{"id":1182366,"date":"2025-11-25T12:11:02","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T20:11:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/?p=1182366"},"modified":"2025-12-04T09:25:28","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T17:25:28","slug":"poreless-harris-doran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/poreless-harris-doran\/","title":{"rendered":"How We Made &#8216;Poreless,&#8217; a Story About Beauty, Authenticity, and &#8216;the Diversity Slot&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"iframe-container\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Poreless | Live-Action Short | Switchboard Shorts (2025)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lmiDLR3FT54?start=60&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br><em>&#8220;Poreless&#8221; is the story of a fabulous, queer Muslim beauty entrepreneur who must figure out how to compete in a <\/em>Shark Tank<em>-like product pitch contest after suffering an untimely allergic reaction. <\/em>You can watch it above via Switchboard Magazine. <em>And in the piece below, director Harris Doran, who wrote the short with Fawzia Mirza, recounts the making of the short film<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u200b\u200b\u201cBad news. Amazon said the fuchsia chairs would be delivered tomorrow but now they won\u2019t be coming until two days after we shoot that scene.\u201d These were the words I heard my production designer Rashi Jain say when she had to let me down about my vision for the opening scene with fuchsia chairs in a white space. Rashi and I held hands and dove into the internet until 3am trying to find pink chairs in NYC, which we found quickly somehow did not exist. But she figured out getting pink into the throw pillows, before magically changing the white curtains to blue.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m not really sure how she was able to create the constant magic she did, but this was the experience of the entire shoot \u2014 starting with a vision and then trusting your collaborators to take ownership of their part of the vision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let me take it back.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It all started with Akbar Hamid, He had been a success in PR, helping to tell other people\u2019s stories, while secretly wanting to be an actor and tell stories himself. He had a vision and revealed this to Fawzia Mirza, a successful filmmaker who I have been friends with for years. She knew that I have coached actors over the years and she suggested Akbar and I work together.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first time I met Akbar, I was struck by how he was a total fashion plate \u2014 handsome, impeccably dressed, and with a bright personality. I gave him some sides to read and he instantly leaped off the page. A natural with great comedic timing. I was like, \u201cyou could be the Pakistani Dan Levy,\u201d and he smiled joyfully.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because Akbar has such a unique and delightful personality, I wanted to avoid spoiling that with him getting too in his head with formal acting lessons, so I said \u2014 \u201cYou are ready. You should just start. You should make a short film.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He and Fawzia decided to make a short film together, but Akbar kept suggesting very heavy dramas. And Fawzia was like, \u201cyou\u2019re funny. Lead with funny.\u201d Akbar ended up suggesting an idea that happened to be an idea that I already wrote, and I said, \u201cI will write something else for you guys to make together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This led to Fawzia and I brainstorming. I&#8217;d had success with my short film &#8220;F^\u00a2K &#8216;\u20acM R!GHT B@\u00a2K&#8221; that premiered at Sundance a few years ago, which was inspired by the real life of DDm, the lead actor, and I thought that approach might be a good one here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fawzia and I both have similar silly senses of humor so we started riffing \u2014 beauty, fashion, identity. Fawzia had an idea of identical gay Muslim triplets, and I love classic farce, so I suggested he be hiding something \u2014 which is how the allergic rash plot came about. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-medium_large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"788\" height=\"443\" src=\"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/large_Poreless-Clean-16x9-01-788x443.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1182370\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/large_Poreless-Clean-16x9-01-788x443.png 788w, https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/large_Poreless-Clean-16x9-01-428x241.png 428w, https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/large_Poreless-Clean-16x9-01.png 980w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 788px) 100vw, 788px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Akbar Hamid and Diane Guerrero in &#8220;Poreless.&#8221; <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/switchboard-magazine-celia-aniskovich\/\">Switchboard Magazine<em>.<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>It was fun, but I thought it needed to be about something deeper to ground the comedy and I suggested the scarcity that people of color sometimes feel about getting that one \u201cdiversity slot.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Akbar, who had never produced a movie before, got to work \u2014 and if you want to see a human set a goal and achieve it, spend five minutes with him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fawzia and I had decided that whoever was available to direct at the time would direct, and as she was on a whirlwind tour of her fantastic feature <em>Queen of My Dreams<\/em>, I was the one available to direct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We brought on the wonderful Rabia Sultana to help produce.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In order to nail the specific comedic tone, we needed the visuals support it. We all pooled our resources to bring on the best people we could. Rabia brought Rashi as well as the amazing Bill Kirstein to shoot the film, who was just coming off being the cinematographer of the <em>Mean Girls<\/em> musical movie. He used camera movement create the heightened tone. Allison Calhoun brought the high fashion looks and Andrew Sotomayor the chic makeup.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We needed a cast that would be able to nail the comedic tone: Diane Guerrero through Akbar, Parvesh Cheena though Fawzia, Allyce Beasely, Lucy Owen, Sophie von Haselberg through me, Henry Russell Bergstein, our casting director, brought on Gia Crovatin, and Sureni Weerasekera was the only person we auditioned. She was so perfect that Fawzia and I offered her the role in the room.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the main issues we faced was how to do the \u201cglow up\u201d where the \u201cPoreless\u201d product really works \u2014 and so we had a group meeting including Bill, Andrew, and Jeff Kyle, who was our colorist and also did the VFX. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We went through all kinds of ideas like the camera diving into one of Akbar\u2019s pores and seeing some kind of cartoon inside the pore, but we realized we don\u2019t have the budget for those shenanigans, so went with a push in, where when you when pull out the person\u2019s face would be glowing \u2014 Andrew added shimmer and lashes, and Jeff gave an extra glow in post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another issue was the face rash. Andrew did all sorts of tests. I was advised that the rash might be time consuming if it melts off and has to be reapplied. Fawzia and I had already put masks in the script, so I ended up adding masks throughout a chunk of the movie to avoid the makeup melt mess. This ended up being an asset to the film as there are a zillion masks!&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s been a wild wide. And has been a pleasure to see audiences falling for Akbar the way Fawzia and I hoped they would. We ended up having our NY premiere at Tribeca and now here we are Oscar qualified. It started with Akbar having a dream and then one by one each person has added to that dream to make one big silly (with something to say) movie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Main image: Akbar Hamid in &#8220;Poreless.&#8221; <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.switchboardmagazine.com\/shorts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Switchboard Magazine.<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#8220;Poreless&#8221; is the story of a fabulous, queer Muslim beauty entrepreneur who must figure out how to compete in a","protected":false},"author":1940,"featured_media":1182368,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"disable_comments":false,"cm_data":"","cpt_newsletter_id":0,"tpd_coauthor":[],"tpd_feed_delay":{"delay_type":"default"},"is_tpd_lists_single_post":false,"tpd_featured_posts_arr":"","tpd_franchise_content":"","hide_featured_img_single_post":false,"msn_featured_video":[],"_msn_custom_title":"","tpd_featured_video":[],"tpd_sponsored_post_logo":"","tpd_sponsored_post_logo_link":"","tpd_sponsored_post_logo_width":0,"tpd_sponsored_enable_nofollow":true,"tpd_disable_incontent_ads":false,"tpd_disable_right_rail_ads":false,"tpd_disable_after_content_ads":false,"tpd_disable_header_ads":false,"tpd_disable_sticky_footer_ads":false,"tpd_disable_video_ads":false,"tpd_disable_outbrain":false,"tpd_affiliate_disclaimer":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[38184,42077],"tags":[],"coauthor":[],"feeds":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1182366","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-first-person","8":"category-no-msn"},"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/full_Poreless-Clean-16x9-03-428x241.png","fimg_url_thumb":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/full_Poreless-Clean-16x9-03-428x241.png","fimg_url":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/full_Poreless-Clean-16x9-03-788x444.png","author_name":"Harris Doran","author_avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/39d2e71dafcf1310a1626098bcf8b44913b8bb0f6fb04c5b59319ad76d4d9f58?s=96&#038;d=mm&#038;r=g","author_link":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/author\/harris-doran\/","coauthors":[],"primary_category":{"term_id":38184,"name":"First Person","slug":"first-person","taxonomy":"category","url":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/category\/first-person\/"},"featured_img_medium":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/full_Poreless-Clean-16x9-03-788x444.png","post_categories":["First Person"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1182366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1940"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1182366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1182366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1182368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1182366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1182366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1182366"},{"taxonomy":"coauthor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthor?post=1182366"},{"taxonomy":"feeds","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feeds?post=1182366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}