I am not the detail-oriented type. I’m not a good editor or a good producer. I don’t think in terms of budgets or timetables or realistic goals.

Having never worked on the production of a short film, I had no idea what I was in for when I introduced this script to OTS. When Nate, Katie, and Caroline asked me for details about my vision for The Con Artist, my response was in the fashion of the most popular Bandersnatch meme: I hadn’t programmed that path yet.

I’m grateful to be the least experienced person in the room at OTS. It’s infinitely better than being the most experienced person. I get to learn from people who have taken ideas and turned them into real art pieces and get led through everything it takes.

I saw perfect Mephistophelean vice for the first time in 2021, in the form of a sixteen-year-old boy. I want to introduce everyone to the person I knew back then and to the person whom he hurt. The Con Artist is a character study, a writing challenge, and a catharsis exercise all in six minutes of dialogue.

I hope you all enjoy this project that is very special to me! And thank you so much for supporting independent filmmaking and the next generation of storytellers.

-Jess Eichen (Writer/Director)