A short film depicting the relationship development between Step-Siblings, Casey McDonald and Derek Venturi from the Canadian Sitcom ‘Life with Derek’ starting from the first episode in 2005 and ending with the Spin-off Movie ‘Life with Luca’ in 2023. The two main characters, Derek Venturi and Casey McDonald were played by Michael Seater and Ashley Leggat.
This short film was a project I assigned myself to do in 40 days & 40 nights during Lent 2023, inspired by the Award winning music video ‘All too Well’ by Taylor Swift https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tollGa3S0o8
I used this song mainly for dramatic irony in the short film, incase anyone was confused, because obviously Casey and Derek weren’t in a romantic relationship and they weren’t ever going to be partially because some of the writers at the time didn’t like the concept — despite Michael and Ashley “playing up the subtext” for the fans while they were portraying the characters. There’s the added factor of it being a family show, where they couldn’t have done anything even if they wanted to because they were step-siblings.
But also, I personally don’t think it would have made sense for them to be together in the original show because they would have messed it up and hurt each other badly.
The song ‘All too Well’ by Taylor Swift (especially the recent 10 minute version) is implied to be about a toxic romantic relationship but has the idea of if they’d met at the right time, said the right things, it would have been different. For example, its mentioned multiple times, that the two of them meet years later, when they’re both a lot better, saying they still miss each other and wish that it would have worked, but it’s still too late for them. Right Person, Wrong Time type scenario. The 10 minute version of ‘All too Well’ is much more woven and integrate even more than the original. It’s quite dense; you have to pay attention to what she’s singing to understand what’s going on. Which suits Casey and Derek because their relationship embodies paradoxes. They were two people who fell in love while being in a forced platonic relationship. There’s this suggested idea in the show that Casey and Derek would have never met if they didn’t become step-siblings. So their “love story” wasn’t pre destined or written in the stars, it was instead incredibly tragic. Not just because of the taboo aspect (the idea that they can’t act on their “love”) but because at first, Derek doesn’t treat her right. He actually bullies her at the beginning, and is mostly hostile towards her during a lot of the show plus loves making her life a misery. Still, Casey is always willing to care for him, if only he would let her. There’s such tragedy in their relationship. It’s not idealistic, it’s real and messy, and bittersweet. One of my favourite uses of the “pulling pigtails” trope in media because the guy doesn’t get rewarded by getting the girl at the end, despite how he he treats her, he learns to work on himself instead. They both do with help from each other. No matter how you look at it, or if you ship them or not, Casey and Derek are a prime example of the redemptive relationship.
What I hoped to capture in the short film is they eventually become right for each other, especially Derek. So that years later, when they meet each other again, they’ve finally matured enough to be in a relationship.
I think what the song suggests most of all is POTENTIAL and Missed Chances. Micheal and Ashley are such great actors. They have this ability to created this intense, electric, atmosphere that’s so nuanced. They create this POTENTIAL hanging in the air, that only gets stronger with time. So that’s what I was also trying to capture with the video.
Because Casey and Derek were the definition of Potential.
I edited all the moments that stood out the most to me, and what suited the song, because if I included everything, the video would have been 1 hour or something. I tried to stick to their canonical “romantic” storyline within the show without manipulating much or using various head canons for the characters.
I split up parts of the song in parts, so season one is slow but fast, Season 2 is very fast, then it starts to slow down in season 3, and a slow build in season 4 — god I hope the pacing worked.