How the 'Floating Carousel' Directors Shot NYC on Favors

The useful part

Filmmakers Delilah Napier and Lucy Powers once went on the same first date. They both downloaded Hinge in 2021 and ended up on the same date with the same man, four days apart. Plenty of people would file that under "nightmare date stories" and move on.

How it works

• Floating Carousel, which the duo co-wrote, co-directed, and star in, is a dark comedy about dating in New York after the pandemic.
• Its ensemble includes a gender studies grad student, a professional cuddler, and a sugar baby who won't call herself one, and it includes Jessica Hecht, Dylan Baker, and Catherine Curtin in the cast.
• The film world premiered at the Woodstock Film Festival last October, where it won the fest's Ultra Indie award.
• Napier and Powers were theater studies majors, and their first feature, Voyeur, was their senior thesis, made with $4,000 in student grants.
• The pair served as their own location managers and called in every favor they could.

What to take from it

Because they're filmmakers, they decided to use it. Powers told us they're "definitely the definition of No Film School because we did not go to film school." Floating Carousel is a much bigger swing, with a sprawling cast, a long list of New York locations, and a 21-day shoot on an indie budget.