Sophie Szczotka: Love Me, Love Me Not

Love Me, Love Me Not
I've been directing, producing, writing, editing, and casting this series of digital video shorts. I have yet to finish the first and I am working on casting the next. Go ahead and like our facebook page, and if you would be interested in helping out with the project feel free to contact me!

Right now I am working with absolutely marvelous talent. My two big stars are Natasha Pietruschka and Ryan Wagner. I have two supporting actors, Regan Fleisher and Hannah Rhode. I also have an amazing writing partner, Mikaela Berg.

Natasha is playing is my lovely, leading lady. As I was casting the first one, I had her playing the antagonist and we were in a tough spot because we had no one to play the lead, Maggie. Then I saw her performance in a school show as a made and I knew that she was my Maggie. When we were shooting the first short, she was perfect on set. She was so much fun and knew how to have fun and then when we needed to get to work, she could immediately snap into business mode. We even have moments on tape where she would be laughing and goofing around and we would say,"Alright, come on, we have to get to work," and she would immediately take a breath and be ready to go. Another moment we were in the worst filming location ever and we were all so grouchy and irritable. Even her romantic opposite was refusing to work with her and she was just being a ray of sunshine and taking pictures and smiling. You can see the photos she took below.

I met Ryan when he was performing in the middle school division of Canton Idol, he ended up winning third place that year. I had won first place the year before and was guest starring. Then as we were casting the sequel, I was looking for the man to play Matt. Then in the summer I did an advanced acting camp with him and we were cast together in a scene from the Sound of Music. It was the scene that was right before the song Sixteen Going on Seventeen. I was playing Liesl and he was playing Rolf. At that point I already had cast Matt. Right after that that actor quit and Ryan immediately jumped on the opportunity. I think that he is one of the best romantic actors I have met and look forward to working with him further.

I sat next to Regan in band class for three years. He would always listen to all of my rants and everything but sometimes I would get so mad at him that I would literally not talk to him for weeks. But I would always come around and we would make up. He had such a small role in Love Me, Love Me Not and despite that he went to our worst location just to say one line that we ended up cutting out in the editing room. Then after that, he stayed at my house and helped with the shooting up until we were completely finished, which was around midnight. He was our trooper!

I met Hannah in sixth grade. She was the one who convinced me to audition for my first musical ever. And I remember on the day of shooting for Love Me, Love Me Not, she basically saved the day. Our other actress Emma, couldn't get a ride to the shooting location and she had some big scenes that needed to get shot. Hannah called her mom and convinced her to pick her up and give her a ride. I don't know what would have happened without her.

I absolutely love working with Mikaela. I originally had a team of three other people and now she is the only one surviving. I remember when I first had my idea for Learning to Love and I spent hours and hours talking to her over Skype, brainstorming ideas, fleshing out the characters, and getting out the story. She has been influential in the making of this project. When we were shooting Love Me, Love Me Not, she took the best logs ever for all the time codes with notes for every take and everything. That helped me so much in the editing room. It saved so much time when I was trying to put it together.

"Love Me, Love Me Not" Facebook Page