Helen
Los Angeles, California | Film Short
Action, Horror
HELEN is a horror short film by the Dell Sisters. Tracing perfectionism that descends into obsession, HELEN follows a woman facing her fear and fighting to overcome it. The initial funding is Greenlit but we have BIGGER PLANS – see all the stretch goals in our Updates and please support!
Green Light
This campaign raised $7,013 for post-production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
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HELEN is a horror short film by the Dell Sisters. Tracing perfectionism that descends into obsession, HELEN follows a woman facing her fear and fighting to overcome it. The initial funding is Greenlit but we have BIGGER PLANS – see all the stretch goals in our Updates and please support!
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
The Story
We're the Dell Sisters, and we make female-driven movies in Los Angeles. We made the dance feature, B-Girl, and have since made action movies everywhere from a vineyard to a prison. When we’re not shooting narrative films we’re making branded and digital content for the likes of Anheuser-Busch and Dreamworks TV, writing comic books, and organizing film conferences and panels from Nashville to Hong Kong. We now have our sights set on another passion, horror films. Breaking into genre filmmaking is hard, but it’s especially tough for women. So we made a terrifying short film to show what we got.
HELEN began with a pretty simple meditation on horror movies. In search of the essence of real fear we asked ourselves, "What really haunts us?" As highly motivated people--perfectionists, you might say--we are both haunted by failure, the fear that maybe we're not good enough. It's anxiety, but specifically it's anxiety that becomes a sense of dread. Here's how Emily, the writer/director half of the Dell Sisters, puts it:
"A part of me is driven not just by the joy of success, but also the fear of failure. And that fear can drive you to work hard and set a high bar for yourself, but if it becomes too great it can also paralyze you. And out of that extreme anxiety we created a real demon, the FURY."
Like us, our heroine, Helen, cares a lot about doing well at work. Also like us, she messes up occasionally. And when she’s given the lead on a client presentation, all she can think about is a minor faux pas she made in a prep meeting. Her usual mindfulness kicks into overdrive, and her focus transforms into obsession. And ultimately, her anxiety comes to life as the FURY.
This short film stands out because it explores the extremes of an emotion we all experience. Maybe our anxiety has never actually tried to kill us, but it can absolutely feel like that sometimes. With HELEN, we are putting that battle on screen in all its terrifying glory. And that's why your support means so much to this film. In order to make this struggle look as scary as it deserves, we need funds for post-production. We want you to be able to watch this at a film festival near you. And when you're at the film festival, we want the VFX to take this from a movie that makes you scared, to a movie that makes you jump and spill your popcorn. Ultimately, we want the success of this short to help us make a horror feature. This is possible with your support. As a horror fan, as someone who would like to kick their own anxiety's ass, as someone who wants to see a woman fight her fear, as some who believes in the Dell Sisters as filmmakers, please support and be a part of HELEN. Thank you!
Sincerely,
Elizabeth and Emily Dell
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Festival Submission Fees
Costs $250
To bring HELEN to a film festival near you!
Visual Effects
Costs $2,500
Great visual effects to bring the FURY to life!
Color Correction
Costs $750
The FURY thrives in the dark, help Helen see it
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Emily Dell, Director/Writer
Emily Dell is the Writer/Director half of the Dell Sisters. She and Elizabeth created and run Two Camels Films. Emily wrote and directed the dance feature B-GIRL which was distributed around the world and won “Best Feature” at the LA Femme Film Festival.
Emily is writing/directing the feature films RULES OF BUSINESS and TIGER MOTHER. She directs digital content for companies such as Estee Lauder and DreamworksTV and is actively writing the comic ROMEO & JULIET AND GUNS for imprint Emet Comics (Issue 2 out soon!). Her action short THE COMPASS ROSE won “Best Action” at the Niagara Film Festival. Other awards include: Best Short Screenplay (2014 Woods Hole Film Festival), Best Short (Berkeley Film Festival), The Writers Arc Screenplay Fellowship, Writers Colony Dairy Hollow Residency and the Virginia Creative Arts Residency. She is represented as a Commercial director by Elder Productions.
Emily played rugby at UC Berkeley, studied film at NYU and Shakespeare at Oxford. She is a member of The Writers Guild, Film Fatales and sits on the board of the Alliance of Women Directors.
Elizabeth Dell, Producer
Elizabeth is the Producer half of the Dell Sisters and Two Camels Films. She has known her business partner Emily Dell for a long time. She produced B-GIRL, the narrative hip-hop dance feature that was distributed worldwide and featured on Showtime, Encore and Starz networks and Netflix.
She is currently producing several Mandarin-language and Chinese-based action films, including RULES OF BUSINESS with the China Film Corporation (中国 电影集团公 司), and TIGER MOTHER, which earned a place in the Producers Guild of America’s (PGA) Diversity Workshop. Elizabeth is co-founder and CFO of Array Entertainment, a slate fund focused on female-driven genre films. She also produces digital media, overseeing 100+ episodes of branded content for YouTube and other platforms. Elizabeth is the Head of the Producer’s Guild of America’s (PGA) China Task Force, on the PGA International Committee and the PGA New Media Council.
Elizabeth and her sister are featured in the National Women’s History Museum. Elizabeth has a Chemistry degree from Amherst College and Masters in Public Health from UC Berkeley.
Bryce Lansing, Director of Photography
Bryce began shooting when he was 15 years old, mainly shooting skateboard films in his hometown Long Beach, CA. As he later branched off into Narrative Cinematography, he joined IATSE Local 728 as a Set Lighting Technician and worked for many years lighting under the industry's top Cinematographers. Currently Bryce works exclusively as a DP, shooting a variety of Narrative, Commercial, and Music Video work.
David Albright, Videographer, Behind the Scenes
David is a freelance video producer & documentary director based out of Seattle & Los Angeles. He has produced branded content for companies like Patrón, Kahlua, The Seattle Storm, The W Seattle Hotel, Playboy, Simon & Schuster and many others. He is also the go-to video producer for the startup & tech scene in Seattle, having produced for clients like Amazon.com, Allrecipes.com, The Washington Technology Industry Association, Liquid Planner, Limeade, Blue Nile & many more. See more of his work at dalbright.com.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
The Story
We're the Dell Sisters, and we make female-driven movies in Los Angeles. We made the dance feature, B-Girl, and have since made action movies everywhere from a vineyard to a prison. When we’re not shooting narrative films we’re making branded and digital content for the likes of Anheuser-Busch and Dreamworks TV, writing comic books, and organizing film conferences and panels from Nashville to Hong Kong. We now have our sights set on another passion, horror films. Breaking into genre filmmaking is hard, but it’s especially tough for women. So we made a terrifying short film to show what we got.
HELEN began with a pretty simple meditation on horror movies. In search of the essence of real fear we asked ourselves, "What really haunts us?" As highly motivated people--perfectionists, you might say--we are both haunted by failure, the fear that maybe we're not good enough. It's anxiety, but specifically it's anxiety that becomes a sense of dread. Here's how Emily, the writer/director half of the Dell Sisters, puts it:
"A part of me is driven not just by the joy of success, but also the fear of failure. And that fear can drive you to work hard and set a high bar for yourself, but if it becomes too great it can also paralyze you. And out of that extreme anxiety we created a real demon, the FURY."
Like us, our heroine, Helen, cares a lot about doing well at work. Also like us, she messes up occasionally. And when she’s given the lead on a client presentation, all she can think about is a minor faux pas she made in a prep meeting. Her usual mindfulness kicks into overdrive, and her focus transforms into obsession. And ultimately, her anxiety comes to life as the FURY.
This short film stands out because it explores the extremes of an emotion we all experience. Maybe our anxiety has never actually tried to kill us, but it can absolutely feel like that sometimes. With HELEN, we are putting that battle on screen in all its terrifying glory. And that's why your support means so much to this film. In order to make this struggle look as scary as it deserves, we need funds for post-production. We want you to be able to watch this at a film festival near you. And when you're at the film festival, we want the VFX to take this from a movie that makes you scared, to a movie that makes you jump and spill your popcorn. Ultimately, we want the success of this short to help us make a horror feature. This is possible with your support. As a horror fan, as someone who would like to kick their own anxiety's ass, as someone who wants to see a woman fight her fear, as some who believes in the Dell Sisters as filmmakers, please support and be a part of HELEN. Thank you!
Sincerely,
Elizabeth and Emily Dell
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Festival Submission Fees
Costs $250
To bring HELEN to a film festival near you!
Visual Effects
Costs $2,500
Great visual effects to bring the FURY to life!
Color Correction
Costs $750
The FURY thrives in the dark, help Helen see it
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Emily Dell, Director/Writer
Emily Dell is the Writer/Director half of the Dell Sisters. She and Elizabeth created and run Two Camels Films. Emily wrote and directed the dance feature B-GIRL which was distributed around the world and won “Best Feature” at the LA Femme Film Festival.
Emily is writing/directing the feature films RULES OF BUSINESS and TIGER MOTHER. She directs digital content for companies such as Estee Lauder and DreamworksTV and is actively writing the comic ROMEO & JULIET AND GUNS for imprint Emet Comics (Issue 2 out soon!). Her action short THE COMPASS ROSE won “Best Action” at the Niagara Film Festival. Other awards include: Best Short Screenplay (2014 Woods Hole Film Festival), Best Short (Berkeley Film Festival), The Writers Arc Screenplay Fellowship, Writers Colony Dairy Hollow Residency and the Virginia Creative Arts Residency. She is represented as a Commercial director by Elder Productions.
Emily played rugby at UC Berkeley, studied film at NYU and Shakespeare at Oxford. She is a member of The Writers Guild, Film Fatales and sits on the board of the Alliance of Women Directors.
Elizabeth Dell, Producer
Elizabeth is the Producer half of the Dell Sisters and Two Camels Films. She has known her business partner Emily Dell for a long time. She produced B-GIRL, the narrative hip-hop dance feature that was distributed worldwide and featured on Showtime, Encore and Starz networks and Netflix.
She is currently producing several Mandarin-language and Chinese-based action films, including RULES OF BUSINESS with the China Film Corporation (中国 电影集团公 司), and TIGER MOTHER, which earned a place in the Producers Guild of America’s (PGA) Diversity Workshop. Elizabeth is co-founder and CFO of Array Entertainment, a slate fund focused on female-driven genre films. She also produces digital media, overseeing 100+ episodes of branded content for YouTube and other platforms. Elizabeth is the Head of the Producer’s Guild of America’s (PGA) China Task Force, on the PGA International Committee and the PGA New Media Council.
Elizabeth and her sister are featured in the National Women’s History Museum. Elizabeth has a Chemistry degree from Amherst College and Masters in Public Health from UC Berkeley.
Bryce Lansing, Director of Photography
Bryce began shooting when he was 15 years old, mainly shooting skateboard films in his hometown Long Beach, CA. As he later branched off into Narrative Cinematography, he joined IATSE Local 728 as a Set Lighting Technician and worked for many years lighting under the industry's top Cinematographers. Currently Bryce works exclusively as a DP, shooting a variety of Narrative, Commercial, and Music Video work.
David Albright, Videographer, Behind the Scenes
David is a freelance video producer & documentary director based out of Seattle & Los Angeles. He has produced branded content for companies like Patrón, Kahlua, The Seattle Storm, The W Seattle Hotel, Playboy, Simon & Schuster and many others. He is also the go-to video producer for the startup & tech scene in Seattle, having produced for clients like Amazon.com, Allrecipes.com, The Washington Technology Industry Association, Liquid Planner, Limeade, Blue Nile & many more. See more of his work at dalbright.com.