Peter Di Cicco

Curtain
(2005)

Writer-Director-Producer Peter Di Cicco
Producer Vikram Jayakumar
Director of Photography Mike Testin

Players
Juliana Moreno
Darryl Stewart
Kelly Cramer
Joy Yaholkovsky
Merlin Froyd
Michael Connolly
Matt Steben
Katie Cleese

Writer-Director Peter Di Cicco
Producer Barbara Caver
Director of Photography Anneliese Paull

Cast
Ali … Paige Jennifer Barr
Ryan … D. Matt Crabtree
Jimmy … Andrew Quinn
and
Bret J. Cococcia
Marc Diraison
Jennifer Gandin
John Power
Owen Timoney

My last completed film as a director while at NYU. Shot in the second semester of my junior year, it is a lighter, zanier, and scrappier brother to Curtain. The two projects are similar in a lot of ways, and I would continue to revisit themes like backstage theatre life and techniques like the long camera moves. Though it does have one thing that I did not get into Curtain, which is humor. It was conceived as a black comedy, and was a chance for me to show off my continuing love of live theatre. After a few years, I watched it again, and I can still say I’m proud of it for what it is. I think it still holds up fairly well, and unlike a lot of the more serious work I’ve been producing lately, it’s pretty darn funny.

This was a fan favorite song from one of the high school bands from my home town. It was my first attempt at making a music video, and it is notable for two other reasons: 1) it was shot in an afternoon; and 2) it does not feature the members of the band–Drew Morgan (guitar/vocals), Jen Kelley (bass), and Adam Pierce (drums). Though I would have loved to have the original band members in the video, I was in New York and they were all in Colorado at the time. Therefore, I put my fellow crew members Andrew Shulkind and Melissa Tackling in it and we ran around the city shooting footage with the (then) new DV cameras NYU had procured for us. It also took forever to edit the video because I had storyboarded very little of it and found myself struggling to find footage that I could cut to the music. The video itself is passable, but I think the song is pretty good. But then, that could be my nostalgia speaking.