PALM HARBOR, Fla. — With much of Hollywood still shut down due to the pandemic, one Los Angeles director decided to move his entire production to his hometown of Palm Harbor.
Shane Brady has been waiting a year to film his passion project, "Breathing Happy." Not knowing when Hollywood would re-open, he decided to make a phone call home.
"Let's go to Florida, let's do it, I can hang out in my childhood home, I can bring some of my friends in," said Brady.
From the living room to the dining room to the kitchen and even the back yard, his mom's entire Palm Harbor house was turned into a movie set.
"She's been so overly helpful that as we're filming, it's like, 'you got to leave,'" said Brady.
"It's exactly what he said, 'mom, you can't be here. I'll get you someplace else to stay,'" said Allison Brady.
"I kind of want to be here cooking for everyone, but you can't because of Covid; I want to be putting out big platters of food," said Allison.
Next, Brady brought in an all-local production crew run by a friend he's known since high school.
"To see him come home and bring the production and the money and the group and the people here really is awesome," said Ben Daniele with Scatter Brothers Productions.
The talent he did fly in from LA said it was nice just to be working again.
"When I got this call from Shane Brady to come down to the Tampa area and make a movie, it was one of the happiest days of my life last year," said actor Hugh Scott.
Shooting an entire movie in one house on a $20,000 budget does pose its challenges.
"He re-worked the script to fit the house, it used to be a lot of different locations, a lot of people in one house, and now it's just him and a house," said producer Emily Zercher.
The cast and crew understand they're accomplishing something many in their industry have only been dreaming of. We know mom is certainly proud.
"And I was excited and applauded him for knowing that he's worked on this project for years, and it was still going to happen even during Covid," said Allison.
