Short of the Day
A cameraman turned director delivers the caped-crusading goods.
You never know what hidden talents lurk on Hollywood sets. Every gaffer, every PA, every lighting technician or craft service worker could have the next big screenplay, or some serious acting chops, or the eye of a visionary director. The film and television industry is like law school in that sense: just like at any given point in America there are more people in law school than there are working lawyers, at any given point in Hollywood there are more people actively trying to make it big than there are people who have made it big. Most of these people will fall away, battered by failure or rejection or anonymity, some will have changes of heart or develop new priorities, some will find a stronger passion in other professions, but some, the precious few who stand the best chance of success, will continue to work on their downtime, enriching their passions with their professions, and paying their bills by day so they can work to make their goals realities by night.
By day, Jeff Cassidy is an accomplished cameraman currently employed by the CW as first assistant camera on shows like The Flash; by night though, he dons the uniform of a full-fledged director who’s made the following heartbreaking and pulse-pounding short film Sidekick, starring a couple folks from the day-job, namely Emily Bett Rickards from Arrow, Tom Cavanagh from The Flash, and Josh Dallas from Once Upon a Time. Rickards and Dallas play parents attempting to turn tragedy to acceptance for their son (newcomer Christian Michael Cooper) via a vividly-imagined tale in which dad becomes heroic Captain Strong, Rickards transforms into a princess in need of rescue, and Cavanagh is Darkman, the villain, of course. The cast is spot-on and Dallas and Rickards especially in their dual roles emote a fragile bravery that reveals the line between super heroes and parents as so thin it might as well not exist.
Cassidy has crafted a truly touching, exciting, compelling and imaginative film that will have you simultaneously cheering and weeping by its end, and that proves without a doubt the CW needs to put The Flash’s first assistant cameraman in the director’s chair sometime real soon.