I got a chance to speak with the director Jacolby Percy about his short film A Higher Power which played recently at the 15th Annual Urbanworld Film Festival in New York City.
Mason Wright is a single father mourning the loss of his young daughter, Lilly. In a moment of insanity, Mason snaps and commits an unthinkable crime. In the act of the crime, he tries to escape and stumbles upon a family in crisis and in need of his help. Mason has to make a decision to escape or help this mother and child in need. Mason is at a crossroad, he has to make a decision that will change three individual’s lives forever. At your lowest point, “A Higher Power” is always present.
What has been the reaction to your film at Urbanworld?
I’ve actually received a really good reception. People are saying they’re loving it. There were a few people that were crying after my film screening. People were saying the movie touched them, they got a message out of it, which is great. Which is what I wanted, that’s what I made the movie for.
When did you shoot the film?
I actually shot it last year, December 2010 going into January 2011. I was at a one year program at a school called KD College, where it’s concentrated on one year of motion picture production and my screenplay was chosen to represent the school and I was also chosen to shoot the film. So that’s just kinda how it came about.
What was the inspiration for the film?
The idea came from, I lived in Atlanta, Georgia for about 10 years. I’m native, I’m born and raised in Dallas, TX, but I moved to Georgia for 8-10 years and I came back in 2007, I believe. When I came back I was trying to mend a relationship with my father. We had a strained relationship for the longest time and for the first time we had mended our relationship and all of a sudden he died, he had a massive heart attack. He died three days before I was going to see him, three days before Christmas. So, you know, that kinda messed me up. After that, the following year, around the same exact time, my favorite uncle, who I loved very much, he died. And then after that, I had a friend die. Which brings us up to about 2009.
And I was just in this space, this state of mind where I was questioning God, and questioning everything, and you know how when you’re mourning somebody you have these thoughts that you wouldn’t normally have. I was having this conversation with a friend about the afterlife and what it means and all this stuff. And, I was just thinking, you know, what it would take for like a single father, a man of faith, or a man of religion, whatever, what would it take to push him over the edge. And then what would it take to bring him back, like the two extremes. So after playing with that idea, I just started to write. And after I started to write, it became what’s now A Higher Power. The I started bringing in all these types of parallels where you have the pastor, who has skeletons in his closet, where he’s an alcoholic, but nobody knows it. And you have a sick child who has epilepsy, all these things are going to collide and be intertwined and all these people are going to help each other on this one day. But the core of it was about the guy who loses his daughter, who snaps and has a moment of insanity. And that’s how I came up with the idea.
How long was the writing process?
I was writing the story before I even went to KD College. It took, I would say, about a year, a little over a year. I was writing the story, and it was hard completing it.
So the college chose your screenplay and they gave you a chance to turn it into a short film?
They were going to choose 3 or 4 screenplays for the thesis for the fourth quarter. I submitted mine and pitched it and mine was at the top of the list. But it wasn’t concrete that I was to be the one to direct it, even though I had 2 other small short films that I had shot. But in the end it was a no-brainer because no one else wanted to touch it because it was complex, and it was going to be a lot of shooting so people were backing up from that. So it just went the way it was supposed to go.
How involved were you in the casting? Did you have help?
I did and I didn’t. I’m kinda hands-on, so I started off by myself. Before I was even picked, I was going to shoot the film regardless so back in September of 2010 I was already casting people. And my two main characters, Mason and the young girl, I cast myself. I gave them the roles before I even knew I would be picked. Then when I was picked, there were other people brought in to help with the casting that were actors at the college. For everyone else, I was the one, I knew who I wanted. Kinda half and half.
At the Q&A at Urbanworld, you mentioned filming at the same jail where Lee Harvey Oswald was shot? Can you talk more about that?
Well, I had a jailhouse scene, and I had checked around at different jails in the outskirts of Dallas, I was trying to check around at those little small towns, small jails because I knew I had a better chance of getting those jails than getting a big city Dallas jail. So I was checking out those first and everyone was turning me down or weren’t getting back to me. So I just said forget it, I’m just going to shoot at the black box at the school. Little black box area where you can shoot different scenes or whatever and stage it the way you want. So I was going to shoot there, but then I was talking to a professor and he was like, “well, maybe try the Film Commission and see what happens.” He he said this just in passing, so I just went down and just tried to find places and it just so happened I called one day and the lady said, “we have the old city Dallas jail, they still rent that out to film companies and colleges to shoot there, but it’s no longer operating, it’s an historical location.” So she checked with them and low and behold, they got back with me and it was available. So I got permits and everything I had to do and I was in shock that I was going to get this old jail where Lee Harvey Oswald stayed in and what shot in.
Then I went down there and it was really eerie. Because they keep everything the same. It was dirty, it was nasty, this was straight-up jail. Not 2011. So, yeah, we got that, pulled that out and shot that. None of the actors had to get into character, it was just “in the zone.”
How long was the shoot?
It took me about a total of about eight days, but the seventh day I had to cancel because of weather and some annoying people. The weather was bad for the audio. So I had to cancel and reshoot the whole thing another day. So it really ended up being like eight days, because of the weather, otherwise it would have been five or six days.
Any plans for a full feature?
Yeah, that’s my goal, but at the same time I’m currently about to work on a pre-production for a webisode that I’ve been trying to work on. It’s gonna be great. I’m also going to shoot a short film in the beginning of the year. I’m just in between scripts. I’m not sure which one I’m going to shoot yet. I’m always like that. I’m so indecisive. So I will be shooting a short film, I’m not sure which one, it’ll be towards the beginning of the year, and I’ll also be shooting a webisode at the same time and trying to do that. I’m just trying to keep it moving, by any means. And the webisode is going to be a little difficult to shoot, but I’ll just do what I can. But I’m pretty sure it’s going to be great, it’s going to be a comedy about working class people. But it’s just going to be something different that you’ve ever seen before. So those things I’m working on until I can get something for my next short film that I probably will be trying to turn into a feature. I’ll shoot it as if it can be turned into a feature. But A Higher Power can be a feature. All my films that I shoot can be easily turned into a feature. That’s just how I write. I don’t try to go out and do that, it just comes out that way. We’ll see what happens. All I can do is keep pushing.
Dallas, TX native Jacolby Percy has been writing screenplays since 2003. In 2006, he made his first 25 min short called “Trail of Betrayal,” which got a lot of attention in the local area, and video sites. Jacolby decided to pursue his filmmaking on a serious level in 2009 by enrolling at KD College where his powerful film, “A Higher Power,” was one of three films selected to represent the school.
You can contact Jacolby Percy at colbyp7@gmail.com
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