An ordinary summer for a group of teens turns into an overwhelming series of moral decisions after a fireworks accident gone wrong in a new coming-of-age film by an Austin filmmaking duo. Sisters Grace and Emily Potter\u2019s first feature film, \u201cYoung Enough,\u201d captures the complicated experience of growing up while trying to maintain your friendships and youth.<\/p>\n
The Potter sisters based parts of the film, set entirely in Austin, on their own experiences growing up in the city in hopes of capturing the feeling of a carefree summer in the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the kind of shenanigans we were getting into, being Austin kids,\u201d Grace said. \u201cAs filmmakers, we really want to make it a priority for our stories to take place in Austin and take place in Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before directing their first feature, both sisters worked on several other major film and TV projects, mainly in the art department and set design. Grace worked on Austin film icon Richard Linklater\u2019s \u201cHit Man\u201d as a set dresser while Emily (radio-television-film \u201820) worked on Adam Brooks\u2019 Netflix film \u201cThe Life List.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe spent about four or five years working for directors,\u201d Grace said. \u201cIt just allowed us to be in every room possible and get to see the process of making either a TV show or a movie from the genesis of the idea all the way through post.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emily said she made many friendships through UT, with some even helping to work on \u201cYoung Enough\u201d. She cites Andrew Garrison\u2019s podcasting class as one of her favorite courses that she took during her time there.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really loved my experience at UT. \u2026 The best part about it was honestly working on the thesis films of all of my classmates,\u201d Emily said. \u201cI\u2019m still friends with, and professionally work with, a lot of the students that I made shorts with in college.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYoung Enough\u201d focuses on a teenage friend group forced to decide between protecting themselves and coming clean after a fireworks accident lands one of their friends in the ICU. Their different respective backgrounds lead to some having more to lose, which results in the teens reflecting on the dynamics of their friendship while faced with the potential end of their carefree youth. The Potters said they took a collaborative approach in making the film.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a lot of improv in it, but I think that you would be shocked to know that there\u2019s not as much as you would think,\u201d Grace said. \u201cWe spent a few weeks hanging out with (the cast) before we actually started shooting, and some of those moments came from us having conversations, and we\u2019re like, \u2018That\u2019s really great! What if we put that in?’\u201d<\/p>\n
As they prepare to submit the film to festivals, the sisters said the film is ultimately a reflection of the beauty of Austin and its people, and their goal as filmmakers is to be able to tell stories about people and subjects audiences might not typically see in a film.<\/p>\n
\u201cEmily and I have always felt drawn to morally ambiguous characters or stories that live in a gray space,\u201d Grace said. \u201cThere\u2019s room for nuance in anything, and there\u2019s a redemption arc for anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An ordinary summer for a group of teens turns into an overwhelming series of moral decisions after a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378643,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-378642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}