The Trees Whisper At Night
In November 2025, I had the amazing opportunity to 1st AD the short film The Trees Whisper At Night directed by Miguel Garcia Mendoza. The project is a thriller set in the 1970s following a naive college-bound girl who hitchhikes to campus and unknowingly accepts a ride from a man hiding a dark secret.
For seven days, we filmed in the Salinas, Greenfield, and King City areas with local Monterey County filmmakers. This was an exciting opportunity for me as a Bay Area filmmaker mostly based in SF, and got to work with super talented local filmmakers!
This was the longest and most challenging film project I have been on thus far. The weather, was not in our favor, and some film days we had to cut short due to the crazy rainstorm that passed by the area. We also stumbled upon some location permit struggles, and had to adjust some scenes to be filmed in different locations than originally planned. Having vintage cars also came with their own set backs, as they would often struggle with car batteries and cars being stuck in the mud due to said rainstorm.
Nonetheless, we adapted accordingly and filmed a wonderful project! The project was met with lots of local community support, and our crew was interviewed by KRKC and KSBW Channel 8 News while we filmed. Currently, the project is set to film pick up shots in March 2026 and is in its post-production phase.
