Coming of age story focusing on five college students working on a production of Romeo and Juliet.

This lighthearted look at love, lust, infidelity, and innocence focuses on a group of college students fumbling their way through their first "serious" relationships. Ryan (Jamie Sinsz) has a safe, comfortable girlfriend in Thatcher (Naomi Kline) but is powerless to resist the advances of Dawn (Natalie Roers). He turns to his best friend Gabe (Zak Jeffries) for advice, but Gabe is still dealing with the fallout of his own infidelities that cost him Lauren (Megan Anderson, of HBO's "The Wire"). We see their stories play out during one fateful day, while the group works together on a school production of "Romeo and Juliet".

My first feature. "Makebelieve" took about two years to make it into production, and was incarnated as a stage play, three theatrical trailers, and a 15 minute sample scene shot on Beta SP before it finally began lensing in 1999.

The cast was instrumental in shaping the project, and I remember the incredible bonds that were formed creating this film. There was a moment we kind of suspected things would never be "like this" again, and it never has been.

I miss it.

The film is very innocent, but has a charm to it. I watch it now and smile. Everyone involved gave their all, the talent and professionalism on display here is pretty damn amazing.

And while the film may not quite stir any viewers who haven't lived in dorms for a while, it's still a lot of fun to watch. There's something nice and decent about it, and it contains some of my favorite dialog I've ever written, spoken by some of my favorite actors.

We almost didn't make it out of post - some serious hardware crashes wiped out the final edit of the film, and this DVD is from the Beta SP exhibition tape that screened at MDFF and IFFM. I wish the picture quality was a little sharper, but still, this is a fine, fresh, and funny movie that perfectly captures a moment in time hopefully we've all been lucky enough to experience. I hope you enjoy.