Jacob Mariani had long wanted to showcase his grandparents in one of his short films, but feared his time with them was running out.
So he started to write characters based on their personalities — his grandfather goofy and affable and his grandmother as one quick to emotion — and cast the couple in what eventually became the short “Marriage Tools,” which Mariani wrote, directed, shot and edited.
“It was a bit of a strain to come up with an idea but the reason why the film is the story that it is is because I’m trying to build upon the characters they are,” the Searingtown resident and recent Herricks High School graduate said.
This month, Hollywood is going to see Mariani’s grandparents, too.
The eight-minute film has been selected for screening in the HollyShorts Film Festival, which takes place from Aug. 13-22.
“People tell me all the time that they’re such great actors, but they’re playing themselves,” Mariani said of his grandparents, Daniel and Barbara Mariani. “I didn’t have to work them too hard.”
“Marriage Tools” is a comedic depiction of a couple whose matriarch generally ends fights by smacking her husband with a rolling pin, though he’s fully equipped to defend himself.
It debuted to Mariani’s friends and family in March, right around the time Daniel and Barbara celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary.
“It’s pretty much how they are, but very exaggerated, of course,” Mariani said.
The short was hardly Mariani’s first time behind the camera.
A passion for film and photography took hold for Mariani at an early age, he said, as he received his first camera at age four and cites his Teri Mariani, a writer for Good Morning America, and father Vinny Mariani, an editor at Fox 5, as major influences on his work. They even have minor roles in “Marriage Tools.”
At Herricks, Mariani produced more than 50 commercials for the school’s TV Studio Club and crafted two, 10-minute featurettes for his graduating class, which were shown at a senior banquet and prom.
He’s also studied the work of filmmaking legends like Alfred Hitchcock, Woody Allen, Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese, and plans to attend Emerson college in Boston in the fall to study visual and media arts in hopes of someday breaking into the industry.
“At first it was a little cloudy. I originally wanted to be the science doctor guy because I always thought of it as the safe career, and film and art was shaky and insecure, but looking back at my life there were signs of me really being born for this,” he said.
Mariani said he will use his trip to Hollywood to network his way into future film projects, in either commercials, music videos or more short films.
“I do it all,” he said, “I really do.”
