High
Tabernash, Colorado | Film Short
Drama, Experimental
High is a brazen exploration of the pervading desire for love in two wildly different lives. What are the consequences of the choices we make surrounding relationships? Deconstructing false ideas of wholeness, the film challenges us to examine what is blocking our own fulfillment.
High
Tabernash, Colorado | Film Short
Drama, Experimental
2 Campaigns | California, United States
Green Light
This campaign raised $6,450 for production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
65 supporters | followers
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High is a brazen exploration of the pervading desire for love in two wildly different lives. What are the consequences of the choices we make surrounding relationships? Deconstructing false ideas of wholeness, the film challenges us to examine what is blocking our own fulfillment.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
Hometown
Tabernash, Colorado.
Population: 417.
Heart of the Rockies. World-class skiing, hiking, biking, and climbing.
Many who live here moved from elsewhere because of an obsession with the mountains.
I grew up here.
My mom escaped to Breckenridge at nineteen and started working as a ski lift attendant. She met my Dad there twenty years later, and they moved to Tabernash so my Dad could work at the nearby Winter Park Resort; where I went to preschool, learned to ski, and had my first job bussing tables at fourteen.
Even after we'd moved to Denver, and even as I went away to school in Texas - went to work in France, and now New York - I've returned to these mountains every winter, every summer. I've grown up working seasonal resort jobs alongside young people who, like my mom, have big spirits and a passion for outdoor adventure that can't be restrained to loud cities and claustrophobic cubicles.
In my emptiest of moments, I return to these mountains, and they provide a seemingly eternal generosity. This film is a love letter to the nature that endures in the face of our weak humanity. The mountains act as a constant sanctuary for the film's rattled characters as their perceptions of themselves and their relationships are uprooted and thrashed about. When everything else is violently unsure, the mountains stand as beacons of serenity.
With this project, I hope to inspire reverence for the Rocky Mountains I know so well, and for nature as a whole, so that we can remember why we need a healthy earth to survive not just physically but spiritually - and so that we can be inspired to preserve nature's sanctuaries in this rapidly industrializing world.
^^ The view from Mark and Meg's mountain home - the central location of the film.
Single vs Family
Growing up, Disney told me stories of a man and a woman meeting, falling in love happily, getting married, and staying together forever in bliss.
In reality, watching the adults in my life, I did see some people come together, young and fresh-faced, head over heels, ready to commit. They did not always live in bliss. I also saw divorce, cheating, and marriages crumbling after years of loveless boredom. There also were - and still are - adult women and men in my life who never partnered off at all, and are dealing with the outcomes of it, good and bad.
This film is born to address the fact that, so often, a healthy partnership doesn't happen or last.
How do we endure the hard parts of belonging primarily to ourselves?
How are we blocking our own fulfillment?
Story Outline (Feature)
Sam - 32 - adrenaline-addicted nomad. Harbors a dark past. Isolated.
Meg - 26 - married at 22 to her first boyfriend. Prone to spells of depression and anxiety. A new mother who cares for the baby alone in her "dream" mountain home while her husband is away during the week for work. Isolated.
^^ Alone on the mountain, in a storm.
Winter. Current Day.
Sam falls off a cliff and hikes to a roadside where Meg finds her. Meg, alone and miserable with the baby, instantly recognizes her and picks her up. Long suppressed confrontations ensue.
The film is releasing summer 2018.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Camera
Costs $300
To rent a Canon70D for four days - or other camera depending on DP's request
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Actor Payment
Costs $1,000
Two leads - Four days. One Baby - Two days.
Crew Payment
Costs $2,000
Director of Photography, Assistant Director, Production Sound Mixer, Camera Op/Grip, Production Asst
Colorist
Costs $500
A professional to enhance the colors of the mountain scenery.
Post Production Sound Mixer
Costs $500
A professional to make the film sound its best.
Composer
Costs $250
Acoustic, folky, emotional masterpieces from Kaitlyn Williams to score the film.
Groceries, Meals
Costs $650
To feed and hydrate eight to ten people for four long days of shooting.
Equipment Rental
Costs $400
Money to rent Camera Equipment, Sound Equipment, and Lighting Equipment for four days
Props and Costume
Costs $200
Whatever costume and props we don't already own.
Gas Money
Costs $200
To pay for transport in between locations and to compensate cast and crew who drive up from Denver.
Festival Submissions & Screenings
Costs $1,500
Average festival submission fee is $50. Goal: 20-30 festival submissions & two of our own screenings
Share this update!
About This Team
Eva MeiLing Pollitt (Producer/Writer/Director)
Eva MeiLing Pollitt grew up in a ski town. Starting in 6th grade, she spent the school week in Denver to attend Denver School of the Arts as a theatre major. During vacations home in college, she began working with the professional theatre and film community in Denver as a teacher at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, while also working seasonal jobs at the ski resort on the weekends.
Eva grew up immersed in the arts community in Colorado and in the mountains of Colorado. She is thrilled to participate in the Hometown Heroes Rally with her film High not only because the story of the project is keeping her awake at night, but also because it will allow her to merge the artistic community and the splendid natural environment of her childhood.
Eva is an award-winning filmmaker, produced playwright, and prize-winning undergraduate research scholar. You can read more about her work at her Seed & Spark Profile.
Madeline Barr (Co-Producer/Actor - Meg) -
Madeline and Eva met in 6th grade at Denver School of the Arts. Through out adolescence, they collaborated on early projects; music videos filmed on a camcorder in parents' attics, comedic skits performed on cabaret stages, and Shakespeare scenes performed at school. Today, after receiving BFAs from prestigious universities, they share an apartment in Brooklyn and continue to collaborate on professional film and theatre projects in New York. High was born from their conversations about singleness vs. motherhood and their shared dream to film a project in their home state.
Madeline is an award-winning actor, writer, theatre deviser, and director. You can learn more about her work at her website.
Leah Watson (Actor - Sam)
Originally from Denver Colorado, Leah started performing and creating as soon as she could walk. In the last 10 years she has cultivated her craft at Denver School of the Arts, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, The School at Steppenwolf, and University of Colorado. As Madeline and Eva brainstormed on what Colorado-based actors they knew who could rock the role of Sam, they found Leah's reel on IMDB. Leah continues to inspire with her remarkable film work and has now come on board as an enthusiastic collaborator.
Kaitlyn "Kdubbs" Williams (Composer)
Kaitlyn and Eva both grew up in Tabernash, Colorado and attended the same summer musical theatre camp in the nearby Grand Lake, Colorado as pre-teens. Kaitlyn amazed the camp group performing ballads she had written herself. Since then, Eva has continued to follow Kaitlyn on her social media, as Kaitlyn has studied music at the prestigious Indiana University Jacobs School of Music (best in the country!) and performed concerts all over the Colorado area.
As Eva considered which Colorado musicians she knew, she rewatched some of Kaitlyn's pieces on Kaitlyn's Instagram, and found the strong acoustic guitar, audacious female vocals, and all around powerful warmth she was looking for.
A Note
All of these artists are people who grew up in Colorado alongside one another. They share a passion for the mountains and a passion to tell this story about human connection, love, and isolation.
The producers want to create a team composed of mainly Colorado artists. If YOU are a Colorado-based or Colorado-born filmmaker and are interested in collaborating on this project, please contact us at [email protected].
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
Hometown
Tabernash, Colorado.
Population: 417.
Heart of the Rockies. World-class skiing, hiking, biking, and climbing.
Many who live here moved from elsewhere because of an obsession with the mountains.
I grew up here.
My mom escaped to Breckenridge at nineteen and started working as a ski lift attendant. She met my Dad there twenty years later, and they moved to Tabernash so my Dad could work at the nearby Winter Park Resort; where I went to preschool, learned to ski, and had my first job bussing tables at fourteen.
Even after we'd moved to Denver, and even as I went away to school in Texas - went to work in France, and now New York - I've returned to these mountains every winter, every summer. I've grown up working seasonal resort jobs alongside young people who, like my mom, have big spirits and a passion for outdoor adventure that can't be restrained to loud cities and claustrophobic cubicles.
In my emptiest of moments, I return to these mountains, and they provide a seemingly eternal generosity. This film is a love letter to the nature that endures in the face of our weak humanity. The mountains act as a constant sanctuary for the film's rattled characters as their perceptions of themselves and their relationships are uprooted and thrashed about. When everything else is violently unsure, the mountains stand as beacons of serenity.
With this project, I hope to inspire reverence for the Rocky Mountains I know so well, and for nature as a whole, so that we can remember why we need a healthy earth to survive not just physically but spiritually - and so that we can be inspired to preserve nature's sanctuaries in this rapidly industrializing world.
^^ The view from Mark and Meg's mountain home - the central location of the film.
Single vs Family
Growing up, Disney told me stories of a man and a woman meeting, falling in love happily, getting married, and staying together forever in bliss.
In reality, watching the adults in my life, I did see some people come together, young and fresh-faced, head over heels, ready to commit. They did not always live in bliss. I also saw divorce, cheating, and marriages crumbling after years of loveless boredom. There also were - and still are - adult women and men in my life who never partnered off at all, and are dealing with the outcomes of it, good and bad.
This film is born to address the fact that, so often, a healthy partnership doesn't happen or last.
How do we endure the hard parts of belonging primarily to ourselves?
How are we blocking our own fulfillment?
Story Outline (Feature)
Sam - 32 - adrenaline-addicted nomad. Harbors a dark past. Isolated.
Meg - 26 - married at 22 to her first boyfriend. Prone to spells of depression and anxiety. A new mother who cares for the baby alone in her "dream" mountain home while her husband is away during the week for work. Isolated.
^^ Alone on the mountain, in a storm.
Winter. Current Day.
Sam falls off a cliff and hikes to a roadside where Meg finds her. Meg, alone and miserable with the baby, instantly recognizes her and picks her up. Long suppressed confrontations ensue.
The film is releasing summer 2018.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Camera
Costs $300
To rent a Canon70D for four days - or other camera depending on DP's request
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Actor Payment
Costs $1,000
Two leads - Four days. One Baby - Two days.
Crew Payment
Costs $2,000
Director of Photography, Assistant Director, Production Sound Mixer, Camera Op/Grip, Production Asst
Colorist
Costs $500
A professional to enhance the colors of the mountain scenery.
Post Production Sound Mixer
Costs $500
A professional to make the film sound its best.
Composer
Costs $250
Acoustic, folky, emotional masterpieces from Kaitlyn Williams to score the film.
Groceries, Meals
Costs $650
To feed and hydrate eight to ten people for four long days of shooting.
Equipment Rental
Costs $400
Money to rent Camera Equipment, Sound Equipment, and Lighting Equipment for four days
Props and Costume
Costs $200
Whatever costume and props we don't already own.
Gas Money
Costs $200
To pay for transport in between locations and to compensate cast and crew who drive up from Denver.
Festival Submissions & Screenings
Costs $1,500
Average festival submission fee is $50. Goal: 20-30 festival submissions & two of our own screenings
Share this update!
About This Team
Eva MeiLing Pollitt (Producer/Writer/Director)
Eva MeiLing Pollitt grew up in a ski town. Starting in 6th grade, she spent the school week in Denver to attend Denver School of the Arts as a theatre major. During vacations home in college, she began working with the professional theatre and film community in Denver as a teacher at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, while also working seasonal jobs at the ski resort on the weekends.
Eva grew up immersed in the arts community in Colorado and in the mountains of Colorado. She is thrilled to participate in the Hometown Heroes Rally with her film High not only because the story of the project is keeping her awake at night, but also because it will allow her to merge the artistic community and the splendid natural environment of her childhood.
Eva is an award-winning filmmaker, produced playwright, and prize-winning undergraduate research scholar. You can read more about her work at her Seed & Spark Profile.
Madeline Barr (Co-Producer/Actor - Meg) -
Madeline and Eva met in 6th grade at Denver School of the Arts. Through out adolescence, they collaborated on early projects; music videos filmed on a camcorder in parents' attics, comedic skits performed on cabaret stages, and Shakespeare scenes performed at school. Today, after receiving BFAs from prestigious universities, they share an apartment in Brooklyn and continue to collaborate on professional film and theatre projects in New York. High was born from their conversations about singleness vs. motherhood and their shared dream to film a project in their home state.
Madeline is an award-winning actor, writer, theatre deviser, and director. You can learn more about her work at her website.
Leah Watson (Actor - Sam)
Originally from Denver Colorado, Leah started performing and creating as soon as she could walk. In the last 10 years she has cultivated her craft at Denver School of the Arts, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, The School at Steppenwolf, and University of Colorado. As Madeline and Eva brainstormed on what Colorado-based actors they knew who could rock the role of Sam, they found Leah's reel on IMDB. Leah continues to inspire with her remarkable film work and has now come on board as an enthusiastic collaborator.
Kaitlyn "Kdubbs" Williams (Composer)
Kaitlyn and Eva both grew up in Tabernash, Colorado and attended the same summer musical theatre camp in the nearby Grand Lake, Colorado as pre-teens. Kaitlyn amazed the camp group performing ballads she had written herself. Since then, Eva has continued to follow Kaitlyn on her social media, as Kaitlyn has studied music at the prestigious Indiana University Jacobs School of Music (best in the country!) and performed concerts all over the Colorado area.
As Eva considered which Colorado musicians she knew, she rewatched some of Kaitlyn's pieces on Kaitlyn's Instagram, and found the strong acoustic guitar, audacious female vocals, and all around powerful warmth she was looking for.
A Note
All of these artists are people who grew up in Colorado alongside one another. They share a passion for the mountains and a passion to tell this story about human connection, love, and isolation.
The producers want to create a team composed of mainly Colorado artists. If YOU are a Colorado-based or Colorado-born filmmaker and are interested in collaborating on this project, please contact us at [email protected].