Five-Fingered Lucy
by Jack Mayer
Jack Mayer
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Five-Fingered Lucy
by Jack Mayer
Jack Mayer
Follow
Lucy likes stealing small things. She likes the feeling of having a secret, of knowing something no one else knows. She may feel aimless in her love life, helpless in the world, harassed and leered at and flirted with on the street. But she's good at stealing.
Lucy likes stealing small things. She likes the feeling of having a secret, of knowing something no one else knows. She may feel aimless in her love life, helpless in the world, harassed and leered at and flirted with on the street. But she's good at stealing.
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Story
About The Project
Without getting too precious about it, I want to talk about what gets me excited when I tell a story. I think of storytelling in terms of having essentially three phases: the inspiration, the execution, and the reverberation. In other words, first there is the reason why you tell a story, second there is how you go about telling that story, and lastly there is what happens when the story bounces off the world around it.First, to talk about inspiration. With Five-Fingered Lucy I've been thinking a lot about the recent public conversation about feminism, street harassment, sexual violence, and the double standard in sex culture for men and women. The ugliness of chauvinism and sexual violence is at the front of our collective minds right now, in news, in viral video, in pop culture and sports, and in our local lives. Just for instance, in my old Chicago neighborhood, an anonymous middle-aged man has taken to trailing women down the sidewalk and pulling their skirts before dashing away. The police haven't done anything yet, but the women in the neighborhood have taken to tweeting and blogging about their experiences in a show of solidarity and agency.More personally, as a brother, a son, and a boyfriend, I am surrounded by smart women who are hyper-aware of their own bodies and being subject to the male gaze. Especially in cities. A woman addicted to shoplifting and obsessed with possessing something no one can take from her became my lens to think about the larger issue of feeling helpless in the public space. The story isn't literal -- Lucy is not a kleptomaniac because of rape -- but instead thematic -- Lucy does not feel ownership over herself, she feels watched, intimidated, and overwhelmed.A last word about inspiration: the above paragraphs are about macro-inspiration, but the movie I want to make is dramatic, not polemical. The micro-inspiration has to do with a simple and universal notion: coming of age is an uncertain and dramatic time. Finding yourself in your twenties, defining yourself as an adult for the first time, getting your sea legs -- all create a sense of selflessness, of disorientation and a weird feeling of wondering who you are.Second, to talk about execution. I want to make this movie because I am extremely excited about a formal and stylistic idea I'm calling present-tense film style. This short will be my first attempt to execute a fluid, free-flowing narrative that jumps back and forth in time, and in and out of reality, day dream, fantasy, and memory, and does so without any delineation of style. The film flows at one pace, in one voice, with the scenes bleeding and meshing into one another. The goal is to create a sense of being immersed in one person's present-tense psychological state -- to replicate the feeling of thinking aimlessly while taking a walk. I am hoping to develop this style further with a feature screenplay in the coming year(s), so a short film is the best place to start trying to push the boundaries of how I formally tell stories.As an videomaker, I strive to create work that is formally and structurally experimental but still has affection for its audience — still aims to entertain. I believe the best stories are simple ones. We tell them over and over again because they contain universal truths. What I try to do is tell simple stories in new ways. A boy gets dumped and makes a self-reflexive documentary to win back his girlfriend (How to Say I Love You with Video). Two best friends enter their twenties broke, aimless, and lonely, so they create a hipster dating website to conduct first-person interviews with singles across Chicago (Single Long). A girl’s on-and-off relationship with a guy halfway across the country is told by an omniscient narrator in the style of a nature channel special on twenty-somethings (3 Nights). I am especially interested in stories that explore communication and connectivity in the internet era: how we use new technologies to confront the old problems of connecting with other people, feeling less alone, and finding meaning in our relationships. What simple stories need is novel perspective — a new lens for interrogation — and so formal and structural experimentation is a means for me to engage my audience, try and think for myself in new ways, and entertain while maintaining a critical eye.Finally, to talk about reverberation. I am excited not just to make this movie, but specifically to make it independently with crowdsourced funds. I believe that low-budget is in part an ideological and creative stance. I work in the film industry, and though I’m young, there’s still an obvious conclusion I've reached: there is an inherent conflict between unique work and financial demands. Anything that costs a lot of money needs to make a lot of money. Anything expensive has to fight harder against the demands of the pat, clichéd, and conservative. This is especially true when it comes to artist's without name recognition. Anything untested or untried is an inherent financial risk.So working with a low and independently raised budget affords me and my collaborators the opportunity to develop our own voices, to take risks, to experiment, to speak and record honestly. I think we as moviewatchers deserve more movies like this. I think we as moviemakers are obligated to find new avenues to create our work. As I navigate the more mainstream industry of both the television and film worlds, I do not want to stop experimenting or stop pushing my own way of making movies. I don’t want to water down every strange idea, or compromise every script for financial rather than creative reasons.Making this short film is a chance to work with actors I love regardless of their bankability. It’s a chance to work with a Director of Photography I admire, to develop a style of cinematography and editing I’ve never quite seen before. And if this movie succeeds in raising its funds, and we are able to shoot it the way it needs to be shot, then the movie can reverberate in the world around it. I love the story of Five-Fingered Lucy, but it doesn’t have an easy log line or a marketable synopsis. It mixes genres, delves into the surreal, the funny, the poetic. This movie -- along with plenty of others being made independently in this crest of digital filmmaking and crowdsourcing --can not only be a good story, but can also be part of an ideological stance that there is no proper avenue to fund and create a movie.To sum up, since this has gone very long: I want to make Five-Fingered Lucy because I am inspired by the story from both a public consciousness and personal narrative perspective, because I am excited to continue pushing formal boundaries to tell universal stories, and because I believe this particular script and this particular creative team will thrive and flourish because of its independent financial support.Incentives
$10
A Snatched Pack of Cigarettes
Special Thanks in the credits!
$25
A Nice Nipped Necklace
Digital Download of Five-Fingered Lucy AND Special Thanks in the credits!
$50
A Pilfered Pair of Converse
Five-Fingered Lucy poster AND a Digital Download of Five-Fingered Lucy AND Special Thanks in the credits!
$100
A Nabbed Nano iPod
Tickets to the Los Angeles premiere AND on screen Producer Credit for Five-Fingered Lucy AND access to a behind the scenes blog of the making of the film AND a Five-Fingered Lucy poster AND a Digital Download of Five-Fingered Lucy!
$200
A Filched First Edition Flaubert
Spend a day on set (January 2015)! AND tickets to the Los Angeles premiere AND on screen Producer Credit for Five-Fingered Lucy AND access to a behind the scenes blog of the making of the film AND Five-Fingered Lucy poster AND a Digital Download of Five-Fingered Lucy!
$500
A Smuggled Satchel of Saffron
FREE video editing and shooting services (up to 3 days work) from the director, Jack Lawrence Mayer AND spend a day on set (January 2015) AND on screen Producer Credit for Five-Fingered Lucy AND acess to a behind the scenes blog of the making of the film AND Five-Fingered Lucy poster AND a Digital Download of Five-Fingered Lucy!
$1,000
A Grabbed Grand
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER credit for Five-Fingered Lucy! Big font, your own title screen, listed on the poster with the Director, Actors, and Key Crew.
FREE video editing and shooting services (up to 3 days work) from the director, Jack Lawrence Mayer AND spend a day on set (January 2015) AND access to a behind the scenes blog of the making of the film AND a Five-Fingered Lucy poster AND a Digital Download of Five-Fingered Lucy!
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Wishlist
Use the WishList to pledge cash and loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an incentive directly.
$10
A Snatched Pack of Cigarettes
Special Thanks in the credits!
$25
A Nice Nipped Necklace
Digital Download of Five-Fingered Lucy AND Special Thanks in the credits!
$50
A Pilfered Pair of Converse
Five-Fingered Lucy poster AND a Digital Download of Five-Fingered Lucy AND Special Thanks in the credits!
$100
A Nabbed Nano iPod
Tickets to the Los Angeles premiere AND on screen Producer Credit for Five-Fingered Lucy AND access to a behind the scenes blog of the making of the film AND a Five-Fingered Lucy poster AND a Digital Download of Five-Fingered Lucy!
$200
A Filched First Edition Flaubert
Spend a day on set (January 2015)! AND tickets to the Los Angeles premiere AND on screen Producer Credit for Five-Fingered Lucy AND access to a behind the scenes blog of the making of the film AND Five-Fingered Lucy poster AND a Digital Download of Five-Fingered Lucy!
$500
A Smuggled Satchel of Saffron
FREE video editing and shooting services (up to 3 days work) from the director, Jack Lawrence Mayer AND spend a day on set (January 2015) AND on screen Producer Credit for Five-Fingered Lucy AND acess to a behind the scenes blog of the making of the film AND Five-Fingered Lucy poster AND a Digital Download of Five-Fingered Lucy!
$1,000
A Grabbed Grand
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER credit for Five-Fingered Lucy! Big font, your own title screen, listed on the poster with the Director, Actors, and Key Crew.
FREE video editing and shooting services (up to 3 days work) from the director, Jack Lawrence Mayer AND spend a day on set (January 2015) AND access to a behind the scenes blog of the making of the film AND a Five-Fingered Lucy poster AND a Digital Download of Five-Fingered Lucy!
- Updates
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Current Team
About This Team
JACK LAWRENCE MAYER (writer & director) is the co-writer and director of Single Long, a seven-episode HBO GO digital comedy. He is the co-creator of numberous web series, including L.A. Famous (2014), and Pushing 23 (2010). He is the co-founder of Screen Door, a live movie company based in Chicago. He was the 2012 recepient of the Edes Prize for Emerging Artists. He is the writer and director of numerous short films including, How To Say I Love You with Video (Portable.tv), Exit Ghost @ High Concept Labs, and Waltz Across.LEIGH LISBÃO UNDERWOOD (director of photography) is an award-winning director of photography with Brazilian and American roots. His work has been seen at festivals including Cannes, Tribeca, and Palm Springs, and on American television in several features for the Lifetime network. His credits include the upcoming independent features 1915, Brasil Meu Amor, and Sugar Baby. A graduate of UCLA's MFA Program in Cinematography, he has studied under seasoned cinematographers including John Simmons, ASC, John Bailey ASC, Richard Crudo ASC, and Vilmos Zsigmond ASC. He was the recipient of the award for best cinematography at the Palm Springs International Shortfest in 2013 for his work on the short film, The Boy Scout. Leigh has worked internationally in South Africa, Mexico, Germany and Austria, and is based in Los Angeles and Berlin. http://leighunderwood.com/MICHAEL GOLAS (composer) I am a Chicago based guitarist actively involved in the greater music and arts scene. Original works are heavily influenced by the avant garde of folk and jazz, and thrive as a collaborator in my work with other musicians and artists. I actively play, write and record with the indie rock band Exit Ghost out of Chicago and, as an individual, have worked on compositions and performances with Screen Door, HBO, and a great amount of incredible musicians and their own works. http://www.michaelgolas.com/CLAIRE HUNGERFORD (art director) is an art director and seamstrss-baker-potter-painter living in Los Angeles.MARTINE MOORE (lead actress) most recently appeared in the short film Escape from Garden Grove (Sundance Channel Shorts Top 10, Barcelona Int'l Film Festival). She has worked with the Barrow Group Theater, The Seeing Place Theater, and Ugly Rhino Theater in New York City. She appears in the web series Ingenue and Job Monkey, and the HBO GO Original Series, Single Long.ALEX DOBRENKO (lead actor) is an actor and improviser living in Los Angeles, CA. He recently starred in the comedy-mystery "Arlo and Julie" which premiered at SXSW 2014 to rave reviews from Variety, BadAss Digest, Austin Chronicle and others. Wired Magazine called Alex one of the "15 Most Fascinating Filmmakers and Stars at SXSW." You can catch him next in "Icon" starring Ben Foster, Lee Pace and Dustin Hoffman (Alex played Dustin Hoffman's son - a personal dream come true), the indie romantic comedy "Quaker Oaths," the horror comedy "The Lumberjack Man" starring Michael Madsen and the Houston made "Krisha". You can also catch Alex at improv theaters across Los Angeles CA. He is currently taking classes at the Upright Citizens Brigade. Alex also retains an active role at Tugg, a film start up based out of Austin.BRANDON RUITER (lead actor) is an Actor from Chicago, IL where he is company Member at The House Theatre of Chicago. His most recent credits include NBC's Crisis and the Warner Bros. feature film Into the Storm. His most recent wardrobe includes pants. -
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