By Sebastian Lopez
Charles Miller, a bartender at R + D Kitchen in Santa Monica leads somewhat of a double life. His sci-fi short film “Andrew” is heading to festivals across the globe.
In his short, which Miller wrote and directed, an android office assistant, Andrew, played by Matthew Berg, also a bartender at R + D Kitchen, struggles to find his place in the world as he battles to embrace his exuberant personality despite his coworkers’ expectations for him to be a more ‘traditional’ robot. Miller’s love for directing and sci-fi go back to when he was growing up in Cohasset, Massachusetts. 
“I started directing in high school when I made a movie for an independent study project and it just started from there,” Miller said. “[On sci-fi] It all starts with “Star Wars” for a lot of us I feel,” Miller said jokingly.
While Miller did not know where his story would go when he wrote the first draft earlier this January, sci-fi is Miller’s genre of choice.
“Sci-fi has a universal appeal, it places real problems in a different setting,” Miller said. “In this way it can be your way of expressing something that upsets you.”
Miller first got the idea for “Andrew” on his commute to work, where he likes to listen to artists like Pink Floyd and just think about the future.
“That’s the beauty of the [movie] industry,” Miller said. “You want to write, you can go write, and if you want to direct, you can go and do that too, and that’s what I did.”
Miller has submitted his short movie to Sundance Film Festival, Slamdance Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival and SXSW Film Festival, among others. This is the first time Miller has submitted one of his projects into a film festival. 
“One thing I’m learning because I’m very new to the film festival circuit is that they want to be the ones that say they premiered it,” Miller said. “So right now what I’m doing is just picking up as many extra shifts at the restaurant as I can to pay back the movie while we wait.”
Miller mentioned that his job has allowed him the flexibility to pursue his dream while making an income. In addition, many of the people who have donated their time and money for the project, Miller met through R + D Kitchen.
“I had been saving up my tax returns and kind of wondering what I was going to do with it,” Miller said. “I was looking at a trip to France, but I knew that I needed to put this toward what I wanted to do, and I threw the other half on the credit card,” Miller joked.
Miller moved to Los Angeles five years ago to pursue his dream and has focused on making as many projects as he can ever since.
“On paper it’s essentially done, but it doesn’t feel done,” Miller said. “For me this is a stepping stone, we feel like we have something pretty good and we want people to see it.”
Miller half-joked and half-said that all there is to do now is wait to hear back from the festivals with bated breath. Miller hopes that people will be able to watch Andrew and take something from it.
“What I was more going for is that sometimes you can be defined what other people think of you, rather than who you really are,” Miller said. “You get to decide who you are, other people don’t.”
Keep your eyes open for “Andrew” on festival screens in the future.
