What is your Picture Perfect?
Because perfect isn’t always what it seems.
This week calls for you all to use your creative, wildly imaginative noggins… just for a bit, until I give the full picture away.
Imagine with me: you are living out your fantasy of the picture-perfect life. For some of you, it may be quitting your job and starting your own business. For others, it may be a white picket fence & a family of four. For the sake of this exercise, you’ve dreamed of having both.
Now, continue visualizing with me: you’ve always loved design. You were the fashionable friend, always put together. So you study interior design & end up owning your own firm. Go you! Business? Check.
So far, half of the dream is complete, & you’re well on your way to the other half. You’re married, living in the mid-century modern home of your dreams. It’s the literal vision from your early classes in college—Intro to Scandinavian Design & Post-War Western Interiors.
Family & home? Half of a check.
The family part needs work—an additional member or two (hopefully a baby boy & a girl, because you’ve always wanted both). And you feel hopeful… until you don’t.
You realize that what you’ve perceived as picture-perfect is exactly that—your perception. And the actual state of your life is starting to turn a lot darker.
That’s my short film, Picture Perfect, which follows Samantha Higgins, a meticulous interior designer accustomed to curating every detail of her life—until control slips from her fingertips. What starts as an unexpected separation from her husband leads to an unraveling unlike any similar tale, because the emotional force beneath all of this, anxiety, is given physical form. That discomfort in uncertainty, that mean voice looping in your head, is no longer running rampant in a private playground.
It now inhabits the same space as you.
Scary, right?
Well, I’m aiming for a psychological drama with minimal jump scares but the concept itself is terrifying. Imagining anxiety as an embodiment that can sit across from you & engage in the physical realm is downright unsettling.
But in my opinion? It would make for great prestige TV or a feature film that’s one hell of a roller coaster.
Either way, it’s my next creative commitment as I continue to step into this new chapter: creating films & installations rooted in mental health.
I wanted to create something, first & foremost, that I actually found interesting.
Unsolicited advice for all of you creators: make stuff you want to see in the world. Trust me—this is coming from someone who spent a long time creating on behalf of others.
I love consuming media, but I’d say I fall below average on consumption simply because the type of media I want to see in the world is few & far between.
Mental health, in all of its tendrils, has taken more of a center stage in recent years. I recently—yes, recently, like within the last two months—watched Euphoria. It’s masterful. It artfully depicts substance abuse, mental health, & more with a creative approach that is chef’s kiss.
But we need more.
Mental health is not an issue that affects one gender, one color, one race, one anything. Mental health is a human issue, & it exists on a spectrum full of nuance.
We need a mental health network. I kid, because that would be overkill, but you catch my drift.
This week, instead of sharing a letter, I’m sharing a more intimate & exciting piece of myself. My next child, basically, because a creative production of this scale will require all of my effort & energy.
If I hooked you with my lil intro, prepare for a larger feast.
I’ve linked a snapshot—a quick three-page overview—of my film. And if you happen to have a respectable attention span & an interest in film at the intersection of mental health, I encourage you to review the deck.
It’s part storytelling, part OCD-level execution, & part fundraising. All of that combined into a beautiful array of materials supporting the production of Picture Perfect.
My next mental health short film.