On the cusp of PROM and losing her virginity, teenage Missy is mesmerized by a TV-saleswoman promoting the lingerie store "Erica's Erotica", and becomes determined to get the perfect set to seal the deal.

“Want a sensual experience?”

Teenage Missy is desperate to grow up, her imagination captured by the glamorous TV-saleswoman of "Erica’s Erotica", a local lingerie store. With PROM approaching and a strict religious upbringing weighing on her, Missy visits the store only to find the perfect set is wildly out of reach. At school, she’s mocked for her innocence and pushed to grow up fast, even as her best friend drifts away. Determined to claim womanhood on PROM night, Missy returns to the store and finally buys the lingerie. But the night unravels, her outfit tears, and the magic fades.

Finally arriving to the backseat of her date’s beat-up sedan, she displays her set awaiting her magical moment, only to have her fantasy destroyed after five fateful words:

“Do you have a condom?”

With her reality shattering; she walks home, heels in hand, before stumbling upon Erica herself. Sitting down on the curb together, the pair share a smoke as Missy finally grows-up in the way she’s yearned for.

Missy Eaton - The Protagonist

Our film follows Missy Eaton, an eighteen-year-old girl desperate to feel as grown as her peers. Infantilized by her overbearing mother and the girls at her high school, she is determined to become a "woman". She is an average teenage girl with a not-so-average idolization of a sensual tv-saleswoman promoting a lingerie store called "Erica’s Erotica".

Missy is all from popular, being previously bullied by girls at her school through the nickname “Prissy Missy”. Going to a Christian, uniform-clad high school, the irony in being bullied for being a virgin is all too obvious. She is determined to grow up as her peers have, desperate to leave girlhood behind. She has long wished to gain access to club womanhood.

Missy believes womanhood lies in losing her virginity, and she needs the perfect set to do so.

Comically stubborn, she is committed to her cause and yet her ingenue nature and hyper-fixation leaves her lacking the equipment needed to seal the deal. Ultimately, it’s this action that allows her to grow in the way she’s desired.

Erica - The Idol

Erica is the sensual tv-saleswoman and Missy's biggest admiration. She is an idealized version of womanhood and serves as a biting depiction of femininity that misguidedly leads Missy down her path.

Erica serves as a metaphorical representation of womanhood and female sexuality.

She is the object of Missy’s idolization and a misguided figure at that. Her progression through the film symbolizes Missy’s growth from a girl into a woman. Her on-screen persona is a classic doe-eyed temptress with heavy influences from classic bombshells. The Angylene the Billboard Queen of lingerie tv-saleswomen.

Brad - The Guy

Brad is a boy many girls have not-quite-dated. Maybe he was your first kiss behind the bleachers of a football game, or your high school “hear me out”, regardless he’s not quite gorgeous but not without a certain begrudging ability to still bang the hottest cheerleader when she wants to get back at her ex. And he’s perfectly content with that. Brad is Missy's first boyfriend / situation-ship, and an unknowing part of her plan at achieving womanhood.

Most women have dated a Brad.

"Why'd you have to call it that?"

Because it's the point of our film!

No, this is not an erotic film and no, we are not making a porno - we are crafting a conversation about female sexuality that is open and transparent.

There is no lacking of man-made female sexuality in media. We want to create a piece that belongs to women. This isn't Eric's Erotica, it's Erica's. There is no nudity, no sex, and no sugar coating this title OR the message behind this film, and we wouldn't have it any other way.

At its core, this is a film about female coming-of-age.

I remember the moment. Leaving Homecoming feeling the itchy Victoria Secret’s matching lingerie set underneath my dress and the anxious excitement of my first time looming. I remember the awkward transition from the front to backseat of my date’s car. The nervous giggles and tucking of hair behind my ear in anticipation

...and I remember the fight with my boyfriend when we discovered I hadn’t brought a condom. I realized in that moment more than just that I was dating an asshole, but that I had no concept of what womanhood really was.

This film is a commentary on not just that experience, but the transition from girlhood to womanhood as a whole; commenting on the way media enforces how we come of age and the influence of sexualization on self image.

Throughout our youth, girlhood is constantly penalized.

“Girly” is a demeaning label assigned to anything too feminine. Even movies catered to women, ones we may find nostalgic and comforting, can be deemed “Chick-flicks”. There is a reason most women go through a period in their maturation where they despise all things pink or overtly female. Who could blame us when we come of age in a society created to penalize and limit us.

With this, it should come as no surprise that most girls cannot wait to finally become a woman, desperate to escape a constant state of penalization.

We spend our days waiting for our 13th birthday, only to discover we are barely a teenager much less an adult - our first period, when you become a woman, only to realize that a 15-year-old is far from grown - our 18th birthday, a legal adult, and yet still so much a child - and losing our virginity.

Virginity as a concept has such a history, and the idea of reclaiming that idea has been captivating to me. What used to be a method of controlling women and defining their lives, has become something most teenage American girls get to decide for themselves - when and where and with whom.

Unless you have the most progressive mother in the world, most women don’t get the greatest picture of sex until they experience it themselves. Unlike with men, our patriarchal society has an added layer of shame imposed on women’s sexuality and sexual expression. To a young girl attempting to find her place in herself and body without a resource to turn towards such as education or their mother, most turn towards popular media. This only further imposes a cycle of sexualization on women, as who primarily is behind that media? Men.

Hair doesn’t stay curled during sex. Lipstick doesn’t stay on during a kiss, much less any dirty deeds. And only the luckiest woman in the world orgasms during their first time.

And yet, the mere discussion of this topic is taboo.

"Erica's Erotica" is an opportunity to tell a story that is able to connect and comment on these issues as well as further explore these thematics. A way that can bring women to the forefront of the conversation, not only in front of but behind the lens.

- Alisanna Vincent Writer / Director

We have a budget of $20,000. We are aiming to raise the entirety of it here on Seed&Spark!

That means we need to raise 80% of our goal ($16,000!!!) to receive ANY FUNDING!

Our production is registered under the SAG-AFTRA Micro-Budget Agreement! That means that even though we are student filmmakers, we are a professional production with professional Union requirements and costs!

With your help, funding will go towards...

Lights, Camera...Are Expensive!

CASTING, since we are a SAG-AFTRA registered production, we will be paying our actors SAG rates for each day of production!

CREW NEEDS, crafty, water, lunch, tents, chairs, and more necessities for our amazing crew alongside GENERAL PRODUCTION EXPENSES including truck rentals, walkie-talkies, and more!

PRODUCTION DESIGN, everything you see on screen! We are creating a beautiful, lush world and we need your help to bring it to life!

Our film takes place in the early 2000s! This nostalgic period piece is lush and full of odes to girlhood classics.

LOCATIONS, we have a handful of amazing locations for our film including a high school and lingerie store!

GEAR RENTALS, we will be filming on an ARRI Alexa Mini! This camera will give our film the cinematic look it deserves. With such an incredible camera, we also need to secure special lenses to achieve the nostalgic look we are planning for!

COSTUMES, a sensual lingerie saleswoman, a PROM scene full of extras, and a custom made signature set of lingerie, costumes are such an important part of this production!

DISTRIBUTION & MARKETING, submissions to film festivals, press packages, travel expenses, and everything we need to get our film to audiences!

This is just a taste of what your donation would be going towards, all necessities to create the most incredible film possible! "Erica's Erotica" holds such a special place in our hearts, and we cannot wait to bring it to life alongside you.

To further support our film, follow our campaign here on Seed&Spark and our Instagram page @ericaserotica!

Thank you for your support! We can't wait to create this film with you!