Lori L. Johnson

Los Angeles, CA

The Relationship Theorem

Teenager, Meredith Gillman (Manon Carrié), the smartest girl of her class, has experienced the wrong side of love too many times. After much research and studying of her peers and their love lives, Meredith decides to create a scientific project that removes the emotional side from love. With her friends, Zach (Michael Kaiser) and Hilary (Becki Kregoski) by her side, Meredith plans several experiments to find out if she can get the most popular boy, Shane Jenkins (Brad Dodds), to ask her to the spring formal. If she finds success, she’ll be able to claim the achievement of her science fair project. If she fails, she’ll learn that you cannot remove emotions from love. The one problem Meredith didn’t count on was Daphne Edwards (Ashley Schultz), Shane’s girlfriend. Daphne, with her entourage, finds out Meredith’s plan and promises to end the scheme…who will win in the end?

This film is the culmination of 1.5 years of work from some very dedicated graduate students from Chapman University. We all belonged to the first class of the Dodge College of Film and Media Arts conservatory. This film is our thesis.

We shot at Tesoro High School in Rancho Santa Margarita, CA, and at Marion Knott Studios in Orange, CA. Primary filming took place in September - October, 2007.

Gil Bettman, David S. Ward (The Sting), Paul Seydor (Guess Who!), Larry Paull (Back to the Future), Bill Dill asc, and Mike Kowalski were all advisors of this film.

Michael Kaiser (Zach), Becki Kregoski (Hilary), and Manon Carrié (Meredith).

Brad Dodds (Shane), D. Anthony Johnson (Max), Manon Carrié (Meredith).

Kaitlyn Burkett (Felicia), Ashley Schultz (Daphne), Brad Dodds (Shane), Manon Carrie (Meredith), Emily Ryals (Camy).

My approach in writing and directing this film was to create something that could be mainstreamed into a full feature or television program. Also, I wanted to tell a story of how love can really mess a person up, but in the end, they always win.

I had an amazing cast and crew who put their hearts and souls into this film. Without them I never could have done this. Thank you to all those who helped work on this.