Wrapped: Notes from My Director's Chair
✨A tiny note before we dive in: some links in this post are affiliate links. If you click and buy, I may earn a small commission. I'd never recommend something I don’t love myself. Now, on to the good stuff! ✨
On our last night at Whispering Pines, I stood teary-eyed on the porch and let myself feel the whole weight of it.
For years, I had been alone with these characters—just me and the world of Amberlight Valley, tucked away inside my own head. I used to wonder if anyone would ever read the books. If anyone would ever watch the films. If this strange, magickal little world that meant so much to me would ever mean something to anyone else.
Behind-the-scenes on the set of The Christmas Witch Movie, phase four.
And then, over four days in a beautiful old Victorian house in my hometown of Pinetop, Arizona, something shifted forever.
This past August, we wrapped filming on The Christmas Witch, and I am still catching my breath.
The Magic of Pivoting
Filmmaking will always hand you hiccups. A location falls through. A scene needs reblocking. The plan you spent months building quietly rearranges itself in front of you.
We had originally planned to shoot a pivotal scene downtown at the card players, but time wasn’t on our side, and we needed a new solution. This is where the magick happens.
Tucked into the Whispering Pines property, I found a beautiful fire pit, and we decided to turn the scene into a bonfire instead. It ended up becoming one of my favorite moments in the entire film—cozy, warm, glowing, and somehow even more Amberlight Valley than the original plan ever would have been.
This really became a bit of a theme throughout the entirety of this production. Every pivot, forced or chosen, seemed to weave its own unexpected thread of magick into the story.
Thresa Richardson as Lady Befana Rathcroghan about to make some magick… but what?
Making It Feel Real
I have to talk a little bit about Thresa Richardson, who played our Lady Befana. She brought this incredible blend of youthful whimsy and centuries-old, quiet wisdom to the role, making the magick lessons feel completely real for the younger characters in the story. Watching her work felt like watching a character step fully formed right off the page. Stay tuned for more about Lady Befana and Thresa’s magick here on the blog.
There was another scene—a special one I’ll keep a little mysterious for now because I don’t want to spoil it—where two of our characters share a devastating goodbye.
I knew the scene was emotional. I did not expect the entire set to feel it the way they did.
Nearly everyone was in tears, myself included.
It was overwhelming in the best possible way, and it gave me this strange, quiet confidence in myself as a writer. These were words I had once written alone, probably sitting somewhere with my laptop, existing only in my imagination. And now, brought to life by our cast, those same words could move an entire room of people to feel something that deeply.
I don’t think I’ll ever forget what that felt like.
Kyra Crespin, Bernie Tarin, and some weird lady on set (It’s me. I’m the weird lady.)
Life Behind the Scenes
Filmmaking is not all tears and firelight.
It can also be deeply, wonderfully, and whimsically silly.
On day one, I showed up ready to disappear into the work.
By day two, I had pulled out an affirmation card deck a dear friend, Holly, had given me called Affirmations for a Badass. I had each member of our cast and crew pull a card and read it aloud. It became this tiny ritual that somehow boosted morale every single time.
On day three of phase four, I brought teeny 3D-printed animal trinkets for everyone to choose from—tiny tokens of the strange, wonderful world we were building together.
And on day four, our last day, I brought a big spread of witchy stickers so everyone could pick their favorites as we began saying our goodbyes.
Somewhere in the midst of all of this, I also alchemized myself into a bit of a ghost. I spent a surprising amount of time hidden just out of frame, working the practical magick: closing doors on their own, moving objects, making a broom drift mysteriously across a room.
The cast and crew started calling me Doorlea, Floorlea, and Broomlea, depending on where I was or which invisible force I happened to be operating at the time.
I loved it more than I thought I would.
There was something strangely poetic about hiding just beyond the camera and making the magick happen. Because, in a way, that was what I had been doing all along. Before Amberlight Valley had actors and costumes and locations and cameras and glowing bonfires, it was just an idea inside my mind.
And now I was watching everyone else believe in the magick too.
Dalea Faulkner, Brooklyn Summer, Jayde Martinez, Paige Freeman Hoover, Thresa Richardson, and Jeff Reynolds on set of The Christmas Witch Movie.
What I Am Taking With Me
Asking for what I need and trusting other people with my vision has never come easily to me.
But somewhere across the course of filming this feature, that began to change.
I found myself becoming more hands-off unless I was truly needed. I let my actors feel a scene the way they needed to feel it. I trusted each department to bring their own expertise and creativity into the room.
Early in my directing journey, I made the conscious decision to trust my team enough to step back and let them shine—even when doing so felt scary or difficult for me.
And they did. Of course they did.
That trust changed something in me, not just as a director, but as a person.
It has nudged me toward asking for what I want and need in the rest of my life, too. Toward understanding that trusting other people with something precious doesn’t make it any less mine. Sometimes, it allows that thing to become bigger, richer, and more beautiful than I ever could have made it alone.
I could not have made this film without every single person who showed up for it—from the very beginning of this story’s life to the very last witchy sticker handed out on set.
Energy matters so much in a creative space like this, and I am endlessly grateful for the energy this cast and crew brought with them every single day, through every phase of production.
For years, I was alone with these characters. They lived in my head. Then they lived on the page. And now I know what it feels like to stand inside their world, watching them come alive, surrounded by people who helped me believe in it.
Maybe that is one of the strangest and most beautiful things about making art: you begin by creating something alone, never knowing whether anyone else will see what you see.
And then, if you’re lucky, one day you look around and realize— you aren’t imagining it alone anymore.
Keep making your own magick.
It matters.
Dalea Faulkner is an author, filmmaker, and creative living in the White Mountains of Arizona. Her Amberlight Valley trilogy is available now. Her world is always, in some way, the mountains.
🕯️ Wander into Amberlight and beyond—sign up for updates, secrets, and the occasional enchanted surprise.
This free course is for aspiring (and seasoned) writers who are ready to move from dreaming to doing. Whether you're just starting your story or finally finishing that manuscript, these bite-sized lessons will help you clarify your vision, set goals, and start writing with confidence.
