Most have heard the passage on the attributes of love from 1 Corinthians 13 a time or two.

"Love is patient, love is kind," the passage starts. "It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always preserves. Love never fails."

Dan Steadman, writer and director of the locally shot film "Love Chronicles (of the Cape)" said his movie had basis in a so often cliché-seeming selection. And his own love story was in there, too. All writers write from their experiences, he explained, and he had fallen in love.

His film isn't strictly focused on romantic love, although that's part of it. Rather he's telling that love can come in all different shapes and sizes and disguises, that love, in some form, is necessary to the human condition. Love's broad connotation makes it such a driving force of inquiry.

"You know, you hear those [verses] in every wedding. That's kind of the framework for what this documentarian is doing -- she's showing how love is those things found in those two verses," Steadman said. "... Romantic love is in there, but no, children are talking about the love of their pets, teenagers are talking about the love of their first job. Love is such a broad subject, it's really hard, there's an endless number of stories."

The storyline follows a female documentarian, played by Jessica Ambuehl, who comes to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, to make a documentary about love. Most scenes, around two-thirds, were scripted, but some of the stories they found were authentic accounts of any one individual's description of love. He said think of it like the small vignettes from "When Harry Met Sally," only there's around 80 of them.

"Because it's a mockumentary, it really allows for spontaneity," Steadman said. "And that's kind of what you want it to look like because the movie is about a woman making a movie, in other words the camera is kind of the character in the film, the GoPro camera we used. So it needed to look like somebody who was working on the fly, interviewing people about love for her job assignment she had."

Steadman said he had never shot a feature film so quickly. With 101 speaking roles and just three days of filming, he joked that male lead Chris Murphy called it "adventurous filmmaking." His movie has variety, to say the least. The stories range through everything from cheesy comic book writers who are trying to make the world a better place with their work to "redheaded rednecks" who love their mother to portraying the incomparable love between siblings. Steadman looked at actions inherent to human nature -- they're not earth-shattering life happenings, but they all still have a point.

"I like to explore the mundane minutia of life," Steadman said. "My films don't usually have big events in them, life and death events in other words. I'm much more fascinated by the minutia of life."

Steadman wanted to tell that love is patient and kind and that it isn't proud or it doesn't rot in jealousy, that it's touching and there are beautiful moments, but he wanted to convey one more aspect too -- that love is funny.

"It's very weird to hear an 8-year-old girl talk about the boy she's dating, but that happened in the movie," Steadman said, laughing.

Lindsey Johnston is a graduate student at Southeast Missouri State University and played a part in a scene Steadman wrote about a Christian singles group for women over the age of 40. He called them the S.W.A.T. group, or Singles With A Testimony, and said it was actually the real name of a group he came across online. He couldn't keep a straight face the first time he found it, and it was perfect for his Christopher Guest-styled comedy.

"It was several women together in a women's group where we meet weekly and everything, and then this man shows up," Johnston said. "So it's just kind of funny with us all being single and liking the guy that shows up."

She acknowledged Steadman's vision to capture candid detail. Johnston said he directed them to not be afraid to use the props and the surrounding environment as if there wasn't a camera rolling.

"I enjoy little human behavior, so I want an actor to constantly, you know, rub their eyes and scratch their ears and fix their hair, even gross things like blow their nose on camera," Steadman said. "Whatever it is, I want all that little gross human behavior that seems real to people because it is real. So the biggest challenge I always have is trying to get people to act messier. In other words, try not to look so polished."

That's where the comedy comes in.

Johnston stumbled on the opportunity to audition for Steadman's film as a member of the "Gone Girl Filming in Cape Girardeau" Facebook group. She helped out on the set of "Gone Girl" and it reintroduced her interest in acting. She said the group still tries to stay in contact and if there are any nearby acting opportunities, they are posted to the page. All but the main two actors in the film were local.

Johnston is studying school counseling as a graduate student. She likes the slight polarity, though, in that she's required to stray away from her comfort zone through an acting hobby.

"Especially with counseling, we're genuine, authentic selves," Johnston said. "So kind of stepping outside of that and being somebody else is really interesting."

Editing lies ahead for Steadman until the movie's release in the spring. He said what's next on the editing agenda is always somewhat of a surprise as a result of the amount of footage accumulated over only three days. The filming process seems like a blur looking back, like "when you accidentally take a picture with your camera around your neck."

"I kind of don't allow myself to look ahead," Steadman said. "So I just edit the scene I'm on and then I turn the page of my script to find out what's next. You know, every morning it's a new little surprise."