“Fade,” an upcoming Production 4 Sports Drama film written by senior Declan Mooney and presented by Waddle Works Studios, is a story about a father and son whose relationship is put to the test when an injury disrupts their future plans.
The film follows the main character, Cam, played by Nicholas Ceniti. Cam is an Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) basketball star who recently suffered the loss of his mother and developed a strained relationship with his father, Bruce, played by Andy Pivarnik, in the process. During an intense match against his rival, Cam gets injured, and this injury reveals an underlying condition that drastically alters his hopes and dreams.
Mooney searched the Point Park Actor Database and Backstage, a website dedicated to finding local talent, for the actors for “Fade.” Every actor in the film came from Backstage.
The film was written entirely by Mooney.
“I started working on it over two years ago and refined it through the critiques from my classmates, ” Mooney said. “It has gone through numerous iterations and ended as an entirely different script than it started as, but I’m extremely happy with the result.”
The short film had roughly 10-14 crew members present on every given day. Mooney is the director of “Fade,” Bayli Clack is the producer, Adam Barrett is the lead cinematographer and Emma Crumling is the production designer. Filming for the short film began on Nov. 8.
Mooney was also part of the crews of other P4 films.
“I always love helping out on other projects,” Mooney said. “I’ll take any excuse to be on set, in any role.”
“We wrapped our final day in a freezing cold parking lot on Nov. 17,” Mooney said. “We do have an extra day set aside for pickup shots, but I don’t foresee any need for it just yet.”
One of the issues the crew faced was making the basketball court sequence show more players than there were present.
“We basically filmed the action with two people on each team, and with the use of close ups we were able to avoid showing the emptiness of the court,” Mooney said.
The crew also did some fundraising on IndieGogo. Advertising the fundraiser on Instagram, they generated half of their budget goal with $3,800.
“With the school’s reimbursements, that put us just $600 shy of our budget,” Mooney said. “The rest of the budget came out of pocket.”
Mooney said this project is a passion project for him, reflecting on experiences that happened in real life.
“Being able to tie a real-life issue of lack of family communication with the game of basketball in a compelling way is what I set out to do,” Mooney said. “I hope that the emotions and actions translate to audiences the way it did to me creating it.”
“Fade” will be screened alongside the other P4 films at the P4 showcase at PNC Theater on April 24, 2025.
For promotional content and previews of the film, follow “Fade” on Instagram @fadefilm2025.
