PRODUCTION NOTES

On a June afternoon in Burbank, the crew of Choose Connor stood on a hot, dusty hillside,
watching the action atop a platform of abandoned concrete drainage pipes. Alex Linz
(playing Owen Norris) and Escher Holloway (playing Caleb Connor) performed the emotional
climax of the film. The 10-minute scene played out in a single shot, and each take barely fit on
a single reel of film. With the 120-degree heat, the day was clearly the emotional and physical
peak of the production. But when the 12-hour day came to a close, the sunburned, dehydrated
and exhausted cast and crew left smiling, knowing if they could survive that, nothing would
stand in their way of making this film. Director Luke Eberl began researching and writing Choose Connor when he was seventeen.
As he refined the script he eventually began casting for the two young leads. When he found
Linz and Holloway, he knew he had to find a way to make the movie before they grew too old
to play the roles. “The dynamic between those two was incredible, just incredible,” says Eberl. “When I found
them, we didn’t have all the money to make the film, but I knew we had to find a way to make
it work because we would never find two actors who were as perfect playing Owen and Caleb
as Alex and Escher were." Six months later, shortly after his 20th birthday, Eberl was in preproduction. Several months later, Steven Weber accepted
the role of Congressman Lawrence Connor. “after the first rehearsal, I knew we couldn’t have found a better Connor, not even if we had all the money in the world and could choose anyone we wanted.” Eberl was supported by a producing team very close to his heart — his good friends and acting colleagues Aaron Himelstein
and Andrew McFarlane (also in their early 20’s), and his sister Karuna Eberl and her producing partner James McLean. “Luke, Andrew and Aaron are phenomenally creative and have been collaborating for years on short films and other side projects,” says Karuna. “And Luke and I have been wanting to team up on a project for nearly 10 years. So the chance for all
of us to create a feature together was definitely a high point in all of our careers.”