Blackmail is a short thriller that takes place over the course of a single day in New York City. The protagonist, Jay Scott, is a young advertising executive who receives an unexpected call from a former friend and business associate, Tom Wilson. Tom demands a large sum of money and threatens to reveal illicit details about Jay’s pa...st to his wife, Lillian, if Jay does not pay up. Determined to protect his marriage, Jay attempts to preempt his wife’s suspicions and permanently eliminate Tom’s leverage.

Blackmail was awarded funding by The National Endowment for The Arts’ Big Read Initiative and Goodwill Industries in 2010. The sizable grant package allowed us to shoot roughly a third of the ambitious film late in the summer of 2010; about two-thirds of the film remain to be shot currently.