Why we used our honeymoon fund to go to Cannes

I know I’ve been MIA here—there’s been a lot going on (most good, some strenuous). In the last few months, I taught the Microbudget Mindset workshop, premiered I Really Love My Husband at SXSW, and locked distribution (!!). I’ll dig into all of that soon, but first: I just got back from the Cannes Film Festival, and I want to tell you why we decided to cash in our honeymoon fund to be there.

We went on a whim—me, my fiancé, and his writing-directing partner. The spark? A conversation with Alex Buranova, director of Satisfaction (which I saw at South By), who described Cannes as the place where everyone in the industry comes together and also gets excluded from Ryan Gosling’s party, so suddenly everyone you’ve been chasing down a general for, trying to get on their radar, is just your peer. Alex also raised the money for her feature there, and her advice was a lighthouse. (Alex was my Cannes Fairy Godmother.)

I also sat down on the podcast with the guys and EP Lexi Tannenholtz (who was at Cannes with The Plague)—to talk about what it’s like to be festival virgins. Mistakes, surprises, lessons.

Here’s my big takeaway: it’s our job to put ourselves out there. To advocate for our projects. To find the next spark. I’m feeling the pressure, to avoid the dreaded sophomore slump, to build momentum—but there’s also magic just being in this spaces. I found it in an 800-person WhatsApp group, in a conversation outside a Hong Kong party we couldn’t get into, where I met the man who buys films for all of German-speaking Europe—who had my film on his watchlist and had visited Bocas del Toro, our shooting location, twenty years ago.

You can’t manufacture that. You just have to be in the room (or on the croisette). So why use the money we’ve been saving for our honeymoon? Well, we’re investing in our careers. Someday, we’ll take a real honeymoon. But I gotta say, seeing my finacé in a tux just did it for me.

WORK IN PROGRESS: STARS DINER

_{WORK IN PROGRESS deep dives one microbudget film with the filmmakers, in the process of making it.}

At Cannes, I briefly ran into Mary Neely, star of Stars Diner which is this letters Work In Progress feature! Months ago, I almost passed on featuring the pilot in the newsletter, thinking it was too slick for my microbudget focus. Turns out they made it for next to nothing. Proof that bold vision and scrappy execution still wins.

Stars Diner screened at SXSW 2025. A chaotic, genre-bending comedy set in a Fresno greasy spoon, the show follows ex-party girl Wendy, unhinged chef Milius, and oddball busboy Willard as they face everything from ghost pirates to volcanoes.

Created by award-winning directors Fidel Ruiz-Healy and Tyler Walker, with Mary Neely also starring and co-directing, the project proves how far bold vision and scrappy execution can go—even on a shoestring budget.

Let’s start with the obvious: the miniatures. They’re so charming and specific—how did that idea come about, and what was the process of creating and shooting them in your kitchen?

A lot of the charm comes out of ignorance. We wanted to do this huge volcano disaster parody and we only had funds to shoot one day inside an actual diner. So, we had to fill in the rest later and we couldn’t afford big VFX. This was our first time making miniatures, and once Fidel started crafting the little sets in his kitchen — the volcano, the town, the outside of the diner — we realized the handmade aesthetic and utility was an essential element of the show to build the homespun world we had set out to create.

Since so much of the show is based on classic sitcoms, we wanted to pay homage to the genre by having these cutesy cutaways. Tyler and Mary helped when they could by making runs to the model train store in Burbank, CA but Fidel is the true mad man behind the operation.

What was the origin of Stars Diner? How did the collaboration between you three (Fidel, Mary, and Tyler) come together? What makes this creative team click?

Stars Diner was conceived at an actual diner in Austin, Texas in March of 2024. We were all having a midnight meal after a long day at SXSW. The meal at the diner took so long that we began to guess at what was going on in the kitchen - A hostage situation? Alien invasion? And before our burgers arrived, we already cooked up a whole three seasons of television. 

We cracked each other up so much that being delirious and sleepy and hungry didn’t even matter. And that’s what carried on into the creative team, just being three friends who do whatever random shit makes us laugh.

You shot in a single day with a pickup for the musical number. What did that day look like logistically, emotionally, and creatively?

Mary lives in New York while Tyler and Fidel live in LA. So the whole thing was shot in between other projects. Mary was cast in a studio feature that brought her to LA when we did principal photography. While Mary was in LA we would meet up on days when Mary wasn’t shooting and quickly wrote the script. After comparing calendars, we realized there was only one day to possibly shoot 14 pages. So we planned out the shoot like a heist, figuring out how we could get in and out of there as quickly as possible.

We shot with two old RED cameras (that were available for free), Fidel being the DP and Tyler being the AD. Beyond us three, we recruited a tight group of friends to help us make it. The whole crew was about 7 people.  Not long after that day wrapped, Fidel had to go to NYC for a different shoot, so we decided to do the musical pick up for Stars up there.

Jon Truei (who was famously at the diner with us in Austin) drove Mary and Fidel to Nyack State Park, which is less than an hour from the city. Mary had previously worked a catering job there and knew the lush mountainous landscape mixed with the ocean was the perfect comp for a Sound of Music style vibe. Mary changed into her Maria costume in the bushes. Fidel operated the camera between freak summer rainstorms, and we stole all the shots while Jon kept watch in the car.

A Bluetooth speaker was probably the most key piece of gear so Mary could lip sync. It was maybe $10 to enter the park? A $10 well spent and that we split 3 ways.

The project was made for just $3–3.5k. How did the budget (or lack thereof) shape your approach to storytelling, style, or scale?

We thankfully have an amazing network of other independent filmmakers, artists and musicians who we could not have done this without. The American Standard Film Co. is like a red telephone of geniuses - Jordan Michael Blake, Ben Buxton, and Gregory Barnes. There were multiple points where this shoot almost didn’t happen due to scheduling and money but our approach was to make it work with what we had.

We miraculously found a standing diner that isn’t in business, so we didn’t have to navigate hours of operation. We used all our friends as crew as well as a lot of our own equipment and then, of course, came the miniatures. Most of the heavy lifting was done in post — that’s also where we came up with the idea for the opening song, the animations, and the sound design aesthetic. A lot of this was us figuring things out as we went along, completing each task based on festival deadlines. 

Everyone wore multiple hats on this. Can you talk about how the small crew impacted the vibe on set and the way you collaborated?

The day we shot at the diner was very run and gun. It was an ego-less set. Mary picked up the coffee, Tyler and Lilliana Winkworth handled all the props (and returns), Gregory Barnes was in charge of making sure Mary’s fake piercings were staying on her face in between assisting Fidel’s cinematography.

We all approach shoots and projects this way. During post, we continued the same method, getting feedback from our larger network of collaborators. A big priority we established early on was to keep things fun, preferring the power of the group rather than the individual, and letting the best idea win.

What were some of the creative influences or tonal references you looked to?

We described the show as “Alice” on acid. We knew we wanted to do a monster of the week kind of thing, but instead of monsters, genres where every episode would be a play on a different genre. For this one we wanted to play off famous Irwin Allen disaster films from the 70s. But we definitely see shows like “Cheers,” “Garth Marenghi,” “Rick and Morty” and the opening of “The Nanny” as influences.

What did you learn making Stars Diner that you want to carry into your next project—and what are you leaving behind?

That friendship is written in the stars… Also next time we’ll outsource someone to do everything in Blender. Pray for Fidel’s cortisol levels, they’re still not back to normal. Follow the fun and keep it low stakes.

With Stars we tried not to get too stressed out. We kept it cheap and quick and with a mentality of “let’s see how this goes,” instead of putting a lot of pressure on the project to come out one way or another. 

What’s the dream for Stars Diner moving forward—festivals, series, some kind of expanded world?

We have the full show planned out with some absolutely buck wild concepts that we’d love for someone to pay for. We’re hoping that this festival run will help us meet the mad genius we need to continue these wild and wacky adventures of the Stars Diner crew.

Lastly, what advice would you give to other filmmakers trying to make something bold on a tiny budget?

Don’t wait for anyone, just do it with the resources you have. Get creative to find solutions. Just make the damn thing!! If you don’t know how to do something, try your best to learn it. And when you eventually do it poorly, have fun with it and get weird with it.