LOGLINE: Margo has never been in a relationship, but she's decided that she'd be really good at being in one. Unfortunately everywhere she looks, there's just another guy named Andrew.

DIRECTOR'S NOTE

"WHAT'S UP WITH THIS PREMISE? MY NAME IS ANDREW AND YOU'RE MAKING ME FEEL WEIRD AND BAD ABOUT IT ):"

My MFA thesis film Every Man in New York Is Named Andrew, like many major decisions in my life, started out as a bit and then gradually became less of a bit and now it's part of a crusade to save black and white 16mm film from extinction because it's us and, idk, Radu Jude? That's all I got and I watch a lot of movies.

Where the bit was born: texts in which my observation that I have 11 Andrews in my phone (not counting secret Andrews (Drews or Andys) or the ones I know but who I don't have saved in my contacts) prompts my good friend and former roommate Sharvari to tell me to write this movie and also suggests one of our key locations (ice rink).

And now this premise is the vessel for my flinging myself into the deep end and finally committing to a collaborative writing and directing process I've toyed with on other projects but that I've really honed for this short film.

DIRECTOR'S NOTE PT. II

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE'S NO TRADITIONAL WRITTEN SCRIPT? I'M SCARED!"

Mike Leigh wants you to know that everything is going to be okay.

As Cameron (playing me) says in our campaign video (Did you watch the video? Isn't Cameron a STAR? I don't like being on camera.), this project involves looping the actors in on the writing process.

I wrote a script outlining what I think should happen in each scene. I've told the actors what choices their characters make and what small descriptions of their characters I've written in the script. From there, they don't get a script. But through answering a series of character questions, each of the actors has constructed their character's backstory, everything from their childhood finances to their relationship history to whether or not they had acne in high school. Will these things ever come up in the movie? Who knows. But it's good to know these things before the actors go into....

REHEARSALS: where the actual writing of the dialogue will happen. The actors will work through their scenarios together, staying in character for up to 40 minutes and working through their scenes and through other situations that are not in the actual film. These rehearsals will be filmed, and I'll go through them and pull out dialogue or scene shifts I think should end up in the finished 3-4 minute version of each scene. Our exceedingly intuitive cinematographer Ella and I will shot list based on these rehearsals, then we'll find blocking on set, rehearse to make sure things run at the right pace so that we're not wasting film, adjust the shotlist to account for the blocking at the location, then SHOOT!

Jacques Rivette also wants you to know that everything will be okay.

But this isn't Judd Apatow. The improvisation informs the writing — we're not just turning on the ARRI 416 and burning through film while actors do unstructured actor-y things. It's a directorial challenge for sure, but one that I'm already having so much fun taking on with this cast, which includes actors who do improv and sketch comedy, some who have theater backgrounds, some who have traditional acting training, some who are are also writers and directors themselves.

This film is about spontaneity and being really open to discovery both in rehearsal and during the shoot. Because as much as I love to plan, I find that my favorite moments in films I've made in the past have come out of suddenly improvising a shot to compensate for a continuity error, or that have happened because an actor changed the blocking while we were rolling and the DP had to find a new frame in the moment, or that came out of rewriting something last minute with an actor on set. That's the spirit of this movie.

CINEMATIC INFLUENCES

Every Man in New York Is Named Andrew takes a lot from the French, but we're dropping that sensibility in 2024 New York and letting things spiral as they will.

Should I say Éric Rohmer one more time? His films are the thematic and tonal guiding light for this thing, The Green Ray always but some others that are top of mind are A Good Marriage (left) and Tale of Winter (right).

A couple of films from All the Boys and Girls of Their Age, a series of TV films made for Arte in the 90s: Chantal Akerman's A Portrait of a Young Girl at the End of the 60s in Brussels and Patricia Mazuy's Travolta and Me.

Some oddball American touchpoints for tone and sensibility too: Ross McElwee's Sherman's March and Steven Soderbergh's The Girlfriend Experience.

And finally I'll throw in the playful nonsense in Jacques Rivette's Le Pont du Nord and (for obvious reasons) All the Boys Are Called Patrick directed by Jean-Luc Godard and penned by Rohmer.

PRODUCER'S STATEMENT

Already for a while Nora and I have been wanting to work together and it's finally happening - thanks to all the Andrews out there! Having performed in and produced devised and improvised plays myself, I'm very familiar with the artistic vision this film has and the process it has to undergo to achieve the greatest possible results (to turn Nora's bit into an actual functioning film). Having lived in Europe most of my life, I am closely familiar with the European cinema masterpieces and masters that Nora refers to when talking about this film, and I feel excited about producing a film through which we can preserve the dying art of filming on 16mm black & white negative film. I believe that hints of comedy and romance are always a crucial part of any film and Every Man in New York is Named Andrew will have lots of it!

We're currently in pre-production — scouting locations, rehearsing with the actors, hiring crew — and your pledges will help us as we order film and put together a production plan before our shoot in late September.

As our MFA thesis film, it will screen next year in New York as part of the Columbia University Film Festival, and otherwise we plan to send this to film festivals globally that appreciate talky comedies. It's important for us to share our work with audiences! If you pledge to our campaign, we have incentives that will give you access to a copy of the film as soon as it's finished so you don't have to wait for festivals to see the fruits of our labor.

If we surpass our 100% funded goal, we'll put that money toward ordering even more rolls of film than we have budgeted for, which would gives us more freedom with the narrative work in rehearsals and improv during the shoot. We would also put the money towards covering film festival submission fees, paying our cast and crew even better, and financing any marketing and distribution-related expenses.

WHAT YOU CAN DO!

If you're currently reading this, we need YOUR help to make this film. You might think we get money from our MFA program to make our thesis films, but you would be wrong! We receive funding for post-production and that's not coming our way until January—we need funding for our shoot in September.

You may be asking, "Why are films so expensive?" Well essentially we are running a business for three days, and we need to pay people, feed people, transport people and equipment, pay location fees, and purchase and develop 16mm film.

Enough rhetorical questions -- here's what you can do RIGHT NOW:

1. FOLLOW this page.
2. CONTRIBUTE to the campaign. We've got incentives for every pledge level—EVERY BIT HELPS! And thanks to our fiscal sponsorship from From the Heart Productions, your pledges are TAX DEDUCTIBLE!!
3. SHARE our campaign.
4. Send our campaign to three people. Do you know three Andrews and want to make them feel weird? Is YOUR name Andrew and you want other people to feel weird on your behalf? Do you have a family group chat with Andrews present where you could collectively make an Andrew feel weird? Share our campaign there! Or send it to people who don't know a single Andrew! I'm sure they would love to learn about this phenomenon.
5. POST our campaign on social media. Tag us if you do! (@EveryManInNewYork on IG, @EveryManInNY on Twitter)

Thank you SO MUCH for your pledges and for reading all this! :) We are so excited to make this movie - help us finally graduate from our MFA program and make our little comedy a reality!

- Nora Marris & Šania Volbeta