Jason Cook will not only be showing one of his written and directed films at next week’s Sedona International Film Festival, but he will also be leading a workshop on his career.
Cook began his career acting on daytime television shows, “Days of Our Lives” and then “General Hospital.”
After a pivot in his life, he began writing and directing his own independent screenplays. His film, “Four for Fun” was selected as a narrative feature for the festival with a screening next Wednesday at the Sedona Performing Arts Center starting at 7 p.m.
“For any person who makes a movie, especially an independent film like this with no budget, is such an undertaking,” Cook said. “So, hitting the goal of being able to share it with an audience is awesome. Independent movies are being made by people who are just trying to find a way to tell a story.”
“Four for Fun” shows a variety of different endings in an attempt to find ways to live in the present. The “‘Groundhog Day’-esque” film began with Cook’s idea born out of what has been going on in the last two years of a pandemic and an encouragement to live in the present with those you love.
“It hit me two holiday seasons ago … it kind of brings the audience into it a little bit more,” Cook said. “It’s a movie that resets eleven times, but only the audience knows that. It’s sort of like you get to live in the multi-verse and the characters just sort of play it out eleven different ways.”
Cook and the crew worked together to film all the scenes in just 11 days, with only four characters played by actors Jacob Young, Donovan Patton, Brady Sharpie and Annika Foster.
The first readings happened over Zoom as the crew decided how filming should proceed. After the first very successful reading, all the actors and crew decided to jump into a film schedule. “Four for Fun” wrapped up in the summer of 2021.
“I knew Jacob from years ago. He and I kind of grew up. We were both on shows at the same time,” Cook said. “So we kind of ran into each other and knew each other from events. There’s that history there.”
Young also starred in “General Hospital,” as well as a brief appearance in “Days of Our Lives.” He was one of the first of the cast who Cook asked to be in the project.
After the screening of the film, the cast will be hosting a question and answer session, where Cook hopes to answer tough questions about the film.
“I hope I’m stumped the entire time. That will be more fun,” Cook said. “If it gets really heavy into physics, I’m not going to be much help to anybody, even though there’s some physics in the movie.”
Jacob Young and Jason Cook will also be hosting their “From Daytime TV to the Silver Screen” workshop on Friday, Feb. 25, at 1 p.m. at Yavapai College’s Sedona Center.
