East Hampton - On Thursday, August 25, 2011, Guild Hall screened of "The Art Of Getting By" which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2011. The film, which stars Freddie Highmore who plays George, Emma Roberts who plays Sally, Rita Wilson, Michael Angarano Blair Underwood, and Alicia Silverstone, was written and directed by Gavin Wiesen.

The film takes place in New York City and centers around George, a teen who is putting in the minimum to get by until his world is changed by the friendship he forms with Sally, a girl is his class. George was a loner before meeting Sally, but Sally raises his social standing. Throughout the movie the relationship between George and Sally develops and it is apparent that he romantically likes her but does not believe he is cool enough for her. George faces many hardships throughout the movie and learns that life is hard but it goes on.

Wiesen picked Highmore, who is British to play George to make the film less autobiographical, but Highmore made it seem even more autobiographical for Wiesen. While writing the film he knew that it was not brand new material and the genre was well known, but he wanted to bring in a different aspect. By bringing in Highmore, Wiesen added a great actor who brought an innocent and sheltered quality to make the film stand out from well-known aspects of the genre. The intense chemistry between Roberts and Highmore was due to the similar circumstances of the actors. According to Wiesen, Roberts is similar to her character being the worldly starlet and Highmore the student who was cramming for exams, and fitting filming in during his spring break. It started out with her thinking like Sally, and that she could never picture her and Highmore together because he seemed so young and innocent.

Wiesen started thinking about writing the film shortly after he turned 30. His nostalgia for the time period where youth have so many firsts seemed like a great opportunity to develop characters. He produced his first draft after an eight-week class he took in Los Angeles. Music played in important role in the film and Wiesen said he had about 75 percent of the songs in film written in the script, wanting it to play into the nostalgia the viewer feels.