When On the Lot called independent filmmaker Dan Masucci and requested that he produce a short film for consideration to make the cut for the show, they offered up only: one week, a three-minute running time, three log lines, one DVD of stock music and a pick of any genre. It was, to say the least, not much and just enough.

“When I was younger, I was really interested in action movies with a lot of gunplay, John Woo and Robert Rodriguez. After my son was born, I slowly drifted away from that and now really enjoy drama, stories concerning the human condition and films that would touch you. Having (Nicholas) really opened up that side of me as an artist,” Masucci says. It’s little wonder then that furnished with the tagline “end of a relationship” Masucci’s thoughts should dwell on Nicholas and that fact that he would not remain a child forever.

With Letting Go, Masucci condenses into a snapshot the tug-o-war of change, the moment of acceptance at which a parent surrenders to a child’s growth. Simply told through the eyes of a father, a son places away his blanket, the material embodiment of his innocent dependence on others. It’s a story that thematically engenders empathy with a quintessentially sweet perspective, and in its quiet study of acceptance, it touches a truth so common it serves as a reminder that universal emotions live within each of us. Narratively this is a different aesthetic starting point for the veteran filmmaker and one that can only strengthen with increased refinement and reflection of all the events and stories held closest to Masucci's heart.

“When (Nicholas) was born, I was the first one to go over and touch his foot. My wife was still in the hospital bed. Just holding him at first, infants can’t really see or open their eyes right away. After about an hour, I was holding him in the chair, just looking at him when he opened his eyes,” Masucci remembers. “As a parent, the (bittersweet part of this) is that you enjoy having the child so much, but there’s always that fear, “Are they going to trip? Are they going to hurt themselves? Are they going to look both ways before they cross the street?” But, the gifts outweigh the fear.”

The same may aptly be said of filmmaking itself, particularly in Masucci’s case who, along with brother and cinematographer Joe, year after year has polished off short films and the feature The Last Round merely for the love and gift of the process. Easy in production and articulate though shy in an interview, Masucci here talks about his manic On the Lot delivery, the Internet cult hit Graceland and the reasons he makes films.

SM: Talking about this process, you literally had four days to get everything prepared, storyboarded, edited and sent in. How did you go about that?

DM: About an hour after I got the call, I was brainstorming and came up with the story. I spent the rest of the night writing a three page script, giving it the once over, a second draft, a third draft. Then I storyboarded everything, went to bed very late, woke up and did my normal daily routine. That evening (lead actor Thom Adams) and my son were here, and I ran them through the lines.

I also had my brother over, who was also the cinematographer, and we went through each location in my house and did lighting tests to make sure the camera would actually get the shots that I drew in the storyboards. Again, it was another late night and following the next evening, when everyone got off of work, they all came here. We began at 6pm and shot until 2:30 in the morning. I couldn’t sleep so I just stayed up doing the editing rather than doing it during the day.

On the Lot sent out a DVD of canned music to pull from, so I cut the movie and laid in the music. My son woke up, got dressed for school. Then I went back down and hunted for the archive footage of when he was a newborn and different parts of his life to cut in for the flashback sequence. That night, again after work, I went to where Thom works and finished everything, did the sound mixing, mastering and all the visuals.

I sent it out the next day through a shipping company, but they didn’t actually get it out that day. I was really upset…It had to be there the next day. So, it was really close even though I had finished it with plenty of time to spare.

SM: What cinematic style were you working toward? I noted a lot of shadow and several wide shots. We do get beautiful close-ups, particularly of Nicholas in the attic, but mainly it’s that mix.

DM: The story really deals with the relationship between the father and son, so I wanted to avoid showing them individually as much as possible and show them together; (this way) you can see the space they occupy next to each other. I didn’t want the camera to intrude so you’re looking and saying, “Oh, look at that shot. That’s a great shot.” That takes you out of the story. I just wanted the audience to have a view into this moment in the character’s lives and not feel, “Oh, what a cool, flashy move.” So, when you see the close-ups later, they mean something; in those moments, they’re both reflecting in their own way. The son is looking at his blanket and knowing he’s ready (to let go). The father is looking at the son, and you can see the turmoil because he’s not quite ready for him to grow up…

(With the shadows), particularly with the closing shot of the film, there was a real choice about that, with having Thom, the father, in the shadow. It represented that torn feeling, how he’s looking at his son and part of him wants him to stay little but the other part knows that he has to grow up. He smiles and turns into the light, and that is the direction he walks. He’s letting go; he’s able to resign in himself the fact that, “Hey, this is what having children is about. You have to prepare them for adulthood.”

SM: I was hoping that you could also talk about your other works: the shorts, Graceland and the feature.

DM: My brother is a huge, huge fan of the X-Files. I enjoy it too, but he’s the diehard fan. He wanted to do something fun, so we thought, “Why don’t we make a 10-minute X-Files spoof.” As we were developing (Graceland), while some of the spoof elements are still in it, it ended up becoming more like an actual episode…It’s weird because it’s actually gotten some of the most recognition out of anything that we’ve ever done. We’ve gotten requests from Lithuania, Argentina, Saudi Arabia; all over the world people have seen it, and still I find stuff on the Web about it. It hasn’t launched any careers in terms of notoriety, but it’s been a fan favorite. It’s really developed a cult following.

Since then we’ve had our hand making a couple of shorts that have made it to smaller festivals and won awards, nothing that has made us famous, but the important thing for me—and, when I talk to people who are interested in (filmmaking)—is that it’s got to be about the love. If you’re doing it just for that deal to come in, and it doesn’t, you’re going to look back and say, “Man, that stinks.” I look back at every shoot we’ve had—the good and bad—and I’ve loved it. I’ve loved every minute of it. It’s never been a waste of time, none of it.

SM: How do you know when you’ve produced a film that just hits, that’s just good?

DM: With our feature The Last Round, I felt 100 percent confident, during the production, that “Oh, woah, we finally have something that is going to take off, and I have no doubt about how well it will do on the festival circuit.” We had such a limited budget for festivals, so we targeted essentially what Chris Gore deems the top ten festivals. We were rejected from every one. At the time I was like, “Oh, my God, I don’t get it.” Now, having some separation from the experience, I can look back and say, “Ah, you know what? Here were some problems…”

My son, he likes to write stories, and he always wants to write a really, long story, and I tell him, “Nick, if you want to write, it’s better to have a half page story that’s succinct and really tight than 10 pages, 20 pages that just gets away from you.” That’s the case with Letting Go. It’s three minutes long before the end credits, and it’s a complete story. It’s simple, and I think that’s why it has and will continue to find success.

SM: How did that love for film and filmmaking start for you?

DM: (Joe and I) grew up pretty impoverished, and our parents were divorced. We lived in Upstate New York and my father lived in Newark, New Jersey, and when he would come up, which was every month, almost every time he’d take us to a movie. Then my mother remarried, and I didn’t really have a great relationship with my stepfather. I spent a lot of time in my room, and there was a TV with a station that’s now a FOX affliate but before that it was just a local station. They’d play a lot of old movies. I watched Twelve Angry Men when I was 11, and I loved it. So, I just spent a lot of time watching movies, escaping within movies. I think my love began then. As early as 10, I knew that, “Oh, this is really something that I’d love to do.”

SM: Why is it that you make films? You have the love, but it’s so much work, as the Letting Go experience shows. Why is it that you want to put your creative work out there?

DM: I’ve heard this question posed to painters, poets, writers, and they’ve said that they don’t have a choice. I’ve never really looked at it that way, but that’s how I feel: I have to. We’re in development on a feature now, but I’m thinking, “Woah, I want to do another short this summer.” It’s a need that I feel. I don’t think I’d be complete unless I was doing it. I’ve heard people say, “This is what I was made to do,” but I really feel that I was born to film. This is what I’m here for. Whether that takes me to Hollywood or keeps me on track where I am now, it doesn’t matter. I’m doing what I love and what I have to do.

The film premieres at the Plymouth Independent Film Festival Thursday, July 19 at 6PM and screens once more Friday, July 20 at 9:15PM. For more information on the film, visit lettinggofilm.com.