As owner of BrainAche Productions in Dover, Michael Nicholas writes, casts, directs, edits and builds sets for his short films-and now he's auditioning talent.

"I love that filmmaking involves everything I love," he says.

Nicholas started BrainAche three years ago after taking a video production class at New Hampshire Community Technical College.

"I made half a dozen movies at home, just trying to figure out why home movies didn't look like real movies," he says.

At this point, Nicholas has completed three films, including his most recent effort, Call Me. He is also wrapping up filming for An Inquest, which is based on a short story by Ambrose Bierce, and he has begun pre-production for his newest film, tentatively titled Danny Loves Angie.

"The new film has one location, two actors and five pages of script," he says. "I'm trying to make it as focused as possible, while still retaining the elements of a good story."

Nicholas has posted a casting call for the new film at BrainAche's Web site, www.brainacheproductions.com, where you can also view his films.

Two of Nicholas' films, Loyalty and Decisions, Decisions, were shown at last year's New Hampshire Film Expo, and he has submitted Call Me for this year's Expo in Portsmouth in October.