Waking Up With Dale

Waking Up With Dale

Bruce Von Stiers

Would you contract with a company for an in-person wake up service? It seems a bit strange, right? But that is the foundation for a new psychological thriller short film titled Are You Awake?.

Dale is one of the people who goes to people's houses and wakes them up. She is kind of indifferent, just going through the motions. But when one of the clients decides he doesn't want to get up, it throws the whole balance of things off. And with some very bizarre consequences.

Ellyn Jameson plays Dale. She had a recurring role on Seal Team and appeared in the shows Here And Now and Criminal Minds. Ellyn has also been in several short and feature films.

Dale's boss gets her to take someone else's client list for the morning. This is probably what starts the schism she ends up finding herself in. There is a woman who is not happy that Dale is waking her up. She wanted her regular guy, Herminio, who apparently whistles as he's coming to wake her up.

We get to see Dale waking people up, or in one case, she observes an intimate encounter when going to wake someone up. One guy has been injured and is having a hard time getting up.

But the crux of the plot is about the guy who doesn't want to get up. He's had a series of bad dreams, which he relates to Dale. This guy, Bradley, apparently upsets the balance of things that later cause a problem for Dale.

Paul Archer played Bradley. He has appeared in Abbott Academy, Crazy Love and Good Trouble.

Gabriel Caste plays Herminio, who makes an appearance at the end of the film. He also wrote and directed the film. He directed the series Slice of Lonely, which he starred in. Caste has also directed several other films. He has helped produce a few films, including a documentary about music icon Linda Ronstadt and worked with Cameron Crowe on one about David Crosby.

Addition members of the cast included Begine White-Klein, John Wilcox, Kelley Polling, Martin Lino, Tevin Harris, Dan Johnson, Syd Kilroy and Tien Vu. Charles Noland, who has made a ton of appearances in film and television over the years is in a scene in the film.

The film was produced by Gabriel Caste, Lauren Altieri Caste and Alex Exline. Exline had previously worked with Gabriel Caste on the Ronstadt and Crosby films.

The cinematographer was Ian Coad. The music was composed by Paul Sim. He has composed music for several other short films.

A few of the other people who were involved in the film included Diahann McCrary, Kimberly Werner, Ethan Carling, Cody Peterson and James Poirer.

Are You Awake? is intriguing mix of sci-fi, drama and psychological thriller. From the first scene through the last, there are little turns in the plot that keep you guessing as to what's really happening.

Are You Awake? was selected to be shown of April 22nd at the Beverly Hills Film Festival.

You can learn more about Are You Awake? on Gabriel Caste's website. Here is the link to the page for the film on his site: https://www.gabrielcaste.com/areyouawake

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