While at L.A.’s Occidental College, Raiff tweeted at the elder Duplass, Jay, a link to a homespun movie he made with two college friends, writing, “I bet you won’t click on this link and then email me after.” Less than 24 hours later, he received an email.
Using that movie as a creative jumping-off point, the 24-year-old Dallas native dropped out of school in his junior year to film Shithouse, a microbudget indie that Raiff wrote, directed, produced and starred in. With the guiding hand of the elder Duplass, he shot the movie guerrilla-style in and around the East L.A. neighborhoods Eagle Rock and Highland Park. At one point, Amy Landecker, who plays Raiff’s onscreen mother, asked the filmmaker if the kids playing in the park where they were filming…