CLARA
Vancouver, Canada | Film Feature
Horror
Clara is the story of a young girl’s descent into demonic possession as she commits a string of mysterious murders. The plot is told through 3 different lenses. Literally.
Green Light
This campaign raised C$12,716 for production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
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Clara is the story of a young girl’s descent into demonic possession as she commits a string of mysterious murders. The plot is told through 3 different lenses. Literally.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
The story focuses on three different storylines of found footage, each from a different set of characters’ view points. The effect is a chilling and fragmented look at Clara’s possession from a multitude of characters. Ranging from as far back as Syria in the 1990’s, to a small North American town in the present day, Clara takes an unflinching and horrifying look at the bizarre murders committed by this possessed child.
Clara is about the societal pressure to be something. This is how a little girl should act, this is what a wife does, this is what a man stands for. This is how we act; this is what you do... This is what God wants... But, what happens when that societal conditioning backfires? What happens when a little girl under all that pressure turns to the occult for a friend? Clara is what happens when it all backfires. Clara is the hyperbolic, twisted product of a society that forces an identity upon children, and then expects them to live up to it. Beware of what you try to make your child into...
When I was a kid, I heard a story told on Vancouver Island about a small girl that was lost in the woods while she was on a picnic with her family. She was presumed dead for years. But then one day there were reported sightings of a feral child roughly the same age as the girl who disappeared. The child was spotted numerous times feeding on the carcasses of deer. The reports continued for about a year, but then stopped all together.
The story of Clara, although fictional, is my own recreation of how that story may have come to pass. It chilled me deeply as a kid to hear it. It still does now. Clara is a recreation of that childhood fear, the atavistic shiver of intrigue as you wonder if you are alone in the woods.
Told through a series of found footage accounts, Clara is not only an ode to the old reports of Vancouver Island’s feral child, but also to two of the scariest films I saw growing up: The Blair Witch Project and The Exorcist. In today’s day and age of everything being captured on video, there is an even more plausible and chilling reason to tell the Clara story within the found footage genre. And why not throw in a demonic possession just push the genre a little further? The film not only explores the classic fear of being stalked by something unknown in the woods, but also the existential and spiritual dread of losing your mind to an entity not of this realm.
We have an outstanding production team. We have an incredible cast. We have the horrifying locations. All we need now is a little push from our fellow filmmakers and our vision comes to life. This team is comprised of professionals I implicitly trust to bring our vision of Clara to the screen and we could not be more excited to share it with you. It is my pleasure to introduce you to Clara, and hopefully invoke the same fear I felt as a child when I first heard that story of a feral child in the woods feeding on a deer carcass.
All pledges will go directly towards cast/crew, locations and permits, equipment, insurance, and food.
Production Goal: $12,000
Locations and Permit: $2,000
Insurance & Legal Fees: $3,050
Camera & Lighting: $1,300
Transportation Cost: $650
Art Department & Wardrobe: $1,100
SPFX Makeup & Effects: $ 900
Food and Crafty: $3,000
Stretch Goal: $20,000
Volunteer Cast/Crew Compensation - $5,000
Post Production: $3,000
First and foremost, it’ll help our cast and crew. Filmmaking is a community, and we are lucky to have people donating their time and talent to help us. They believe in us and love our script. We can’t get this film made without their help.
Your contribution will help us feed and pay those crew members, so they do not starve or become homeless in the process of helping us. It will help us pay for all those hidden filmmaking costs, like insurance, union dues, permit application fees, and location costs. And, it will pay for some of the fun horror makeup and effects, which are not cheap but are oh-so worth it!
What if you make your goal? Or surpass it with a stretch goal? Great question. If we ended up making more than we anticipated from this campaign, well, holy crap, that would be a dream come true. That extra buffer would cover those extra special costs that only truly blessed filmmakers have to worry about. It would cover licensing music, adding stronger visual effects, creating bolder marketing. And, it would even help us troubleshoot all the unexpected surprises we might encounter while filming a movie that’s mostly set outside in the winter.
Firstly, why not support us? Some of you may already know us, and we truly thank you for supporting us. (Also, we know where you live...) But if you have happened upon this page by your own devices, here's a little bit about Declassified...
As the Declassified team, we banded together to make projects like this and others because we were driven to create something entirely our own. We're a group of working professionals -- producers, writers, actors, directors -- who continually found ourselves working on big network shows and other people's passion projects. Finally, we said to ourselves, we can do that too. We can take the knowledge we learned over ten-plus years of working in the film industry and apply it to our own projects.
Each of us has had our successes, but now we have come together for a much bigger journey. (Kinda like The Fellowship of the Ring, but nearly as cool, or as high stakes...) We see Declassified as a business to make the projects we’ve always wanted to, a business that will foster emerging talent, and a business that will create more diversity of vision within the realm of horror films. It’s the production company we’ve always wanted to work for, and we want to share it with you.
We understand that not everyone is in a position to provide financial support. So here are some other ways you can help support us:
1) Follow us on Instagram for updates and sneak-peeks!
@declassifiedproductions
2) Share our campaign to your friends and family!
Here are some short DM's you can send to your communities:
My friends are making a feature film and needs our help! It would mean a lot to me if you could check out their project @declassifiedproductions and support here: https://seedandspark.com/fund/clara-1
Thank you for your support!
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Camera Equipment
Costs C$1,300
The camera and lighting are quintessential pieces of equipment for filmmaking.
Construction & Set Design
Costs C$600
This is to create our show-stopping final act set piece that will haunt your dreams.
Props
Costs C$200
These are a few things that the actors will need to interact with that might get bloody or broken.
Costumes
Costs C$300
We will need multiple wardrobe items when we douse the actors in blood.
Locations and Permits
Costs C$2,000
Location. Without it, we don't have a film. It's for the city fees, location fees, and permits.
Insurance & Legal Fees
Costs C$3,050
This is all the red tape and insurance you need to get the film made. It's these hidden costs.
Transportion
Costs C$650
Fuel, transport, and airfare. To help our cast and crew to each location.
SPFX Makeup & Effects
Costs C$900
The kills, the thrills, the spills. This is why we love horror or one of the reasons.
Food and Crafty
Costs C$3,000
I guess we should feed people!? And not just pizza. But sometimes, maybe pizza.
Cash Pledge
Costs C$0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Declassified’s Mission is simple, ambitious, and achievable. With the support of an incredible filmmaking community, we aim to make Declassified a staple for distributors to find lower-budget, subversive, creator driven horror films that routinely perform well in festivals, theatres, and on streaming services. We have a vision of a company that encourages the artistic voices in horror from all walks of life, that puts new and unique stories on the screen, embraces bold visions, and scares the hell out of audiences across the globe. The talent is here in Vancouver to do just that. Clara is the first up on our current slate of productions, and with Clara completed we’ll be able to leverage the budgets needed to further our company’s vision.
JACK COX
Jack Cox is a writer and director working and residing in Vancouver, BC. After starting his career editing and writing on low-budget genre films with Roger Corman’s New Horizons, he moved to Vancouver to pursue a career in animation. With over 10 years of directing cartoon voices for animated series such as Beyblade Burst, Beyblade Burst: Evolution, Mr. Magoo, Little Prince, and Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion, Jack now returns to his roots in low budget genre with Declassified Productions as writer and director on Declassified’s flagship project, Clara.
COLE HEWLETT
For the past 13 years, Cole has been working in the film industry, and in that time, he has helped produce a number of award-winning short films, including 'To Save One's Self', and most recently, 'Love you, Mama'. He has gone on to Unit Manage on a feature film 'No Men Beyond This Point' and in recent years, he has been working as a Production Coordinator on Netflix's 'Altered Carbon, 'Haunting of Bly Manor','Midnight Mass', and 'Midnight Club.' As a Co-founder of Declassified Productions, Cole brings his extensive knowledge of production managment to ensure Clara is completed on time and on budget.
HUNTER ELLIOTT
Hunter Elliott is a Co-Founder and Post Production Supervisor for Declassified Productions, and prides himself on running an efficient, organized, and engaging post production workflow. After having studied Motion Picture Production at Capilano University, Hunter spent years working as a freelance filmmaker, and now works in Visual Effects and Post Production Managment, and continues to prove his effectiveness as an editor as recently as 2022 with the short films like Dirty Sally and Clara. Hunter will act as the Post Supervisor and Editor on Clara, and is always looking for new ways to increase efficiency while still pushing forward the editing artform.
EMMA HOUGHTON
Emma is a professional theatre and film actor, voice artist, and producer, who has been working in the performance industry for almost two decades. She loves to jump between mediums, her own series ‘Scout’, for which she’s a lead actor and producer/showrunner, is out in June, and her stage adaptation of the celebrated novel 'Freaky Green Eyes' for which she is producer/performer, goes up in January 2023. Recently Emma mastered the perfect scrambled eggs and hopes that the dopamine hit off that success helps her soar to new heights in life. @emmajeanrose emma-houghton.com
COLE HOWARD
Cole is a long time professional actor and writer. Since his arrival in Vancouver in 2008 he can be heard in many animated series’, including My Little Pony, Netflix’ The Dragon Prince, and LEGO: Ninjago, as well as playing Spider-Man for Marvel’s Super Hero Adventures. He also creates sketch comedy with Hunter Elliot, and Jack Cox, and can be seen on stages around Vancouver. In 2016 Cole was awarded a LEO for “Outstanding Voice Performance in and Animated Series”.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
The story focuses on three different storylines of found footage, each from a different set of characters’ view points. The effect is a chilling and fragmented look at Clara’s possession from a multitude of characters. Ranging from as far back as Syria in the 1990’s, to a small North American town in the present day, Clara takes an unflinching and horrifying look at the bizarre murders committed by this possessed child.
Clara is about the societal pressure to be something. This is how a little girl should act, this is what a wife does, this is what a man stands for. This is how we act; this is what you do... This is what God wants... But, what happens when that societal conditioning backfires? What happens when a little girl under all that pressure turns to the occult for a friend? Clara is what happens when it all backfires. Clara is the hyperbolic, twisted product of a society that forces an identity upon children, and then expects them to live up to it. Beware of what you try to make your child into...
When I was a kid, I heard a story told on Vancouver Island about a small girl that was lost in the woods while she was on a picnic with her family. She was presumed dead for years. But then one day there were reported sightings of a feral child roughly the same age as the girl who disappeared. The child was spotted numerous times feeding on the carcasses of deer. The reports continued for about a year, but then stopped all together.
The story of Clara, although fictional, is my own recreation of how that story may have come to pass. It chilled me deeply as a kid to hear it. It still does now. Clara is a recreation of that childhood fear, the atavistic shiver of intrigue as you wonder if you are alone in the woods.
Told through a series of found footage accounts, Clara is not only an ode to the old reports of Vancouver Island’s feral child, but also to two of the scariest films I saw growing up: The Blair Witch Project and The Exorcist. In today’s day and age of everything being captured on video, there is an even more plausible and chilling reason to tell the Clara story within the found footage genre. And why not throw in a demonic possession just push the genre a little further? The film not only explores the classic fear of being stalked by something unknown in the woods, but also the existential and spiritual dread of losing your mind to an entity not of this realm.
We have an outstanding production team. We have an incredible cast. We have the horrifying locations. All we need now is a little push from our fellow filmmakers and our vision comes to life. This team is comprised of professionals I implicitly trust to bring our vision of Clara to the screen and we could not be more excited to share it with you. It is my pleasure to introduce you to Clara, and hopefully invoke the same fear I felt as a child when I first heard that story of a feral child in the woods feeding on a deer carcass.
All pledges will go directly towards cast/crew, locations and permits, equipment, insurance, and food.
Production Goal: $12,000
Locations and Permit: $2,000
Insurance & Legal Fees: $3,050
Camera & Lighting: $1,300
Transportation Cost: $650
Art Department & Wardrobe: $1,100
SPFX Makeup & Effects: $ 900
Food and Crafty: $3,000
Stretch Goal: $20,000
Volunteer Cast/Crew Compensation - $5,000
Post Production: $3,000
First and foremost, it’ll help our cast and crew. Filmmaking is a community, and we are lucky to have people donating their time and talent to help us. They believe in us and love our script. We can’t get this film made without their help.
Your contribution will help us feed and pay those crew members, so they do not starve or become homeless in the process of helping us. It will help us pay for all those hidden filmmaking costs, like insurance, union dues, permit application fees, and location costs. And, it will pay for some of the fun horror makeup and effects, which are not cheap but are oh-so worth it!
What if you make your goal? Or surpass it with a stretch goal? Great question. If we ended up making more than we anticipated from this campaign, well, holy crap, that would be a dream come true. That extra buffer would cover those extra special costs that only truly blessed filmmakers have to worry about. It would cover licensing music, adding stronger visual effects, creating bolder marketing. And, it would even help us troubleshoot all the unexpected surprises we might encounter while filming a movie that’s mostly set outside in the winter.
Firstly, why not support us? Some of you may already know us, and we truly thank you for supporting us. (Also, we know where you live...) But if you have happened upon this page by your own devices, here's a little bit about Declassified...
As the Declassified team, we banded together to make projects like this and others because we were driven to create something entirely our own. We're a group of working professionals -- producers, writers, actors, directors -- who continually found ourselves working on big network shows and other people's passion projects. Finally, we said to ourselves, we can do that too. We can take the knowledge we learned over ten-plus years of working in the film industry and apply it to our own projects.
Each of us has had our successes, but now we have come together for a much bigger journey. (Kinda like The Fellowship of the Ring, but nearly as cool, or as high stakes...) We see Declassified as a business to make the projects we’ve always wanted to, a business that will foster emerging talent, and a business that will create more diversity of vision within the realm of horror films. It’s the production company we’ve always wanted to work for, and we want to share it with you.
We understand that not everyone is in a position to provide financial support. So here are some other ways you can help support us:
1) Follow us on Instagram for updates and sneak-peeks!
@declassifiedproductions
2) Share our campaign to your friends and family!
Here are some short DM's you can send to your communities:
My friends are making a feature film and needs our help! It would mean a lot to me if you could check out their project @declassifiedproductions and support here: https://seedandspark.com/fund/clara-1
Thank you for your support!
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Camera Equipment
Costs C$1,300
The camera and lighting are quintessential pieces of equipment for filmmaking.
Construction & Set Design
Costs C$600
This is to create our show-stopping final act set piece that will haunt your dreams.
Props
Costs C$200
These are a few things that the actors will need to interact with that might get bloody or broken.
Costumes
Costs C$300
We will need multiple wardrobe items when we douse the actors in blood.
Locations and Permits
Costs C$2,000
Location. Without it, we don't have a film. It's for the city fees, location fees, and permits.
Insurance & Legal Fees
Costs C$3,050
This is all the red tape and insurance you need to get the film made. It's these hidden costs.
Transportion
Costs C$650
Fuel, transport, and airfare. To help our cast and crew to each location.
SPFX Makeup & Effects
Costs C$900
The kills, the thrills, the spills. This is why we love horror or one of the reasons.
Food and Crafty
Costs C$3,000
I guess we should feed people!? And not just pizza. But sometimes, maybe pizza.
Cash Pledge
Costs C$0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Declassified’s Mission is simple, ambitious, and achievable. With the support of an incredible filmmaking community, we aim to make Declassified a staple for distributors to find lower-budget, subversive, creator driven horror films that routinely perform well in festivals, theatres, and on streaming services. We have a vision of a company that encourages the artistic voices in horror from all walks of life, that puts new and unique stories on the screen, embraces bold visions, and scares the hell out of audiences across the globe. The talent is here in Vancouver to do just that. Clara is the first up on our current slate of productions, and with Clara completed we’ll be able to leverage the budgets needed to further our company’s vision.
JACK COX
Jack Cox is a writer and director working and residing in Vancouver, BC. After starting his career editing and writing on low-budget genre films with Roger Corman’s New Horizons, he moved to Vancouver to pursue a career in animation. With over 10 years of directing cartoon voices for animated series such as Beyblade Burst, Beyblade Burst: Evolution, Mr. Magoo, Little Prince, and Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion, Jack now returns to his roots in low budget genre with Declassified Productions as writer and director on Declassified’s flagship project, Clara.
COLE HEWLETT
For the past 13 years, Cole has been working in the film industry, and in that time, he has helped produce a number of award-winning short films, including 'To Save One's Self', and most recently, 'Love you, Mama'. He has gone on to Unit Manage on a feature film 'No Men Beyond This Point' and in recent years, he has been working as a Production Coordinator on Netflix's 'Altered Carbon, 'Haunting of Bly Manor','Midnight Mass', and 'Midnight Club.' As a Co-founder of Declassified Productions, Cole brings his extensive knowledge of production managment to ensure Clara is completed on time and on budget.
HUNTER ELLIOTT
Hunter Elliott is a Co-Founder and Post Production Supervisor for Declassified Productions, and prides himself on running an efficient, organized, and engaging post production workflow. After having studied Motion Picture Production at Capilano University, Hunter spent years working as a freelance filmmaker, and now works in Visual Effects and Post Production Managment, and continues to prove his effectiveness as an editor as recently as 2022 with the short films like Dirty Sally and Clara. Hunter will act as the Post Supervisor and Editor on Clara, and is always looking for new ways to increase efficiency while still pushing forward the editing artform.
EMMA HOUGHTON
Emma is a professional theatre and film actor, voice artist, and producer, who has been working in the performance industry for almost two decades. She loves to jump between mediums, her own series ‘Scout’, for which she’s a lead actor and producer/showrunner, is out in June, and her stage adaptation of the celebrated novel 'Freaky Green Eyes' for which she is producer/performer, goes up in January 2023. Recently Emma mastered the perfect scrambled eggs and hopes that the dopamine hit off that success helps her soar to new heights in life. @emmajeanrose emma-houghton.com
COLE HOWARD
Cole is a long time professional actor and writer. Since his arrival in Vancouver in 2008 he can be heard in many animated series’, including My Little Pony, Netflix’ The Dragon Prince, and LEGO: Ninjago, as well as playing Spider-Man for Marvel’s Super Hero Adventures. He also creates sketch comedy with Hunter Elliot, and Jack Cox, and can be seen on stages around Vancouver. In 2016 Cole was awarded a LEO for “Outstanding Voice Performance in and Animated Series”.