YOUR WEDDING is a short film written and directed by Matthew Mercer.
It was produced as a graduate thesis project at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. 

the story

YOUR WEDDING is a coming of age drama about a twelve-year-old girl, Connie, who wants to play an important role in the wedding of her older brother, so she decides to give a speech and to make a special wedding video as a present to him. The problem is that he never asked her to do either, and over the course of the big day, Connie’s plans go heartbreakingly awry. The conceit of the story is that it is recorded through the lens of Connie’s camcorder as she documents the wedding. What the audience sees is what Connie has recorded, and the plot unfolds in what is essentially a wedding video.

director’s statement

Connie and I share a hopeless nostalgia, a desire to stop the relentless flight of time. We greet progress with fear, and we cling to the past until our fingers bleed. Perhaps we both turn to the camera as a way of lingering in the “good old days,” of delighting in what once was before having to turn and face what will be.

One of my goals with this film was to build a character not so much through what we see of her, but rather through what she chooses to capture of her world. Connie is rarely in front of the camera, but her presence is felt in every frame. These are the shots she has selected, and each tells us a little something about her.

-Matt

production notes

After years of learning how to make a film like a professional at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, we had to try to find a way to make a film as a twelve-year-old girl on YOUR WEDDING. This proved more challenging than we anticipated.

We worked closely with our young actress, Mia Ford, to choreograph the camera movements as her character might within the story. We gave Mia a camera in rehearsals, and our cinematographer, Robert M. Edgecomb, closely observed how she would frame a shot. In some cases, he mimicked her movements himself; in others, we allowed Mia to actually shoot the scene. We went through a similar process in the editing room, where Kristine Uribes had to recreate an in-camera edit from Connie’s perspective.