Spotlight: Filmmaker Aaryaman Patel

Earlier this year, Boulder resident and filmmaker Aaryaman Patel released his latest endeavor, the short film Before Sunset, which focuses on a couple coming to terms with the sudden death of a friend. He recently had the chance to screen his film at the Bug Theater in Denver on June 18th as part of their Emerging Filmmakers Project. We sat down with Aaryaman to talk about the process of putting the final product together.

Jamie Lammers: Can you talk to me about how this film came to be?
Aaryaman Patel: The film is about something that I’ve thought a lot about, which is the finiteness of one’s life. I was on a walk one day on a trail. I’m sure you’ve seen there are these benches, usually dedicated to someone who has passed away. It just made me think a lot about this person who lived a life, and they’re no longer here. When you die, all your ideas, energy, thoughts, they just die with you. When you look at your own life from its finiteness, it makes you rethink a lot of what you do, and I wanted to explore that concept further.

Jamie: How long did you spend on the film?
Aaryaman: I wrote the script in, like, two days, and I wanted to film it that very weekend. We did a test rehearsal, we set up the next weekend, and we just shot the full thing. I had a friend [Clayton Hester]. I asked him if he wanted to be a part of it, and he was more than happy to be. We found an actress [Syvrina Renault]. I had another friend help with costume design. I already had the place in mind, where I wanted to shoot it, how I wanted to shoot it – it just came together really quick. The editing took a while, like, a month or so. The music is also original. I actually composed music with one of my other friends [Ryan Zheng].

Jamie: How long have you been making films in general?
Aaryaman: I made a lot in college. It’s probably been around four years or so since I started doing it more seriously.

Jamie: What sticks out to you about the medium of filmmaking?
Aaryaman: When I think of things that have changed the way I think, it’s usually been through films or books. I’ve grown up watching movies, and a lot of my inspiration for the things that I do has come from the movies I’ve watched. I wanna convey the ideas that I have through that medium because I think I understand what it means to me and how I can use it to make something that can help others make sense of the world and themselves through these stories.

Jamie: Is there anything you hope people take away from this film?
Aaryaman: While for me, it might be about this finiteness of life, there’s a lot about relationships and ambition and building a life for yourself that you love, so it’s very open to whatever the viewer feels resonates with them. I’ll leave it up to them to tell me what they took away from it, because maybe there’s something I didn’t think of that they noticed or saw that spoke to them.

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