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Date: 10/24/2018
WILBRAHAM – A Wilbraham resident, Layla O’Shea, has found a profound way to turn her passion of screenwriting into a way to raise awareness for a pressing issue in today’s society. At a young age, O’Shea, was faced with an unimaginable situation- a classmate disclosed to her their thoughts of suicide. O’Shea handled the situation with bravery, by calling the classmates parents and making them aware of the risk their child was in. Thirty years later, that frightening incident has left a large impact on O’Shea’s life. This is what prompted her to write the script for her film, “Just Say Goodbye.”
The film follows the story of a suicidal teenager named Jesse, and his best friend Sarah’s battle to save his life. O’Shea wrote the final script for the film in 2012. She let her daughter and her friends read what she had written, one of the friends, Matt Walting, later approached O’Shea commenting that the script had moved him to tears and he thought she had something amazing on her hands. Two and a half years later Walting, who was 15 at the time, called O’Shea asking her to get coffee to talk about “Just Say Goodbye” again. Walting told O’Shea he wanted to take the film on and with her help, direct it and turn it into something real. They both agreed that this film had a story line and message that people needed to see.
After that meeting, the project was officially underway. The team started with fundraising on Indiegogo and Go Fund Me. By using these outlets, they were able to raise enough money to have the equipment and the actors needed to make this a professional film.
Finally in 2017 their hard work paid off, the movie was released. Since then, the film has gained an extensive following and touched the lives of many who can relate to the film’s powerful message. “Just Say Goodbye” was recently awarded the first annual Unify Against Bullying Grant. O’Shea commented that she couldn’t be more proud of where the film has gone.
“This movie is a real passion,” she said.
Since “Just Say Goodbye” wrapped up, Walting is now a student at Emerson College in Boston, pursuing his passion for directing. O’Shea has recently finished her final edit for a mystery novel she started working on years ago.
In a recent survey conducted by The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, suicide is the second leading cause of death for ages 10-24 and each Year 44,965 Americans die by suicide. If interested in helping to raise awareness for suicide prevention and spreading the message “Just Say Goodbye” offers, Walting and O’Shea are raising money on Go Fund Me at https://www.gofundme.com/just-say-goodbye.