Making of the Proof of Concept trailer

Making of the Proof of Concept Trailer

Hi everyone! If you’ve been curious about how I made my Proof of Concept trailer, this is the story of how it all came together. It’s kind of wild, honestly, so I hope you enjoy the read.

What Is a Proof of Concept?

Really quick—why do I call it a Proof of Concept?

A proof of concept (POC) is basically a way to show the heart and potential of a story before there’s a big studio backing it. Most trailers do this in some way, but proof-of-concept trailers are often made by indie creators themselves, sometimes with very limited resources. It doesn’t have to be perfect—it just has to prove the story works.

The Push I Needed

I had thought about making a proof of concept for You Fight Like a Girl for a while, but I didn’t have much confidence. I honestly didn’t think anyone would care about the story or want to act in it.

Then one day, a friend I met while working on the iCarly Season 3 reboot (yes—that iCarly, story for another time) messaged me on Instagram.

“Hey Crystal, what are you up to?”“Not much. Just working on this story I’m writing.”“Oh cool—what’s it about?”

So I told him about You Fight Like a Girl. And to my surprise, he immediately encouraged me to make it myself.

I was shocked. How could I possibly make it myself?

That’s when he told me about proof-of-concept trailers. He said it didn’t have to be long—even a few minutes would work—and that he’d gladly help with the fight scenes.

That conversation completely changed everything.

The Casting Call

I got pumped and decided to go for it. I created a casting call on Facebook and made a poster asking if anyone would like to act in the project.

Originally, the poster had my full book blurb on it, but I quickly realized that was too much. I swapped it out for my logline so it would be easier to read—and to my surprise, people were actually interested.

Finding Angel

The very first person I auditioned was Hector Zapata, who played Angel Guerrero. He was genuinely excited about the role and told me how much the story meant to him.

He shared that he’s a gay man and loved seeing a story where men like him were portrayed as strong, emotional, and human. That honestly touched my heart.

I gave him the role immediately. I loved his look, his enthusiasm, and how deeply he connected with the story.

Finding Noah

Finding Patrick, however… was not easy. I’ll circle back to that.

The next actor I found through Facebook was Josh Medina, who plays Noah Gracey. When I auditioned him, I briefly considered him for Patrick, but something about his look screamed Noah to me.

When I asked about his availability, he casually mentioned that he worked as a tour guide at the same major film studio where I work as a security guard.

And I was SHOOK.

We’d both worked there for three years and had somehow never noticed each other. It was surreal. I gave him the role of Noah, and just like Hector, he connected deeply to the story as a queer man. That meant so much to me.

Casting the Women

Unfortunately, I wasn’t finding the other characters I needed through Facebook, so I turned to Actors Access.

That’s where I found Adrianne, who played Stephanie. She was perfect. We even joked about how easy it is to get cast as the “mean girl.” She really understood the role and the story.

The biggest struggle was finding the women for the fight club. A lot of people had to bail due to scheduling conflicts, and I was sweating bullets.

Thankfully, Leticia—who played Hailey—came through and connected me with four other women. I almost cried from relief. One of them even turned out to be another tour guide from the studio I work at!

Finally, Patrick

Back to Patrick.

I had a few guys interested at first, but some bailed once they realized it was a gay role. That part was frustrating—but I kept going.

Then I came across Cooper Lee Freshwater’s headshot. I liked his look and asked him to audition.

One important thing: I only auditioned actors via video calls. I didn’t want self-tapes. I wanted to talk to them directly, give direction, and explain why the story mattered so much to me.

Cooper was fantastic. He was genuinely interested—and he even flew down to California to film the trailer. He’s also the baby of the group at just 21 years old!

Once I secured Cooper, I did a chemistry test with him and Hector, and I loved how they worked together. Slowly but surely, everything started falling into place.

Filming the Trailer

The fight scenes were the toughest part. Most of us didn’t have much experience with choreographed fight scenes, and we barely had two days to rehearse.

Still, we made it work. My fight choreographer was incredible and helped guide us through everything. I’m incredibly proud of what we accomplished with such limited time and resources.

There were also some really sweet moments—like when Cooper was a little nervous about the intimacy between his character and Hector’s. Hector laughed and said he could tell Cooper had never been with a man before.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “I’ll teach you.”

I laughed so hard. Hector grabbed him and hugged him, and it was genuinely adorable 🥰

Hector also helped us secure our cameraman, Luis, who did an amazing job filming the fight scenes. For the dialogue scenes, we filmed on Josh’s iPhone to save on footage since we had so much to shoot.

What’s Next

There’s honestly so much more I could say about making this proof-of-concept trailer. I may do a video breakdown or even a live Q&A at some point.

If that’s something you’d like to see, feel free to email me and let me know 😁