Deviant

Boulder, Colorado | Film Feature

Drama, Sci-Fi

Scott Leslie

1 Campaigns | California, United States

Green Light

This campaign raised $6,703 for post-production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.

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In an genetically engineered "Perfect Society" people born imperfect are labeled as "deviant," sent away for rehabilitation and, if deemed incurable, shot into space for the rest of their lives. Through the eyes of three such deviants we discover what it means to be different.

About The Project

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

Mission Statement

When making a story about people who are different it was important that our cast and crew be as diverse as possible. With strong female leads, and under-represented archetypes in film, we were very proud to have a team that represented many genders, races, orientations, and backgrounds.

The Story

An Independent Sci Fi Film

"Deviant" takes place in the not-too-distant future where humanity has been genetically engineered by a group called the Architects who designed everyone to be “perfect.” If anyone is born imperfect, they are labeled a “deviant” and shot into small pods floating in space by the Deviancy Commission where they cannot influence humanity’s perfection. This film follows three deviants on one such pod as they discover each other and themselves, on a journey that might not be as unobserved as they think. Their story is at times hilarious, thought-provoking, and tragic.

#100DaysOfOptimism

Despite it's mildly dystopian nature, "Deviant" is ultimately a tale about outsiders who discover themselves and peace with their differences.  Humanity is at its best when made of many different pieces and while we do discuss what makes us ugly we find that what is more important is what makes us unique and beautiful, and how that manages to shine through.

Five Years In The Making

The “Deviant” story begins when it was produced as a play “Bentathlon: Master of the Universe” in The University of Colorado at Boulder Fringe Festival. It was written by Alex Reed as a love letter to his favorite cerebral sci-fi stories. Moments after the play ended I ran up to him and told him he couldn’t abandon this project. It resonated with me in a way few stories ever had and I wanted as many people as possible to see it. Together we worked to get the play produced with an independent theatre company, Obscene/Courageous Theatre, where I first fell into the director’s chair. The script became a screenplay during Alex’s time in graduate school at Chapman University. Producer Thomas Wingerd, who was involved with my production, had begun managing Streetside Productions in Boulder, CO. He came up with the idea of bringing us all back together. We gathered our cast and crew and in the summer of 2016 “Deviant” became a reality.


Make It So

The next steps in post-production are adding music, cleaning the sound and adding sound effects, and visual effects. All of these steps are in place and ready to be climbed; we want you to be a part of the process.

 

Music

For “Deviant” we are licensing original compositions and songs. We’ve been lucky to score TJ Wilkins as our composer (pun fully intended.) He has been a brilliant addition to our wacky family, and I can’t imagine finishing this movie without him. To give you a taste of what he’s bringing to our project, he’s composed both the intro video to the kickstarter and this teaser below.



We also need to finish an original song composed by TJ for a very important part of our movie: the opening credits.  Oliver Beale, known on the internet as Cranbersher, has made a gorgeous stop-motion animation for us and we are so stoked to have a finalized, rocking song for it.  Right now TJ has composed a demo track and it sounds great, but it needs to be finished and vocals added.  We’re working with TJ and singer Justin King to make this a reality.


Effects


Do you see that lime green in this picture?


Does it offend you? Do you wish in your deepest of hearts that there was a beautiful vision of space as Jackathy and Bentathlon discuss their place in society as deviants? That’s what we want, too. “Deviant” had extensive scenes involving or filmed entirely on the greenscreen. We have ambitious goals and have surrounded ourselves with fantastic artists who we are happy to support, and who are in turn supporting us!

 

Wishlist

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

Soundtrack

Costs $3,000

Original composition and full recording of our soundtrack

Special FX

Costs $3,000

We have a FX artist lined up to create all of the visual scapes we need!

Audio Cleanup

Costs $2,000

Audio needs a little love, we have the people, they need the time.

Cash Pledge

Costs $0

About This Team

Deviants From Our Heads To Our Toes

 

We knew when getting the project together that unless we got people who loved the story as much as we did that it would never truly fly. When building the “Deviant” team we made sure to get the most talented, passionate and hard-working people we could in a room together. We pulled in the best we knew, and succeeded in building a group of professionals we can truly be proud of and made our movie really shine.

 

Actors Scott K Leslie and Tucker Dally Johnston have been involved with the project since its inception, and actress Courtney Murray joined us in the play in 2013 as Emileandra. For the film, Tucker and Courtney flew in from New York and Scott and I packed the car up and drove from Los Angeles back to Colorado where it all began. Elise Goodgaine and Megan Heffernan joined us as our last two leads, Louisebert and Valorama. They brought more enthusiasm and depth than we could have ever imagined. The rest of the cast was comprised of local Colorado talent who lent all of their love and a ton of hard work to the movie. We were especially honored to be joined by cult legend Lloyd Kaufman who voiced the Saccharine Temporality’s less-than-helpful computer.

 

Directed by - Emme Watkins

Written by - Alex Reed

Produced by - Thomas Wingerd, Scott K. Leslie, Emme Watkins

Director of Photography - Jesse Rarick

Production Designer - Heather Mino

Editor - Thomas Wingerd

Costume Designer - Charlotte Ballard

Composer - TJ Wilkins

Casting Director - Brian McCully

Assistant Director - Kate Lowell

1st AC - Alex Buffer

2nd AC - Adam Cardozo & Cody Kurth

Set Designer - Cody Opdahl

Carpenters - Michael Watkins, Michael Rarick, and Rob Opdahl

Casting Associate - John Crockett

Animation by - Oliver Beale

Graphic Arts by - Douglas Rowland

Marketing Director - Benjamin Krudwig

 

 

 

Current Team

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