Brown's Canyon
Seattle, Washington | Film Feature
Comedy, Drama
When a mindfulness retreat goes awry, two self-help gurus and their friends are stuck in a remote house, facing a tangle of love, friendship, failure and desire. We've got all our footage, all we need now is your help to finish the movie! (produced by BASH Theatre, a 501c3 nonprofit)
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This campaign raised $25,000 for post-production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
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When a mindfulness retreat goes awry, two self-help gurus and their friends are stuck in a remote house, facing a tangle of love, friendship, failure and desire. We've got all our footage, all we need now is your help to finish the movie! (produced by BASH Theatre, a 501c3 nonprofit)
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
The Story
The three of us – Lisa, Jenn, and John – love working together and we’ve teamed up to make a new feature film with Seattle talent called BROWN’S CANYON. Lisa and Jenn are seasoned actors who also produce through BASH Theatre, and John is an independent director, screenwriter and editor. In 2014, John made an indie feature – developed through improvisation with the actors, and shot in the neighborhoods of Seattle – called PHOEBE’S FATHER, which premiered last month at the NYC Independent Film Festival.
Soon after PHOEBE’S was finished, Lisa and Jenn proposed a new idea: let’s do another movie, also created through improvisation, and let’s shoot entirely in one house in the Utah mountains. We were off and running.
We couldn’t wait to dive back into this process, and to create a new story together from the ground up. We brought on three more actors – Sara Thiessen, Carter Rodriquez, and Eric Jordan – and started work in the fall of 2014. For several months, the five actors and John met several times a week as we evolved the backstory and relationships of the characters. Come January, we moved into the scripting phase, and began finding our talented crew, including cinematographer Ryan McMackin.
We started shooting February 20, with cast and crew living and working together 24/7. We picked our team well – everyone worked together great, solving problems collaboratively, and we got all our footage in ten days of shooting!
The story we discovered is this: two self-help gurus set out to host a women’s retreat at a remote mountain home. When one of their husbands and his ski bum friend show up, things start to fall apart – the road washes out and the motley group of friends is trapped. A secret emerges and resentments surface, as they spend a weekend pulling apart a tangle of love, friendship, failure and desire. At the core, Brown’s Canyon is about these characters coming to terms with how life hasn’t turned out like they’d planned, and having to navigate a new reality. These are ideas we've loved digging into, and think audiences will too.
We love movies about real-life characters in situations we all relate to; but it’s all too rare to see this kind of work in movies these days. We think the process we’ve built up is the best way to achieve these kinds of stories and performances. We want to keep making these movies with a network of talented actors and committed crew. It’s like a repertory company for cinema – with a mission to create honest, funny, compelling stories about what it is to be human.
We’re asking for your help now to cross the finish line on BROWN’S CANYON post-production – to complete the edit, compose music, mix the audio, and color correction. All these pieces cost money and they’re essential to turning our footage into a movie, a story you can experience in the theater or at home.
Bash Theatre, the producing partner for BROWN'S CANYON, is a 501 (C) (3) non-profit and as such all donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
Tax ID # 61-1505951
Thanks so much for joining with us in this last push to complete BROWN’S CANYON!
Your love and support mean the world to us.
- Lisa, Jenn, and John
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Editor
Costs $5,000
We'll finish our cut, and then fine tune the story to make the best movie possible!
Re-recording Editor/Dubbing Mixer
Costs $8,000
Music, dialog and sound fx come together to make the story sing!
Music
Costs $5,000
Our composer will write original music, and we'll license songs for the final soundtrack.
Colorist
Costs $5,000
The colorist finesses the look of the movie and makes all the shots match seamlessly.
DCP Creation
Costs $1,500
Mastering the final film to DCP makes it possible us to screen the film at festivals and theaters!
DVD/Blu-ray
Costs $500
Mastering and creating DVDs of the final film make it possible for us to submit to festivals and screen for distributors.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
John Helde (director) is an award-winning director and writer of documentaries, feature films and commercials, and the founder of Try This Films, a production company based in Seattle. John’s first feature documentary, Made in China, played the festival circuit to critical acclaim, and debuted on the Documentary Channel. John’s short films include HELLO, starring Eric Stoltz and Susanna Thompson; his most recent documentary, Field Work: A Family Farm, has been seen on the festival circuit and public television. His new feature film, PHOEBE’S FATHER, shot entirely in Seattle, premiered at the NYC Independent Film Festival in October 2015.
Lisa Every (producer/cast) is a founding member of BASH Theatre. She studied locally at Freehold Theatre and previously at Rice University where she had the privilege of working and studying with in-residence members of the Royal Shakespeare Company. In Seattle, Lisa has performed with REACT Theatre Company, Centerstage, Second Story Rep, Art Attack and BASH (formerly The Community Theatre). Favorite productions include As You Like It, Fool for Love, Sylvia and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Most recently Lisa played Lisa in Beating Up Bachman, a co-production with Radial Theater written by Gregory Award winning local playwright Wayne Rawley.
Jenn Ruzumna (producer/cast) is a founding member of BASH Theatre and has produced and acted in many of their shows. Favorite BASH roles include A Kind of Alaska, Autobahn and Beating Up Bachman. Jenn received her BA in Performing Arts from UPS. Following college, she performed at Tacoma Actors Guild, The Chac, Woodinville Rep and others. In the past couple of years, Jenn has busy with film work including Brown’s Canyon and The Wish Fish, both completed this year.
Eric Jordan (cast) has appeared in numerous roles in New York and Seattle and was a founding member of Sight Nine Theatre and the improv troupe Elastic Picnic; favorite roles include Cot in Hotel Paradiso, Charlie in Speed the Plow and Yvan in Art. His original solo show, An Evening with Chuck, was featured in venues around Seattle. He has performed as a principal in various short films and, since recently rededicating himself to film, has written two screenplays and played a principal role in the feature Phoebe’s Father. He received his MFA from Sarah Lawrence College.
Carter Rodriquez (cast) is an actor, musician, and visual artist. He was last seen onstage as Astrov in Akropolis Performance Lab’s production of Uncle Vanya. He has performed with The Collision Project, Pony World Theatre (company member), Seattle Shakespeare Co., Wooden O, Book-It Repertory Theatre, BASH Theatre, Theatre Schmeater, Capitol Hill Arts Center, 14/48, Café Nordo, NW New Works Festival, 12 Minutes Max, The Freehold Engaged Theatre Tour, and others. Film and TV credits include Singles, Police Beat, Manchego!, and Grimm. He teaches for Freehold Theatre’s Prison Residency Program and is a founding member of the critically acclaimed comedy trio, Le Frenchword.
Sara Rucker Thiessen (cast) played the role of Mrs. Trucker in Wayne Rawley’s Seattle premier of Beating Up Bachman, which was produced at West of Lenin in the winter of 2013 by BASH Theatre. Sara was part of Freehold Theatre Lab’s Ensemble Intensive Training program during the 2005-2006 academic year where she worked with George Lewis, Robin Lynn Smith and John Abramson. Sara has been part of an Olympia based Playback Theatre Ensemble for 16 years, The Heartsparkle Players, performing for hundreds of organizations and communities around the Puget Sound. When not on stage Sara likes writing short stories and monologues. Sara is moving into film work and loved working on Brown's Canyon with Seattle director John Helde.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
The Story
The three of us – Lisa, Jenn, and John – love working together and we’ve teamed up to make a new feature film with Seattle talent called BROWN’S CANYON. Lisa and Jenn are seasoned actors who also produce through BASH Theatre, and John is an independent director, screenwriter and editor. In 2014, John made an indie feature – developed through improvisation with the actors, and shot in the neighborhoods of Seattle – called PHOEBE’S FATHER, which premiered last month at the NYC Independent Film Festival.
Soon after PHOEBE’S was finished, Lisa and Jenn proposed a new idea: let’s do another movie, also created through improvisation, and let’s shoot entirely in one house in the Utah mountains. We were off and running.
We couldn’t wait to dive back into this process, and to create a new story together from the ground up. We brought on three more actors – Sara Thiessen, Carter Rodriquez, and Eric Jordan – and started work in the fall of 2014. For several months, the five actors and John met several times a week as we evolved the backstory and relationships of the characters. Come January, we moved into the scripting phase, and began finding our talented crew, including cinematographer Ryan McMackin.
We started shooting February 20, with cast and crew living and working together 24/7. We picked our team well – everyone worked together great, solving problems collaboratively, and we got all our footage in ten days of shooting!
The story we discovered is this: two self-help gurus set out to host a women’s retreat at a remote mountain home. When one of their husbands and his ski bum friend show up, things start to fall apart – the road washes out and the motley group of friends is trapped. A secret emerges and resentments surface, as they spend a weekend pulling apart a tangle of love, friendship, failure and desire. At the core, Brown’s Canyon is about these characters coming to terms with how life hasn’t turned out like they’d planned, and having to navigate a new reality. These are ideas we've loved digging into, and think audiences will too.
We love movies about real-life characters in situations we all relate to; but it’s all too rare to see this kind of work in movies these days. We think the process we’ve built up is the best way to achieve these kinds of stories and performances. We want to keep making these movies with a network of talented actors and committed crew. It’s like a repertory company for cinema – with a mission to create honest, funny, compelling stories about what it is to be human.
We’re asking for your help now to cross the finish line on BROWN’S CANYON post-production – to complete the edit, compose music, mix the audio, and color correction. All these pieces cost money and they’re essential to turning our footage into a movie, a story you can experience in the theater or at home.
Bash Theatre, the producing partner for BROWN'S CANYON, is a 501 (C) (3) non-profit and as such all donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
Tax ID # 61-1505951
Thanks so much for joining with us in this last push to complete BROWN’S CANYON!
Your love and support mean the world to us.
- Lisa, Jenn, and John
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Editor
Costs $5,000
We'll finish our cut, and then fine tune the story to make the best movie possible!
Re-recording Editor/Dubbing Mixer
Costs $8,000
Music, dialog and sound fx come together to make the story sing!
Music
Costs $5,000
Our composer will write original music, and we'll license songs for the final soundtrack.
Colorist
Costs $5,000
The colorist finesses the look of the movie and makes all the shots match seamlessly.
DCP Creation
Costs $1,500
Mastering the final film to DCP makes it possible us to screen the film at festivals and theaters!
DVD/Blu-ray
Costs $500
Mastering and creating DVDs of the final film make it possible for us to submit to festivals and screen for distributors.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
John Helde (director) is an award-winning director and writer of documentaries, feature films and commercials, and the founder of Try This Films, a production company based in Seattle. John’s first feature documentary, Made in China, played the festival circuit to critical acclaim, and debuted on the Documentary Channel. John’s short films include HELLO, starring Eric Stoltz and Susanna Thompson; his most recent documentary, Field Work: A Family Farm, has been seen on the festival circuit and public television. His new feature film, PHOEBE’S FATHER, shot entirely in Seattle, premiered at the NYC Independent Film Festival in October 2015.
Lisa Every (producer/cast) is a founding member of BASH Theatre. She studied locally at Freehold Theatre and previously at Rice University where she had the privilege of working and studying with in-residence members of the Royal Shakespeare Company. In Seattle, Lisa has performed with REACT Theatre Company, Centerstage, Second Story Rep, Art Attack and BASH (formerly The Community Theatre). Favorite productions include As You Like It, Fool for Love, Sylvia and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Most recently Lisa played Lisa in Beating Up Bachman, a co-production with Radial Theater written by Gregory Award winning local playwright Wayne Rawley.
Jenn Ruzumna (producer/cast) is a founding member of BASH Theatre and has produced and acted in many of their shows. Favorite BASH roles include A Kind of Alaska, Autobahn and Beating Up Bachman. Jenn received her BA in Performing Arts from UPS. Following college, she performed at Tacoma Actors Guild, The Chac, Woodinville Rep and others. In the past couple of years, Jenn has busy with film work including Brown’s Canyon and The Wish Fish, both completed this year.
Eric Jordan (cast) has appeared in numerous roles in New York and Seattle and was a founding member of Sight Nine Theatre and the improv troupe Elastic Picnic; favorite roles include Cot in Hotel Paradiso, Charlie in Speed the Plow and Yvan in Art. His original solo show, An Evening with Chuck, was featured in venues around Seattle. He has performed as a principal in various short films and, since recently rededicating himself to film, has written two screenplays and played a principal role in the feature Phoebe’s Father. He received his MFA from Sarah Lawrence College.
Carter Rodriquez (cast) is an actor, musician, and visual artist. He was last seen onstage as Astrov in Akropolis Performance Lab’s production of Uncle Vanya. He has performed with The Collision Project, Pony World Theatre (company member), Seattle Shakespeare Co., Wooden O, Book-It Repertory Theatre, BASH Theatre, Theatre Schmeater, Capitol Hill Arts Center, 14/48, Café Nordo, NW New Works Festival, 12 Minutes Max, The Freehold Engaged Theatre Tour, and others. Film and TV credits include Singles, Police Beat, Manchego!, and Grimm. He teaches for Freehold Theatre’s Prison Residency Program and is a founding member of the critically acclaimed comedy trio, Le Frenchword.
Sara Rucker Thiessen (cast) played the role of Mrs. Trucker in Wayne Rawley’s Seattle premier of Beating Up Bachman, which was produced at West of Lenin in the winter of 2013 by BASH Theatre. Sara was part of Freehold Theatre Lab’s Ensemble Intensive Training program during the 2005-2006 academic year where she worked with George Lewis, Robin Lynn Smith and John Abramson. Sara has been part of an Olympia based Playback Theatre Ensemble for 16 years, The Heartsparkle Players, performing for hundreds of organizations and communities around the Puget Sound. When not on stage Sara likes writing short stories and monologues. Sara is moving into film work and loved working on Brown's Canyon with Seattle director John Helde.