Hello, My name is Carlie I'm a writer and director based from Florida now making a short film in LA. This is a micro-budget short film, made purely to exercise our abilities to make artistic films within our means. It will be shot mainly in Los Angeles and Malibu. Talent won't receive pay but will have credit, footage for their reel, and meals during filming. I'm thinking this will be a 3-Day shoot, we don't have a shoot date picked out, we mainly want to cast talent, do a couple rehearsals to get comfortable with the script, then shoot working around everyone's schedules. Keep in mind that for the main character "Mara" we need the actress to be comfortable with latex prosthetic application / make up for the ending of the film.
When applying, please send me a reel, headshot, and optional bio. Auditions will be done digitally.
Thank you, and I look forward to working with you!
Synopsis:
October follows Mara, who meets with her former lover Gabriel after a long time apart. Their reunion begins warmly
but turns strange when Gabriel tells her about a dream where she and his ex, Nora, appear together.
Later that night, Mara goes home with him. When a late phone call interrupts their sleep, Mara answers to find Nora
on the other end — distraught and asking for him. Instead of waking Gabriel, Mara decides to visit Nora herself.
At Nora’s apartment, the two women confront each other in a quiet, tense exchange that exposes jealousy, grief, and
confusion. The scene feels half-real, half-dreamlike. Nora accuses Mara of taking her place; Mara admits she feels
consumed by someone else’s history.
The film ends back at Gabriel’s apartment, where he wakes to find Mara transformed — motionless, her body altered
as if she has absorbed the emotional weight of both women.
Character Breakdown:
Mara
Age: Late 20s – early 30s
Tone: Reserved, observant, emotionally contained
Core traits: Introspective, empathetic, quietly
haunted
Description:
Mara is the emotional center of the film. She
presents calmness and control, but carries a deep
undercurrent of longing and detachment. Her
relationship with Gabriel reopens emotional
territory she thought she had left behind. As the
night unfolds, she becomes drawn into his
unresolved past with Nora, and her composure
begins to erode.
Mara’s arc moves from self-contained observer to
a figure consumed by another person’s memories.
Her transformation — literal and emotional —
reflects how intimacy can blur identity.
Gabriel
Age: Late 20s – early 30s
Tone: Warm exterior, emotionally opaque
Core traits: Charismatic, guilt-ridden, self-
absorbed
Description:
Gabriel is a man torn between past and present.
Outwardly charming and sincere, he’s never
fully present — his affection is split between
nostalgia and reality. The dream he describes at
dinner exposes his subconscious guilt and the
hold Nora still has over him.
Gabriel’s tragedy is that he believes he’s
reconnecting with Mara, when in truth he’s
reenacting a pattern of emotional projection.
His final moment with her — tender but
delusional — reveals how blind he is to the harm
he’s caused.
Nora
Age: Late 20s
Tone: Fragile, volatile, magnetic
Core traits: Emotional, obsessive, sincere
Description:
Nora is not just a person but the embodiment
of unresolved emotion. When she appears,
she feels both real and spectral. Her pain is
genuine, but her presence distorts reality for
Mara and Gabriel alike.
In the story’s final act, Nora becomes a mirror
— forcing Mara to face her own loss of self
through Gabriel’s lingering attachment.
Whether she is alive, dead, or imagined is left
ambiguous; what matters is the impact of her
presence.