Read more about “I Like to Think She’s Happy” (2025)

Director’s Statement

"I Like to Think She's Happy" was born as a love letter to every single friend Natalija has made in college. Girly friendship films have been made over and over again, but this one sticks out because it has a personal message and meaning. Each character, dialogue, and nuance has so many characteristics and personality traits from several people at Columbia College Chicago that Natalija has had the pleasure of befriending (you know who you are). This short film is really about a present day take on friendships and random chances that can take life in any given direction, even internet stardom. 

The Making of “I Like to Think She’s Happy” (2025)

Oh boy, where do I begin with this. What a wild ride it was. I originally wrote "I Like to Think She's Happy" (2025) in December of 2024 in my dorm room in Chicago. It was cold outside and I was about to go home for winter break but for some reason I just decided to write this story late at night. With how busy the finals season is, I kind of forgot about it, to be honest, but after I came back home from winter break, I realized that I wanted to make a film this spring 2025 semester. I was not taking any production classes that would force me to create something, so might as well do an independent project. I also wanted to prove to myself that I could pull off an independent project all on my own (for the most part). There was one weekend in February, right before I had to go to Mexico for my cousins wedding, that I knew would be the perfect weekend to shoot it, so why not. I spent most of my time home in December refining the script, but also thinking about how I would have to raise money for this project on my own so that I could spend money on expenses I was planning on taking for this project. I did not have a producer (everyone I knew was busy), so I had to do it all on my own. 

I pulled up to my badnje veče (Christmas Eve) church service with a QR code on a piece of paper and a dream. I asked everyone I knew if they had a few dollars to spare to donate to my crowdfunding campaign. This film was going to happen one way or another, but luckily, I was able to raise around $1,000 on my own. I would like to thank all of my donors once again, right here, for believing in me and this project, this film truly could not have happened without your support. Coming up with the funds was surprisingly easier than finding a DP (director of photography) and 1st AD (assistant director), which after a while, I found the most perfect people to fill in these roles. While crowdfunding was coming in, I spent most of January before returning to school working on casting the film, creating a shot list, schedule, production design look book, and pretty much everything that happens in the preproduction phase. I wanted to be cast right before I came back to Chicago just so that I spent three weeks before the shoot rehearsing and getting ready with them. 

In February, we did some final tweaks on the project before shooting. I organized my time really well in January so that once school started again, I had a few tasks left, the biggest one being securing the classroom location. I'm so glad we ended up doing that because everyone could just focus on school while in their free time do some really small things for the project. Once the shoot rolled around, everyone was so prepared. Everything ran so smoothly during the shoot, I feel like there isn't much to say about how it went because everything went as planned. Except for the last day. I woke up that final day and I opened my blinds to see that it was snowing outside. I had to act fast, call time was less than an hour away, and I told everyone to meet in the park. I quickly called Bella, our production designer, and said that we need to move to her apartment (which was a block away from where we were shooting at) for a snow delay. We ended up chilling in their basement for two hours waiting for the snow to calm down. After that, we went outside, into the cold, shooting for a couple of hours. I've gone skiing many times in my life, but this was by far colder than all of those times combined. I'm so grateful that I bought exactly enough hand warmers for the cast and crew because otherwise we would have been quite literally dying out there. Between scenes, I made the actors go back inside to the basement we were chilling in because it was so cold, it started to affect their performances. After this cold day, it was all over. The hard work I was putting in for two months just suddenly came to an end. 

After shooting, post production went so smoothly. I was also editing this project, so I took my sweet time with it. I didn't have to coordinate a cast and crew, beg for donations, or any other major logistical issue. It was just me, my computer, and Final Cut Pro. It took me a couple of months to picture lock the film because I put school and other film projects I was working on first before this film. I do not regret this decision because Bryce, our DP and colorist, and Malvyn, our composer, were also busy with school so I waited until summer to picture lock. Over the summer, I got the colored version of the film and our film score in done around July. I was traveling at the time, so I did not complete the film until the end of July. After months of work, it was finally done. Now, as I am writing this, I am ready to submit "I Like to Think She's Happy" to festivals. There is so much more I can say about this experience and how it came to be, I might add more later, but yet, I am proud of myself for making it happen. I proved myself right by being able to create such a big project all on my own. 

What I learned

DO NOT PRODUCE FILMS YOU PLAN ON DIRECTING. I did not have a producer but I wanted this film to happen, I had to double up to two major tasks. I was so wrapped up in the logistical side of preproduction, that I spent so little energy on the creative side of things. I did have a fifteen page directors breakdown, and I did rehearse with my actors, don't get me wrong. I thought I did a good job of getting enough footage (a lesson learned from "Just One Sip" (2024)) and everything looked good on camera, but once I saw the footage for the first time on my computer while editing, I realized I did not put as much effort into blocking and mis-en-scene. I did make a blocking plan while watching the super bowl (I felt like the coach in "Lady Bird" blocking for a play) and shot list early on in January, I was prepared, but on set, I was so worried about other things, that I did not look over to see how things looked. We did not have a monitor, we just had the tiny screen attached to Bryce's camera, so no one really looked at it except for him. I should have tried to look at frame more often because there are some shots that I feel could have been composed better. Another thing I know I could have done better is tell my actors exactly what I want. I really can't get my Acting and Directing Workshop professor's voice out of my head, because she always wanted us to give the actors as much freedom to craft their performance. I did give them as much information as possible, but the days we were shooting on set, I tried not to correct them as much because I trusted their vision. Looking back, I definitely should have tweaked some aspects of their performance to be 100% what I wanted, but then again, they pretty much hit the nail on the head. The small things that I did not want in their performance, they are so small, only I could notice. But otherwise, I love the direction everyone took with their characters to make it authentically theirs. 

Outside of these technical directing errors, the biggest thing I learned was producing a project all on my own. I am not a producer, I have friends that are producers which were incredibly helpful with any questions I had along the way, but I had to learn it all on my own. That semester, I was taking Producing 1, but it was not enough knowledge for me to produce a short film all on my own. I would love to have some producing role in my future projects, I enjoyed it very much, but I would not want to be the sole producer. I also don't see myself being a producer after this, it's way too stressful, my respect for producers has really gone up. Like I said earlier, I proved myself right by putting a project together all on my own, but it would not have been possible if I did not produce it. 

Fun Facts

-"Shrekalicious", the quote Lindsey says that makes her go viral, was "Shrektastic" for early drafts of the script. 

-The apartment scenes were shot in Natalija's cousin's apartment (thanks Jovan)

-You can see some CUUB charging stations in the background of some of the shots

-The classroom and news scenes were shot at Columbia College Chicago

-Malvyn, our composer, sat next to Natalija for a month in 1st grade

-It was 20 degrees Fahrenheit (-6 Celsius) when we shot outside in the park

-Almost all of our crew members make an appearance in the film

-Diego reprises his role as Kevin from "A Blind Date" (2024) in the classroom scene

Credits

Directed, Produced, Edited, and Written by - Natalija Plavšić

Director of Photography - Bryce Jeong

Production Designer - Bella Durbin

1st Assistant Director - Nolan Rutland

Composer - Malvyn Lai

Gaffer/Grip - Diego Tellez

1st Assistant Camera - Alex Calhoun, Jonathan Maranion

Script Supervisor - Heather Sunderlage

Sound Mixer/Boom Operator - Asha Holmes

Casting Director - Shannon Sykes

Colorist - Bryce Jeong

Featuring

Mariel Flickinger as Paige

Adrienne Bodenus as Lindsey

Beth Ann Papoutsis as Newscaster

Martin Aparicio Jr. as Lindsey's Fan

Robert Kelly as Professor

Erik Hylko as Liam

Bella Durbin as Classmate

Featured Extras

Diego Tellez

Alex Calhoun

Jonathan Maranion

Nolan Rutland

Asha Holmes

Natalija Plavšić