Charlie Batista and Sabian Orazi are lifelong friends who started making movies together in middle school. Starting with short films for their friends, the pair started their own Youtube channel where these shorts gained traction and support from new fans. They now create feature length films under their production company Bad Eggs (@badeggs.official on Instagram), with ambitions to produce films for other creators in the future.
Speaking on how he first heard about the resources available at the Melrose Center, Batista said, “I learned about it through my uncle. He was like, ‘you should check out the Melrose Center at the public library, they have this green screen and editing bays.’”
Batista started taking film production classes at the library when he was 12 and has continued to take classes at the Melrose Center, most recently learning Davinci Resolve color and editing classes with video production instructor Anthony T.; skills that allowed him to color grade their newest movie, Sorry Our Film Broke the Universe. When Batista and Orazi decided to release a Blu-ray disc for the film, they quickly realized the technology and experts in the Makerspace at the Melrose Center could help give their product a professional-quality finish.
“When it came to the Blu-ray, it was a whole trial and error process,” Batista said. “We know nothing about the technical details of printing. We had folks over in the Makerspace, Sky most notably, right by our side making these. We were able to use the printers in the Makerspace to print out the art for the discs and the quality came out great.” “It’s nice seeing people take an interest in what we’re doing and being so willing to help,” said Orazi. “I felt very much like they were on our team.”
Orazi continued, “I think people who really like to do creative things, whether its movies or artwork or editing, don’t have the courage to do those things because they think they lack the resources. The Melrose Center provides most of everything that people say they don’t have. It’s totally free to take a class and and it helps with anything creative you’re working on.”
You can catch Charlie and Sabian in the May 2026 issue of Books & Beyond. You can also learn more about other library users that take advantage of OCLS resources to support their small business endeavors on the OCLS Blog.
