The Craigslist ad that brought Taylor Olson and Darla Edin together was pure poetry.
"It said, 'You need to be able to make a monster,' " Edin recalled with a laugh.
Olson, a film director from Andover, and Edin, a makeup artist originally from St. Louis Park, did more than make a monster — they made a movie. "Solitude," filmed on the Olson family land along the Rum River, tells a horror story in six parts, with each segment paying homage to a different moviemaking era.
The movie won the Audience Choice award at the 2014 Twin Cities Film Fest and is being screened Thursday, June 4, at a special event at Pepito's Parkway Theater in Minneapolis. Olson wrote and directed it with a longtime friend, Livingston Oden; Edin supplied the makeup and the monster.
The film screening comes on the heels of a professional landmark for Edin. In April, she was the season winner of "Face Off," a Syfy Channel reality competition for special-effect makeup artists. For beating out 14 other contestants in the weekly elimination series, Edin won $100,000, a new car and a resort vacation.
"It was definitely the most stressful experience I've had," Edin said of the nine-week shoot. "I went in with no expectation of winning. I just wanted to grow as an artist."
Both Edin, 29, and Olson, 26, went down different paths before getting into the movie business.
Olson's love of movies began when he saw "Toy Story" on his seventh birthday. As a child, he started shooting movies with his dad's camera, starring his toys and Lego blocks. He began college in the Twin Cities with the idea of going into radio, then transferred to Full Sail University, a Florida school that specializes in training students for media careers. There, "I was finally around people who loved movies as much as I do," he said.
Shooting his first full-length feature was a more grueling experience than he expected. He and his co-director financed the film themselves, with borrowing, savings and multiple jobs.
"I worked four jobs that summer and only slept four hours a night," Olson said. "I never had more stress and panic attacks. That's probably what started my coffee addiction." But the payoff was worth all the effort.
"When you see people react the way you want them to — or even react in a way that you didn't expect — it feels great," he said.
Edin dropped out of a couple of colleges before enrolling at the Aveda Institute. She loved doing hair, but not the drudgery side of salon work. A friend asked her to do the hair for a photo shoot, and she wound up doing the makeup, too.'
"Something just clicked," she said. Edin enrolled at the Vancouver Film School, spending two years in the city, a popular TV and film location. A school friend had competed on an earlier season of "Face Off," and Edin thought she'd give it a shot.
But Edin won't be practicing her craft in Minnesota much longer. She's taking her winnings and moving to New Orleans, where the TV and movie businesses are booming.
"It's really unfortunate," Edin said. "Growing up, I remember they were always filming movies here."
Olson is planning to stay in the area for the time being; he'll be shooting a web series this summer. Both hope to make their way to Hollywood one day.
It's possible for a director to hit it big with an indie film; the surprising success of "The Blair Witch Project" is perhaps the leading example. But Olson's goal is more down to earth.
"I just wanted to finish," he said. "I've seen so many people start something and not finish."
John Reinan • 612-673-7402
