t know, that will trip you up….its the things you don’t know that you don’t know. These are the things to be on the look out for and the best way to address them is to surround yourself with great and talented people.

Q: Why did this story speak to you?

A: I lost my best friend to cancer when I was 27 so I’ve been personally dealing with grief for along time. There is also some overlap of story with my families experience. So I made a very personal albeit ficticious story.

Q: What can the audience expect?

A: I wanted to make a movie that didn’t lie about what it was like to deal with these incredible circumstances. I wanted to make a movie that was responsible to its audience about how difficult that subject matter would be for them if done truthfully, and not take that responsibility lightly. Exercise restraint in the story telling. Be cathartic, not sensationalized or manipulative. I wanted to make a movie that stuck with people and made them think and ask questions. Its adult contemporary drama, the kind that Hollywood did so well 20 plus years ago but not so much of lately.

Q: What was the most challenging part of making this film?

A. My theory is that its all challenging, working in any art form is challenging- thats as it should be, and its whether or not you can flip it in your mind to address these challenges as opportunities. Opportunities that lead you to a better movie. Two unique challenges in filmmaking are that its very expensive even at a micro budget level, and its collaborative. Even while wearing as many hats has I did I still needed hundreds of other people to get this movie made. I think these two things alone deter most first time filmmakers- but I’m here to say it needn’t be that way. Every film has an approach, a methodology that gets that film made and made at a high level and the only thing you need to adjust to get there is your perception. Some people reading this will believe me and others won’t and they’ll both be right.

About The Sublime And Beautiful:

David Conrad is a college professor raising three children in a small Kansas suburb with his wife Kelly. David and Kelly’s marriage is brought to its breaking point when they lose their children to a drunk driver. David’s desire for retribution leads him into uncharted moral territory with the question: can we forgive?

The Sublime And Beautiful is Available December 16th on iTunes & VOD

You can find more information and keep up at http://www.thesublimemovie.com/