Full Sail - Brian Cavanaugh: Piecing Together Pandora's Box

Full Sail Film grad Brian Cavanaugh was editor and executive producer for the sexually charged psychological thriller, Pandora's Box. The Columbia Tristar film revolves around a young professional woman being manipulated by her scam artist husband, his partner, and the husband's girlfriend. The wife is set to inherit millions and they all want a cut. Things go wrong when the partner not only falls for the wife, but also learns the husband is lying about the amount of money at stake. "I tried to keep in tune with where I thought the director was going," says Cavanaugh, "that this was the wife's story, things happened from her perspective, the audience has a connection with her."

Pandora's Box received critical praise during its theatrical run, and Brian is proud of the way it turned out. "It's the best project I've worked on in my short career. Some films you look back on and think 'it's okay, but I did it just because I had no better offers at the time.' But this film had a very good look, good script, good cast and acting, ... and [it's] something I'm proud to show as an example of my work."

Full Sail provided the training Brian needed to propel him into "a business I love," he says. "I'm grateful, considering that I fall into the extraordinarily small percentage of people on this planet who ... live in the United States, completed higher education, and work in a career they love, the film industry in Hollywood. You have to admit that's a pretty select few."

But making the dream come true takes patience and hard work. "It's more difficult to make it in the Hollywood film industry than in other careers," Cavanaugh observes. "Keep focused on your career goals. You have to be more persistent than you can imagine. But if you are, and you have the key components to surviving in this business, things will eventually happen for you."