NORTH WEBSTER – Batter can be thin and runny, or thick and gloppy. Families can be just as diverse as batter in their make-up. “Batter” is a low-budget short film shot in North Webster Sunday about an Indiana family coping with the world around them in their own ways, according to director, writer and producer Jessica Hardy. “One morning, the main character, Tara, is going through her routine and we see the family conflicts through her perspective,” Hardy said. Tara, a young 20-something girl who lives at home with her parents, is played by Adair Silver. Cindy Darr Nei plays the mother, Jan, and Todd Lucas is Frank, the father. Tara’s brother Jared is played by Derick Gamble, while Taylor White is Jake, Tara’s love interest. Owen Stech and Maddi Hart play Jake’s friends Eric and Alisha, respectively, while Hardy takes on the role of the neighbor. The cast is from the North Webster and Syracuse areas. Hardy wrote the story and screenplay after some events in her own life. “I was participating in a local writer’s group in North Webster during winter vacation and I wrote it during a time I was grieving over the loss of someone close to me. It was a dark, short story I wrote for the group. I read it to the group and they really liked it. I got good feedback from it,” Hardy said. She traveled to Jamaica with her sister to get away. While on the plane, Hardy kept thinking about the story, and wrote it into a short film. “It became kind of cathartic to me,” she said. When she returned from vacation, Hardy realized where she was with her grief and felt the only way to complete the story was to produce it as a short film. “I felt the story had to be told,” she said. In December, she performed an acting gig with Taylor White, a student in her North Webster Community Center improv class. She told him about the film she decided to make, and she pegged him as “Jake.” For the other roles, she had actors audition for them, but had some ideas of who could play the characters. Originally, she planned to shoot the movie in two days, but narrowed it down to one day, which was Sunday. “It was really smooth actually,” Hardy said of the shoot. “Our crew, I met all but two people from Craigslist. I advertised locally. I wanted to work with local people to see if we could meet new people.” The weather Sunday was snowy and freezing. A couple days before the shoot, there was no snow on the ground. By Monday, the snow was gone. Her story was set in a snowy environment, so the fact that she got what she wanted for her movie wasn’t lost on her. She also appreciated that her crew was committed to the project 200 percent. Being shot in one day, it had to be shot quickly without sacrificing quality to get all the daylight shots in. Once it’s edited and ready, Hardy said, “I want to premiere it in the area, definitely in North Webster at the Community Center because of the good relationship I have with them, and I like to bring people to (the NWCC). I do plan to show it at festivals.” As she’s watched footage of the short movie, she thinks of how it could be done as a feature film. But if she doesn’t get proper funding for it, she’ll be happy to show it at festivals as a short to show “how talented the cast is.” Though “Batter” isn’t the first movie Hardy has worked on, she’s learned that it’s important to trust your instincts as a writer and director and to be confident in your decisions. “One thing I recognized in myself during the process is, if you surround yourself with the right people, you can operate creatively the way you’re meant to,” she said. During one part of the filming, her husband, Brent Kado, also a film writer and director, reminded her not to cut corners and to stick to the story she wants to tell. By sticking to her guts and making the film she wanted to make, “Batter” is able to tell a story about openness, forgiveness of self and others, perception, grief, being fluid and letting go. “But it is a comedy,” Hardy said. “It sounds so dark and dramatic, but I could never make a film without comedic undertones.” Hardy is the director of the Chicago Comedy Film Festival and teaches comedy improv at the North Webster Community Center. In 2005, she went through the Second City Conservatory in Chicago, and since has been producing stage and film productions. For more information about the film, visit its Facebook page at www.facebook.com/batterthefilm, which also has a link to the movie’s official website. Hardy and her husband also have a film production website at flowfeelfilms.com
