LA GRANDE — It was a subtle but defining gesture, one that Jacob Wysocki, a member of the cast of the movie “Breakup Season” knew he had to make.

Wysocki shaved off his goatee on Saturday, Feb. 25, hours after almost all of the final filming of the film had been completed.

“It was the first time I had shaved in several weeks,” he said.

The step allowed him to move away from his character in the film, one he enjoyed playing but knew he had to separate himself from as he moves forward.

“The lines were becoming blurred,” Wysocki said with a smile at a wrap party for the film’s cast and crew and the public at HQ in La Grande.

Wysocki said at the party that saying goodbye to the movie’s cast and crew would not be easy because everyone had become fast friends. Still, he said he is comforted in knowing the odds are good that the movie’s cast and crew will meet many times in the future. He explained he believes the movie will be successful, increasing the likelihood of reunions.

“We will be seeing each other down the road,” said Wysocki, who is from Los Angeles and has a resume that includes many appearances on shows like the popular “Comedy Bang! Bang!”

H. Nelson Tracey, of Los Angeles, the director of “Breakup Season” and a producer, will now begin the process of editing the film and hopes to have it ready for release in about a year. He wants to give La Grande residents the opportunity to see the film as soon as possible.

“Everyone in La Grande will be given ample opportunity to see the film as soon as it is available,” he said.

The director is looking forward to editing over the next year.

“Most of my career has been in editing so it’s where I am most comfortable and where you can assemble the movie and find the best version of the material created,” he said.

Tracey enjoys much about the film editing process.

“Pairing scenes together, adding music and finding the rhythm is all immensely satisfying and creative. It will be a joy to edit this film,” he said.

The filming of the movie — which is about a college student and his girlfriend splitting up while visiting his family in La Grande during Christmas vacation — got off to a good start due to some inclement weather. Heavy snow hit the La Grande area in early February, providing the movie’s crew the opportunity to get badly needed footage of a snowstorm for the film, said Rafi Jacobs, of Los Angeles, one of the movie’s four producers, along with Stephen Mastrocola, of Los Angeles, Christopher Jennings, of La Grande, and Tracey.

“That was wonderful for us,” Jacobs said.

The crew received a bonus late last week when another storm hit, providing an extra opportunity for storm footage to be shot.

Mother Nature provided a big boost but, more important, so did many members of the community. Tracey and the movie’s producers all credit the community with doing a spectacular job of stepping forward whenever help was needed, sometimes at the eleventh hour. For example, plans called for an airport scene to be filmed at Pendleton Airport, but circumstances at the last minute made this impossible.

Fortunately everything fell in place to allow for the scene to be shot at the La Grande/Union County Airport. Jacobs credits Doug Wright, the director of Union County’s airport and the county’s public works director, with making it possible.

Jacobs said individuals like Wright are among those who made a huge difference in helping the filming of “Breakup Season” go smoothly.

“They made it happen for us,” he said.