Dearest Eva

Portland, Oregon | Series

History, Romance

Kamryn Fall

1 Campaigns | Oregon, United States

Green Light

This campaign raised $11,345 for production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.

109 supporters | followers

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Our goal is to create a period piece in an alternative world without slavery, land theft, or gender oppression, allowing for the highlighting of Black and Brown joy without Black and Brown trauma. We want to give BIPOC folks the same whimsical and accessible joy as white viewers have had for years.

About The Project

  • The Story
  • Wishlist
  • Updates
  • The Team
  • Community

Mission Statement

As a team, we create a safe and collaborative space for everyone to be themselves while bringing the characters to life. This group of Black, Latine, and Indigenous artists want to fill the spaces in film where we are missing, with intentionality and joy. Healing ourselves and our communities.

The Story

DEAREST EVA

Is fiscally sponsored by Open Signal (LABS), a 501(c)3 organization.

ALL donations to this campaign are tax deductible.

After a letter from her childhood crush arrives, a young Black woman struggles to balance love and happiness with her responsibilities as matriarch of her chaotic and dysfunctional 19th century family.

Dearest Eva is a historically un-historical romance spanning a 7 episode season with each episode being between 15 - 20 minutes long. Our audience will be able to explore Eva's world on a weekly episode roll out, being drawn to the drama, the charm, the hilarity, and the Black and brown joy that our characters experience in our series. We are so confident in this project and how our audience will enjoy this story that we are even in the works of writing Dearest Mary, following the little sister's adventures. BUT that is for another time, let's get back to Eva.

 

The objective of Dearest Eva is to create a timeline in an alternate world, without slavery, gender oppresion and land left so that we can see how Black and brown folks would have lived in this Victorian aesthetic. By removing the historical machinations of colonization we allow the tension to grow from the drama of a typical dysfunctional family. In this way, BIPOC folks can experience the joy and heartbreak of human life that is so often told only from a white lens.

This project serves two purposes, 1 to fill this hole in media that we never get to see, and 2 by providing healing to the community through the production and finished product. To do this we are involving as many Black, Latine, and Indigenous artists as possible so that we may bring many BIPOC voices to the table.

Black squares and hashtags flooded social media last summer, accompanied by pictures and videos of Black folks being executed, attacked, berated. This time and the still constant reminders are so triggering to those of us whose lives are regularly devalued. It might seem silly to say that now is when we need a period love story, but I personally can't think of anything more healing. Every day we hear of a new abuse on BIPOC lives and I for one need to be reminded of the joy that we deserve. Of the silly little stories that white folks get to fall back on when times are tough. And to get to see this in a time of historical suffering, reframed as a time of sweetness and romance? What could be better?


Pictured are Andrea Vernae and Talon Bigelow playing our romantic leads.

We are looking for lovely supporters, like yourself, who love romance. Supporters who love a good drama; who love watching people grow, who love to laugh along with us; who want to help fill the hole in media that is missing people like us living these lovely period stories. We are asking for any sort of financial support to help us make this work. We even have some EXCITING incentives! Perhaps you love the story so much that you can POSSIBLY BE IN IT AS AN EXTRA (check that one out; it's a good one)! We really hope you love our project as much as us and want to help share this series with everyone.

The above image is a mood board created by our Set Designer, Bei Yi Teo, for one of Dearest Eva's interior scenes. Victorian Era homes were lavishly decorated and Bei Yi is hard at work creating a similair atmosphere for the Williams family home.

You're now probably saying: "Wow! This sounds great! Who am I supporting?" 

GREAT QUESTION! Our lovely production team consists of Kamryn Fall [she/her] (our fearless leader), Riley Lozano [she/her] (our leader's confidant), Pedro Dominguez [he/they] (our trusty comrade), and Julian Incoom [he/him] (our un-historian {which is just a fancy name for our lead writer}), but you can read more about us on our Team page!

Filling our the rest of our fantastic team we also have Sara Hass [she/her] (our assistant production manager), Aurora Hernandez [she/her] (our costume designer), Bei Yi Teo [she/her] (our set designer), Sydney Jackson [they/them] (our choreographer), Kingsley [she/her] (our marketeer and music maker), Anthony Sims [he/him] (our dance party music maker), Matthew Hayes [he/him] (our director of photography), and Estela Garzón [she/her] (our assistant editor and assistant to the director). 

Here you can see Kamryn, Pedro and Kingsley on set for Kinglsey's music video "Therapy"

You're now wondering: "Wow! What an amazing sounding team! But who am I gonna see in this beautiful period piece??"

Another great question!

Andrea Vernae as Eva Wiliams. 

Leah Hartzell as Mary Williams.

Charles Grant as Sam Williams. 

Talon Biglow as George Cortez.

Pedro Dominguez as Carlos Cortez.

William Earl Ray as Hakim Williams.

 

We are well on our way to creating this beautiful time period piece, as we are meticulously working with potential venues making sure the buildings have just the right look and feel. Luckily with our very talented Set Designer, Bei Yi, she'll be able to create this antique magic by sourcing furniture from local shops, borrowing from our local theaters, and even building and painting beautiful works. Our extraordinarily amazing Costume Designer, Aurora, is currently in talks with her sources to borrow and rent from local theaters and universities. This is one of her many inspairation and design boards for Dearest Eva:

As we are solidifying everything right now during our preproduction period, we are looking to start filming around August 20th with our final day of shooting being around September 21st. Our cast and crew are ready to start working on this web series as soon as they can, especially with our goal to release the first episode by December 25th! We're looking at a quick and efficient timeline, but our creative team definitely fosters a collaborative, safe space for people to work. We take care of each other while doing our best work, so that we can all thrive.

We aim to create a safe environment on set. As a team we made the decision to wait to film until vaccines were widely availble. Cast and crew will be wearing PPE on set. Cast will only remove masks when we are rolling. A majority of our sets will be outside. Eva is a gardener, so our cast and crew will be spending a majority of their time outdoors. 

Time for some money talk! Kryptic Films finds it extremely important to pay everyone involved, whether it be the smallest role to the lead or the head director to person herding around the chickens. We are all used to unpaid labor and it's important to combat that norm. Everyone's time deserves to be paid. It's also expensive to make a miniseries! Especially during a pandemic!

SO we're looking to raise $10,000 through generous folks like y'all. To ensure this dream comes true, our fiscal sponsor will also be matching donations that we raise through this campaign up to our goal!

We look forward to taking you on this journey with us!

Ever yours, 

The Dearest Eva Production team

 

DEAREST EVA is fiscally sponsored by Open Signal (LABS) (OSL), a 501(c)3 organization. ALL donations to this campaign are tax deductible. Seed&Spark admin fees and credit card processing fees are deducted before OSL receives the funds. OSL issues tax receipts on the amount they receive minus the fair market value of the incentive you select.

 

Wishlist

Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.

Pretty Clothes

Costs $1,500

Our dream cast needs dreamy clothes to wear

Bright lights + Sound Bites

Costs $2,000

Lighting and audio equipment to make sure everything looks as good as it sounds!

Incidentals

Costs $1,000

Sometimes we forget to budget for things we need, this is for the surprises!

Craft Services

Costs $1,000

A well fed cast and crew, is a happy cast and crew!

Cash Pledge

Costs $0

Songs and Scoring

Costs $1,000

We're creating a unique audio experience by curating new music for our score and dance party.

Indoor locations

Costs $2,000

No story can be told without a good space.

Thingy-ma-jigs

Costs $1,500

Stuff for our actors to hold so they don't look silly (or so they do?)

About This Team

Fearless Leader - Kamryn Fall (She/Her) is a filmmaker, director, and dancer. She works with theaters, musicians, and artists to explore the ways art and technology support each other. She produced and directed Most Massive Woman Wins in March of 2019 and created a series of video projections to immerse the audience in the moving story of the one act play. Her most recent film work is the series of music videos for Kingsley's upcoming album where she was able to highlight Black joy and magic as the director and editor. Previously, she completed a fellowship in the pilot year of Open Signal's Black Filmmakers Initiative. 

 

Leaders Confidant - Riley Lozano (She/Her) is a local storyteller, actor, dancer, and stage manager. She received her Bachelor’s degree in theatre from Portland State University. She currently works in production and design for Kryptic Films. Most recently she completed the stage management apprenticeship at Portland Playhouse. She loves community building through theater, film and dance. She identifies as a fat, queer, latinx woman and wants to make art that will reflect and raise up those experiences. She believes that theatre should be innovative and accessible for everyone. One of her favorite projects to date was filming the comedy music video "Not Coming Back" with Kamryn Fall in response to Covid restrictions lifting.

 

Trusty Comrade - Pedro Adan Dominguez (He/They) is a theatre artist coming in hot from South Texas. He received his BFA in Acting and Directing from Stephen F Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX. He's also trained abroad at Rose Bruford International College with an emphasis on Devising. His recent works include Ensemble from Pulp Theatre's bi-monthly Writer's Nightmare, the Prince in Kingsley's Therapy music video, Stressed Out Helper in The FUN-Raiser (to stop the end of the world), a show in which he devised with his friends, Himself in Thought-O-Vision, his solo show, and Cesar Chavez/Ensemble in Milagro's HUELGA. During his spare time, Pedro develops new works with his friends and is currently writing his own new show LIBRARY.

 

Un-Historian - Julian Incoom (He/Him) is a writer currently based in Anaheim, California. He's been writing freelance since 2015, and his favorite genres to work with are comedy and science fiction. Collaborating with new and amazing creatives is his favorite part of telling great stories.  He is currently submitting applications to writers' programs all over Los Angeles, hoping to get his first non-freelance writing or production position.

 

Picture Magician - Matthew Hayes (He/Him) is a cinematographer based in Portland, Oregon. Originally hailing from Houston, Texas, he believes that people deserve to be seen as they truly are, and focuses on finding the vulnerable, honest moments between the subject and the lens. As our Director of Photography he brings expertise from working with clients such as Nike, Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Sennheiser, and Adidas.

 

Bard - Kingsley (She/Her) Indie Pop local sensation, Kingsley's debut acting role, in the upcoming mini-series, Dearest Eva by Kryptic Films. Kingsley had the unique opportunity on this project, creating the theme song you hear throughout episodes, as well as, showing her bad girl bully side on screen. She is also Dearest Eva's marketing extraordinaire. This is Kingsley's fourth collaboration with Kamryn (Director), they have released three of Kingsley's music videos earlier this year prior to her sophomore album releasing in May 2021. Watch out world, Kingsley is here to stay! 

 

 

 

Current Team

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