Local short film 'Puzzle' soon to be available for viewing online

May 6—Even after retiring from Somerset Community College's Theater Department, Steve Cleberg is still working with his students to create compelling drama.

Eli Parker, one of those students and a correspondent for the Commonwealth Journal's Southeast Kentucky Magazine, recently co-directed, along with his friend Joseph Becher, "Puzzle," a locally-created short film written by Cleberg that weaves together different stories to create, unsurprisingly, a puzzle of a film where the pieces come together at the end.

"It's hard to put 'Puzzle' into words because it tells so much in so little time," said Parker, who also plays a role in the film. "In just nine minutes, you get this overarching story, but it's told in these separate pieces — hence, the title 'Puzzle' — that each have their own story.

"When writing the script, Cleberg had the intent of wanting viewers to further dissect this story, possibly in multiple watches," added Parker, "and I like to think we achieved that."

Over the years, Parker said he got to know Cleberg, who retired from Somerset Community College in 2020 after a career teaching there for more than three decades, as more than just an instructor, but also a friend, one Parker said he was "honored" to work alongside on this project.

For his part, Cleberg was happy to work alongside Parker as well.

"A former student of mine, Eli Parker, told me that a friend of his was a film student at EKU and the two of them wanted to shoot a film in Somerset. They wanted to know if I had a screenplay available," said Cleberg. "I gave them a couple that I had written but didn't have the chance to shoot. I was afraid that they were a little longer and more production heavy than a first time film team would want to try their hand at. And Eli did wonder if I had something shorter.

"I thought about it and suddenly a short film idea that I had but never got the chance to script popped into my head again," he continued. "So I went about the business of putting together the script that presented three seemingly unrelated scenes that would snap together like a jigsaw puzzle in a final fourth scene."

Because it was compartmentalized by design, noted Cleberg, the project was able to be shot with three separate companies of primarily local actors known by those who follow the local theater scene, making for an ideal summer film project that worked with various schedules — and it was a busy time for several of the creative people involved, Cleberg included.

"It was being shot (last year) at the same time that Flashback Theater was doing the premiere of my play, 'The American Parade,'" he said. We were just coming out of the pandemic and people wanted to create again. It was a very good summer."

Parker said that for several months, he, Becher and Cleberg met a few times to properly finish the story and envision what they had in store for it.

"However, during filming and editing, we saw that some changes and compromises had to be made, but I think we still properly executed the idea of it," said Parker. "Really, the process of filming it was much easier than expected. I personally enjoyed the bureaucratic side of things, as I handled scheduling shoots with our cast and crew. And luckily, Somerset has a handful of eager talent that I was able to utilize."

The biggest challenge was editing, he said, a task which Becher took on that essentially by himself.

"He's currently in school for cinematography and has been trying to get work, so getting the time to work on this project was a big challenge," said Parker. "Nonetheless, while it may have taken a lot longer than we anticipated to produce, we're very glad with the finished product that we have."

Parker said he plans on releasing "Puzzle" on his YouTube channel, Parker Vlogging, on Saturday, May 13. He also is considering trying it on the short film festival circuit.