In July of 2002 we placed an open casting call in "Backstage," the industry entertainment and arts paper for “Destiny’s Child,” and 2 other short films (“The Vagabond,” and “Allure.”) we were producing. Auditions were held in Manhattan at the Times Square Entertainment building the following month in August. Over 125 actors showed up, all hoping to get cast in one of our films. Each actor was paired up and given a script to read from. We video-taped each audition.

KATRIN CHITTICK, who plays Jenny, our protagonist in the film came to the casting call in the afternoon session. After viewing the audition tape session I realized that she was perfect for the role. The story deals with an obsessed professor who does the unthinkable for love, twisted as it may be. We needed a beautiful actress to make the story convincing, and Katrin was made to order for the role. I would love to work with her again.

KELLY RAY is a young actress I chose to play Destiny. She had the right look to play a 1920’s flapper type existing in a state of limbo from this world and the next. A good actor brings so much to a performance, and KELLY did just that. Most of what you see on screen is KELLY’s own inventiveness. KELLY is currently pursuing her acting career in NYC.

STEPHANIE RUDY is another young actress who plays the waitress in the film. She is Jenny’s friend and the romantic interest in the story. She brought her character to life in a unique way that was her own. This is what a good actress does. The director can only do so much. On shooting day the actor is mostly left to his/her own devices. Rudy (As she likes to be called) is currently pursuing an acting career.

PETE BARKER is the grim reaper in the film. What can I say? Not since Ingmar Bergman’s “THE SEVENTH SEAL,” has the grim reaper been portrayed so effectively as Pete’s portrayal of him in the film. I don’t think there’s ever been a grim reaper in movies like the way we presented the reaper, at least not since Bergman’s movie. In fact it is “THE SEVENTH SEAL” that inspired me to write the story for Destiny’s Child. The film would not have been the same without Pete, in fact Pete was essential to the film, and we were very lucky to get him. We have to thank a young actor by the name of MIKE LANE who referred Pete Barker to us. Pete Barker has made numerous films in the horror genre. He has been featured in "Fangoria" magazine.

CATHERINE JHUNG who plays the news reporter was so true to life that some people asked us if she was a real reporter. She truly is a fine actress, very talented, and a nice person. One person on the internet asked me why we chose the take with the car alarm going off in her scene. An interesting question. We had other good takes we could have used, but the car alarm adds a certain reality to the scene. When a reporter is out on the field covering a real news story car alarms sometimes do sound. A reporter cannot control her surroundings, and we used the take for realism....call it reality tv if you will.

JOHN MURDOLO, a young actor currently working in California plays the professor in our story. We found John from an internet casting site, he came to audition and we immediately gave him the part. It was a hard role to cast but John came in and got on board with us in a very short time. The only regret I have is that we didn’t have more time to block his scenes. Shooting for the day was intensely hard because we were playing against time. In fact we were very lucky to get all the shots done before the sun went down. By luck it was a not too cold October day with no wind, otherwise we could not have gotten the good audio we did. When 4:45 PM came around the sun went down and we had to call it a wrap. We really had little time to shoot the lurker scene with Jenny and the professor.

ROBERT CAPIALBI plays the detective in the story. Originally we had cast a real detective but it just didn’t work out. We did quite a bit of casting calls after that looking for an actor to play the detective but we just couldn’t find anyone that was any good. We had to finish the film in the late spring, and I decided to go with Robert who isn’t an actor, but I think he was just the right age, he had a shield, and we went for it.

I want to thank everyone who participated in our film. Actors move on, Life goes on, the seasons change, and we move forward. Looking back on what we accomplished, I think we can be satisfied that we made a decent film. Pat and I wish everyone the best of luck. Someday I hope we will reflect on the time spent making the film and we can smile and remember.

Anthony Capialbi