Prior to her film's premiere at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, writer-director Tracey Hecht found time to answer a few questions about her film and her process for Cinematical. Life in Flight stars Patrick Wilson as a successful architect with the "perfect family" who, after a chance encounter with a young urban designer (Lynn Collins), begins to second guess his entire life. We published our review of Life in Flight this morning, where Joel had the following to say regarding Hecht's direction: "Hecht does a nice job invoking a sense of place in Life in Flight; she must know New York well, because she shows or mentions aspects of it that most visitors just never see, like the birds that fly out over the BQE. The visuals suggest a filmmaker who not only is in love with New York, but insisted on making sure there was no doubt that the film was made there instead of somewhere in Toronto."

Cinematical: You previously said you wanted to make a film about fear. Seeing as this is your feature debut as a director, I imagine making this film brought about a certain fear from within you?

Tracey Hecht: Yes, definitely. But I'm less afraid when I'm doing something than when I'm waiting to do it. So I think the leading up to making the movie was worse for me. Once I was actually in there, I really had a amazing time.

Cinematical: What do you think people are most afraid of these days?

TH: Oh, wow, I have no idea. I imagine that list is long. But I think the trick is to really find and know what it is inside of you that makes you afraid, and not let yourself just project your fears out onto other things.

Life in Flight should prove to any aspiring screenwriter that you don't necessarily have to have an original story in order to get a screenplay made. In the film, which debuted at Tribeca on Sunday, first-time writer / director Tracey Hecht tells the tale of a man who's supposedly living the good life, but it's not the one he wants. And it takes meeting a young, vivacious woman for him to fully realize it.

Heard that story before? Sure you have, probably dozens of times. You've seen it in goofy romantic comedies from The Seven-Year Itch to Joe Versus the Volcano as well as "indie" dramas like Garden State. But good writing and acting always trumps originality of story, and Life in Flight has both, though there's still room for improvement.

I'm sorry (and I don't mean to be rude), but with so many talented, beautiful, undiscovered actresses out there, how in the world does Amy Smart keep landing roles? Her casting in a film reminds me of a baseball trade, where one or two good players will be traded, along with some useless minor league player. Yup, Amy Smart is that minor league player. She's familiar filler, and brings absolutely nothing to the table. Rarely do I go off on an actor like this (face it, what do I do -- I blog for a living), but this girl just gets to me. And I sincerely hope I'm not the only one who realizes this. End rant.

With that said, Smart has been cast opposite Patrick Wilson in the indie drama Life in Flight, written by Tracy Hecht (who will also be making her directorial debut on the film). Pic revolves around an architect (Wilson), his "perfect" wife (Smart) and their cute little son. However, and here's where the plot description gets real lame, "an unexpected meeting with an urban designer (Lynn Collins) reveals the weak foundation upon which his life is built and forces him to reassess his life." See, he's an architect and, well, I'm sure you get the connection.

It will be interesting to see Smart upgrade from girlfriend to wife status, and Wilson seems to be tapping into a little bit of Little Children (talk about another boring performance) with this role, so should I assume this film will put us to sleep within -- say-- the first ten minutes?