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Michael David

Michael David Lynch (left) and actor Joe Burke on the set of "Dependent's Day" in early

(Courtesy)

ANN ARBOR, MI - Early last year, Michael David Lynch hatched the idea for what would become his first feature-length film as an emerging director - the story of a bumbling, wannabe actor and his much more successful girlfriend, trying to make things work in their modern-day romantic relationship.

Lynch, an Ann Arbor native, dubbed his directorial debut "Dependent's Day."

Since its release in March , the film has seen its share of success, nabbing the Audience Award for a Narrative Feature Comedy at the Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose, California, and winning the Best Feature Comedy Film award at the South Dakota Film Festival.

"Dependent's Day," a melange of romance, drama and comedy, was Lynch's way of illuminating a trend he noticed among friends and others in his social sphere: the rise of breadwinning women and, conversely, stay-at-home dads in relationships.

The year-old filmmaker, an alumnus of Huron High School, said he saw a lack of stories portraying this truth and wanted to tell a progressive yet funny story that captured the sort of reality he felt was being missed by other writers and directors.

"I thought there could be a fun twist, a fun way of telling the story, where we can see the breadwinner being the female and the guy kind of struggling, doing different jobs that are traditionally seen as female jobs, like being a babysitter and a secretary," Lynch said.

"In 'Dependent's Day,' all of the power positions (belong to) women, like all of the bosses are women."

That includes the female lead in the film, Alice, played by Benita Robledo.

At the start of the movie, Alice makes 10 times the salary of her boyfriend, Cam, played by Joe Burke.

Burke said working on the film's set with Lynch was a collaborative effort.

"Mike created an environment on set that allowed us to feel like we were truly living in the moment," Burke said. "Not having to be overly-scripted in our approach, he let us remain loose and grounded in making everything feel real and honest."

Lynch describes the movie as funny and heartfelt, adding that shooting it in the early part of last year had the effect of transporting him back to his days as a young filmmaker in Ann Arbor, just trying to get his feet off the ground.

"Making 'Dependent's Day' felt a lot like when I was making movies in Michigan, because I was shooting it myself, because I wrote it myself, because I was editing it myself, producing it myself, directing it myself," he said.

"I would pack up my CR-V with whatever props we needed for the day and whatever camera gear we needed for the day.

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We'd show up on set and have the audio guy there and a bunch of actors, and it was just us in a small, varied group. It was kind of like when I was 17 or 18 in Michigan, when it was just me."

The making of a filmmaker

Lynch said he grew up watching the "Star Wars" films, loving Superman and the general escapism that movies offered.

Once, he brokered a deal with his parents, barring himself from watching television for an entire year as long as they drove him to see a movie at the theater every Saturday.

After graduating from Huron High in , Lynch recalled he would shoot live bands in the Ann Arbor area, record Pioneer High School basketball and hockey games for money and that he worked for some time as a projectionist at the MJR theater in Brighton, all while carrying on the constant side project of making short films.

Though he attended Eastern Michigan University before moving on to an arts school in Chicago at age 21, he said he "stole" his first film class from Washtenaw Community College, sitting in on a friend's class and helping a group of less-than-motivated students get A's on their projects.

"(The professor) even helped write my recommendation letter that got me into Columbia College Chicago," Lynch said.

"And I did all the tests and all the work, but it was my first film class with me basically stealing it."

Fast forward to today and Lynch is now a writer/director/producer living in Los Angeles with numerous credits to his name, including production work on big-name films like "The Dark Knight Rises" and "Transformers 2" and the short student film "Burden" he shot in Chicago where he directed extras, shutting down the city's financial district in the process.

On top of this, he founded the production company We Push Trains in , which claims "Dependent's Day" as the first feature length film it produced all its own.

His second feature film, a documentary titled "Victor Walk" that was released in June , was also produced solely by We Push Trains.

Lynch said he currently has a handful of scripts at the ready, one of which will become his next major project.

"We're excited to see which one might take off first," he said.

"We've got three scripts and you never know which one is going to connect with which investor."

A slight chance remains that he will bring "Dependent's Day" to Ann Arbor for a screening in the near future, but he said there are no guarantees.

Anyone interested in seeing the film otherwise can find it available for purchase through services such as Amazon and iTunes.