Shandor Garrison, 30, 'struck gold' with his directorial debut, NO ONE'S A MYSTERY, an 8-minute film adapted from an anthologized short story by novelist Elizabeth Tallent. During a run in area festivals his first film won several awards. One result of that success is Garrison's latest project FREEBOX, a 20-minute narrative he wrote and will direct, which begins production on location in Cape Cod in late February.

With a B.A. in English from Roger Williams College in Rhode Island, Garrison does not come from a film school background. A visual thinker, writing screenplays was the natural way to translate what he thought on paper. As a director learning by experience, otherwise known as the "hard way," it allowed him to be creative in his approach to visual storytelling.

Directing is appealing to Garrison for the creative control he can retain as the writer, and also for the intense focus that everyone on a set brings to the matter at hand. "Time is precious on a shoot. You have to be totally in tune and make split-second decisions, with implications later on. You rely on others. It is intensity like nothing I'd experienced before. That's what directing feels like. Like nothing else exists. It's purity to art making that I don't feel when I sit at a computer and find myself distracted by half a dozen things," he said.

While he produced some non-fiction and video-art in college, for him, "narrative fiction is just the most fun. I've always liked creative writing, telling my own story. Directing allows me to keep creative control of the camera, drama, acting," he added. His interest in human relationships lends itself to the drama genre. "I am fascinated by moments in our lives when we see conssequences rippling out. The fulcrum moment when things change," he said.

Working with actors is one of the most challenging aspects of directing for him. He said, "I have much to learn. I have to take acting classes." He said Sandy Meisner's emotionally truthful acting style is one he would pursue."

Garrison has some advice for aspiring directors. "Keep working at what you don't know. Keep challenging yourself. Always be reaching. Ar tis made on that fine line; where knowledge and ignorance meet. Don't give up if your first film doesn't get into Sundance. Regional festivals are incredible places for developing contacts and finding an audience," he said.

With no formal cinematography training, one of his models is Director Steven Soderberg, whose shoots of his own work are the "ultimate in control." He sees himself directing at least five features in the future. "Ten years from now I would like to be someone else's favorite director besides my girlfriend and my mom," he said. He plans to continue to work in the area. "This is home. I've been given such an incredible welcome. It's a small, but close-knit society of filmmakers," he added.

Garrison said FREEBOX benefits from support by the LEF Foundation, John MacNeil's Moody Street Pictures in Waltham, and Producer Mike Bowes, co-director of Central Productions, a non-profit film arts organization in Cambridge. He credits all three organizations and their mission to mentor and support media arts in the area as key to bringing his project from screenplay to High-Def video.