Speck started the first year I came to Ithaca College, after spending a year taking courses over Zoom. In my Writing for Screen Media class, Tom Seeley instilled the importance of needing a story to come from an honest experience. Dramatized, made interesting, and made to fit the cinematic language, stories that stick with us and remind us of the impact movies have. I wrote the first draft for Speck for my final project in Seeley’s class. It began with the same themes, how someone deals with embarrassment and how someone can hold shame. The main character’s affliction mirrors my own journey with OCD, a subset of obsessive compulsive disorder, harm OCD. I have had trouble from a young age with intrusive thoughts and trusting my feelings rather than acting on impulsions.
I love drama, and movies that show the complexities of a person or a relationship. I intend for there to be funny moments, but I ultimately want the audience to understand the feeling the main character is having throughout the film. For so long I was unable to express how this impacted my life, and with this film I feel like it is accurate to a lived experience.
I hope the audience will get out of the film a better understanding of what your neighbor may be experiencing in their own head, and to be respectful of everyone’s personal battle with their Speck. I hope the audience also laughs at the embarrassment and feel by the end that these events are only as serious as Anthony makes them, and the way you carry yourself reflects the way you think about yourself. A movie cannot inspire self-confidence, but I hope this film can make someone look at their own life and find their own Speck, and how they can coexist with this thing while recognizing its faults. It is a complex emotion which I feel cannot be accurately written down and must be told through film. As a child I was never able to fully describe this force I was living with, but with film it will be clear as to what feeling I have. I cannot wait to share this, and I hope it will resonate with someone who also is not able to describe their OCD.
