A bathroom mirror becomes the stage for a mental battle in Self-Reflecting, a short film written and directed by Tulsa’s Lucas J. Jackson. The 4-minute film follows a young man coping with a panic attack and confronting a version of himself—his intrusive thoughts personified in the reflection.
Shot in just six days during the 2024 Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute (OSAI) at Quartz Mountain, the project turned a deeply personal experience into a powerful piece of storytelling.
Jackson said he wrote the script during a summer of emotional turbulence after graduating from high school, drawing from feelings of isolation and the need to process them through art. The result was a script he describes as a manifestation of everything swirling in his head at the time.
Creative Collaboration at Quartz Mountain
Jackson wasn’t alone in bringing Self-Reflecting to life. The film was created with the help of cinematographer and assistant director Will Renner of Broken Arrow, and actor Griffin Edge of Oklahoma City. Together, the trio faced significant scheduling hurdles—Jackson and Renner were enrolled in OSAI’s Film and Video discipline, while Edge was part of the Acting discipline. Their class times conflicted, leaving only lunch breaks and late nights to film…