Blog

It takes a lot of people to make a movie. More than the ones who show up in the credits.

Our Staged Reading on (9/19/2026) featured many amazing actors, dancers, and crew members. I’m proud of everyone involved!

I want to acknowledge the people who helped us take this first step.

Crew Members

Karilyn T. Starks	Producer
Travis Heath	Production Manager / Line Producer
Michael T. Starks	Writer / Director
Lorena Charry	B-Sensual Dance Company Choreographer
Natalia Romo	My Motion Dance Company Host, Additional Choreography
Giovanni Caballero D Marquez	My Motion Dance Company Host
Ray Dellacroce	Cinematography, Video / Audio Recording

Cast

Halina Adams	Jessica, Jodi, Ashen Paloma
Darren Boylen	Mr. Luis Garcia
Ketrick “Jazz” Copeland	Narrator
Marla Eaton	Frances Brandt, Mrs. Burke
Daniel gerik	José Rodriguez
Hayden Gullion	Cowboy#1, Tim
Travis Heath	Dr. Halorton, Chen, Wanna-Be Surfer
Joaquin Liebert	Cowboy #3, Paul
Christian Maldonado Fashina	Cowboy #2, Brad
Kimm T. Miller	Sharon Tellund, Naomi Davis
Isabella Olivarez	Amy, Star, Bloody Paloma, Instructor (2)
Hanna Palmer	Kira, Melody, Spinning Paloma
Sophia Peterson	Danielle Brandt
Natalia Romo	Maria Lopez, Elena
Angela Rothermel	Ms. Henrietta Schmidt, Instructor (1)
Emilio Tyler	Carlos Garcia, Juan Sanchez, Doctor
Emily Vines	Paloma Garcia

Dancers

B-Sensual Dance Company

Adrian Cheang

Karla Delgado

Memo Di

Earnest Flowers

Nicole Jamshidi

Yuliya Savich

Lacey Thomson

Maxine Le Tourneur

My Motion Dance Company

Giovani Caballero D Marquez

Phoebe Cornfield

Daniela Perdomo

Natalia Romo

Kathi Spencer

Special Thanks

Tom, Cody, Dave, and Karilyn

This screenplay is better because of you!

Our Staged Reading of the Sin Ti screenplay was a success!

I’m thrilled with the work that many people did to bring this together. Now, I’m starting to edit the footage from the event.

Here are a couple of the dance numbers that I can share.

In the first one, we see Danielle’s Angels perform.

In the second, we see Ms. Schmidt performing for her class.

Note: This is a work in progress. We’ll likely make more updates to these videos. Having said that, I want to show what I can. Enjoy!

Additional Note: These dance numbers were choreographed by Lorena Charry. The first one features Karla Delgado, Lacey Thomson, and Maxine Le Tourneur. The second one features Nicole Jamshidi.

I’m thrilled to announce that our Staged Reading is happening tomorrow!

Here’s a link to the event page with all of the details: https://www.facebook.com/events/1221764030053496/

This has been an eventful few weeks. With Karilyn’s help, I’ve cut over twenty pages from the script we’re using for the Staged Reading.

It’s possible that some of these pages may survive. And it’s possible that we’ll get enough feedback to re-think many parts of the script!

I’m so excited to watch the Staged Reading!

We have 17 Actors and 13 Dancers who are performing tomorrow! I am beyond grateful for their dedication, energy, and talent!

This is what making movies looks like.

Sure, not all production companies rely on Staged Readings. It’s possible to create a movie without this step. Nevertheless, I embrace the value of the process. And my process includes a Staged Reading!

Enjoy!

I’m excited to announce that we have most of our cast for the Staged Reading of Sin Ti (Without You)!

We wrapped up the auditions yesterday. This is the first time that I’ve included video auditions as an option. I have to say that it worked out well.

If COVID led the film industry to do more video audtions, I’m okay with that. While I’m always going to be a fan of working with actors in person, I don’t think we need to restrict ourselves to that mindset.

In addition to working with some great actors, I’m excited to work with several talented dancers.

I’m thrilled to be working with Lorena Charry and B-Sensual. She’s choreographing several numbers to give the audience a glimpse of what we have in mind for this movie.

I can’t wait to share this story with more people!

It may be that some screenwriters pump out an entire screenplay quickly, with almost no revisions.

That’s not my process. (At least not yet!)

With more feedback, I’ve made more revisions.

I’m learning to trust myself, to really consider what it is I want to say with this movie.

My latest updates include identifying the WOUNDS that motivate each character. Yes, characters tend to WANT external goals, but how they pursue them depends on their past experiences.

My hope is that this approach can make the main characters more believable.

More engaging. More interesting for actors to play. More fascinating for audience members to watch.

Soon, I need to lock down the script for our Staged Reading.

I’ll let you know when I get there!

Today’s an exciting day.

We’ve announced our Staged Reading for the movie Sin Ti.

Oh, and that’s another announcement! The movie previously called Bachata Becomes Her is now called Sin Ti.

While I like the previous title, I think Sin Ti better captures the spirit of the movie. The translation of the Spanish phrase Sin Ti is “Without You”.

For Paloma, she’s trying to survive without her brother. While there are other meanings, this is the one that gets me.

Here’s our announcement card.

The purpose of the Staged Reading is to gather feedback from a diverse audience. We want to improve the screenplay before moving into the pre-production phase.

I hope to see you there!

I can immediately say it needs another revision.

I didn’t manage to address all of the feedback. And there remains room for improvement in some of the feedback I addressed.

Still, this is an exciting moment!

I look forward to reading the whole thing again. Because I’ve been focused on individual details, I need to step back and see what the story looks like as a whole.

There’s a lot of space between “I know it’s better” and “I know it needs another revision”! I’m curious to see where it lands, how it all feels.

My next question: How much work is needed BEFORE we do a staged reading? Do I want to cut the total number of pages down to a reasonable amount BEFORE then? What’s the quickest path forward that still feels good to me?

I guess we’ll see!

One important aspect of writing a screenplay is to recognize the theme. This often emerges from our work in progress.

As we go through the process of rewriting an initial script, we can explore how to present the theme in a compelling way.

Here’s the theme of Bachata Becomes Her: “Your relationships make life worth living.”

Note: I could be wrong. Audience members may take something else away from the story. Nevertheless, this is the theme I want to convey to everyone who watches the movie.

Relationships matter. Connections matter. While it’s important to know yourself and to follow your dreams, you don’t want to do it alone.

Paloma begins the story by moving out. She doesn’t want to have anything to do with her father. She wants to remove her father from her life. She wants to go it alone. She wants to be self-sufficient.

But none of us can do anything truly worthwhile while working in complete isolation.

We need each other. Humans are a social species.

For this reason, I want to identify the theme of Bachata Becomes Her, and I want to state it clearly.

“Your relationships make life worth living.”

I haven’t read the entire Bachata Becomes Her script for quite some time.

That’s what I did today.

Here’s what I noticed. The recent improvements are making a difference. It’s a better story, with more specific details.

And I also realize that it’s not ready for production!

Not yet.

The story itself is still missing some crucial details. That’s okay. I know what else is needed. And I know I can do more to bring the characters to life.

Talk about needing to appreciate the process!

I’m organizing the remaining feedback based on what’s in progress and what still remains to be done.

I’m happy with the progress I’ve made so far.

And I look forward to making the script ready for a Staged Reading!

I’ve categorized each bit of the Coverage feedback as easy, ok, or big.

While I’ve started thinking about the big changes needed, I’m giving myself plenty of time to address these. The most significant change is to make the antagonist a more worthy foe. It often requires a compelling bad guy to really make a movie come alive.

Today, I’ve completed updating all of the easy ones. An example is updating the slug lines to be consistent.

Many of the ok items are also fairly easy. Some require threading ideas throughout the script so that a particular scene makes more sense when the reader gets to it.

I’m very excited to see the story getting better!