Luke Barnett on Viral Short Film ‘The Crossing Over Express’

A few years ago, Luke Barnett He heard from his mother — even though she had been dead for 20 years. The actor-filmmaker received a message from an unknown number with a YouTube link to a video his mother made when he was 16, telling him how proud he was of her. This was especially jarring because there weren’t many photos or videos of his mother. It turned out his friend Jon’s father had recently found it on an old VHS tape and posted it online.

“The video really shook me,” Barnett says. “It took me back to the last conversation I had with my mom. She was in the hospital, in a coma, and they took me in one last time.” She was only 17 at the time, and she says it felt more like a confession. “I learned years later when I talked to people that this is a very common thing,” she says. Barnett began to ponder the idea: What would you do if you could have one last conversation with someone you loved? “I thought if I could put that into a story, it could be a feeling that a lot of people could relate to.”

Barnett was right, because the short film inspired by that experience was:Transition Express” received overwhelming support and over half a million views in the first 72 hours since its release. sent this to X.

Barnett plays a man who appears to be some kind of doctor (played by Glee’s Emmy-nominated Dot-Marie Jones). He rides in the back of a big truck and can raise the dead — but only for two minutes. It’s simultaneously sad and funny, a thoughtful meditation on a very personal experience that feels universal at the same time.

Barnett co-wrote and directed the film with his friend Tanner Thomasonthey’ve been involved in a few projects together, perhaps most notably the 2020 film “Faith Based,” which they both starred in and co-wrote with Vincent Masciale. The duo go back a long way. “Before we collaborated on shorts and features, we were working together on weekends, serving drinks at NoBar in North Hollywood,” Thomason says. “I not only know his creative sensibilities, I also know how to order drinks.” Thomason was immediately receptive to the idea when Barnett pitched the story. “It just clicked with me, and I knew right away that it would resonate with him.”

Barnett had never directed before, and initially considered handing the reins over to someone else. “But the story is so personal that I started to picture myself at the monitor, making everyone I asked really uncomfortable,” she admits. She decided to take the plunge with Thomason by her side. “Tanner is one of my best friends and someone I love writing with, so it made sense to ask him to do it with me. He has great instincts and ideas. I also knew that if he thought my performance wasn’t honest, he would tell me.”

The 11-minute short was shot in one day in Los Angeles on “nearly no budget,” according to Barnett, and featured “a skeleton crew of talented friends who did it because they believed in the idea.” Thomason admits that with such a tight time frame and such a personal story, the situation was stressful — “but in the best way possible.” He continues, “You’re not only trying to execute the day and the plan that you both agreed on, but you also want to find a way to give your friend the space and the time to take their performance to the next level.”

“The Crossing Over Express” screened at some film festivals but “it didn’t get into any of the ones that can really change your career,” Barnett says. Short of the Week posted this on YouTubebut the filmmaker really wanted to share it with the world — so it was an unusual release on X. “I woke up the next day to hundreds of messages from people telling me how much the film had touched them,” Barnett says.

And the response just keeps growing — something the duo couldn’t have predicted. “We were hoping for, of course, but you never know,” Barnett says. “I think we knew we were onto something, in terms of it feeling like a broad audience could relate to, but also wanting to bring a little bit of a quirky, dark comedy to it. It can be a tough road to take, and we were a little worried it wouldn’t work. This was my first time directing, so to have directors I’ve admired for years tweeting about it… I’m a little overwhelmed, to be honest.”

“The Crossing Over Express” is being developed as a series proposal to be taken to production companies. While the filmmakers are open to a feature-length idea, he says the response has led him to think it would work better as a series.

Barnett says she started out acting, but stopped in 2012 when she started getting opportunities as a writer. While “Faith Based,” which co-stars Jason Alexander, Margaret Cho and Lance Reddick, has been a bit of a drag during the pandemic, it was her agent, Courtney Petrakis, who she says really believes in her as a well-rounded person. She was encouraged to return to performing and is currently enjoying a recurring role on the Apple TV+ series “For All Mankind.” But, she says, “I believe in creating your own opportunities. I don’t want to wait for someone to cast me. As happy as I am with the roles I’ve been given, I really wanted to show people what I can achieve. I don’t know if I did it and how many casting directors, directors or showrunners have seen the short, only time will tell, but I can say that it’s the proudest moment I’ve ever had from a performance.”

And he still has the video of his mother; she watched the short just before it was released. “Everything that came out of that short, acting-wise, I owe to her and to my friend Jon’s dad, who sent me the movie.”