I’ve written several screenplays that could have been translated into a short film. In the end, I kept returning to the short film Web of Lies. There are several reasons for this. A short film, by its nature, only allows a small amount of time to elicit a response from its audience. I wanted a response, but I didn’t want a simple response. I wanted a powerful—and disturbed—response from the viewer(s).

The themes in Web of Lies are mental illness, domestic abuse, deceit, attempted murder, revenge, animal cruelty, and actual murder itself. Individually, each one of these elements could create my desired result. But—I wanted more, and I wanted to test myself to see if I could overwhelm the viewer in seven minutes to the point where they went away not only upset by what they had seen but pondering the possibility that this kind of behavior is more prevalent in American society than one might think, especially where women are concerned. Any movie that doesn’t reach in and touch a person’s emotions, even dark emotions, in some way has missed its mark.

A final reason for this film was my desire to see if I could pull performances from the actors that would surprise even themselves and thereby stretch their talent further than they would have anticipated.

Web of Lies was a wonderful experience for me as a director and, hopefully, for the team, both in front of and behind the camera.