What kind of theatre company releases their cast list on Halloween?!?!?! What a way to ruin the party mood. For Emma, that’s exactly what happened. Dressed as a Newsie in culottes and all, she learns the devastating news that she’s been rejected from the Spring Musical. 

Meanwhile, her best friend, Lizbeth has taken shelter in the bathroom - hiding from someone dressed as Dracula who appeared to be stalking her around the party. 

Determined not to let any of this ruin their Halloween night, they pump themselves up with chocolate, bathroom pep talks, and a boss-bitch mirror selfie photoshoot. 

However, they are RUDELY interrupted by a blood-thirsty vampire Barbie! After defeating her in a death-defying battle using old tampons and a toilet plunger, they know…Dracula is real and has set their sights on Lizbeth. 

It’s up to Emma to take down Dracula  before Lizbeth and all the party-goers are turned into blood-thirsty vampy minions. 

EMMA (They/Them/She/Her)

Emma has never been a leading lady. They’ve tried and tried, but if theatre school has taught them anything it’s that…you know…some people got it and some people don’t. 

Sure, the setbacks have caused some major insecurities but they’re still determined to spend years as a broke actor waiting tables in New York trying to dazzle people on the Broadway stages before getting sick of being broke and pursuing a real estate license - Living the dream! Duh! 

Picking up a plunger and fighting the undead was certainly the last role they thought they’d be cast in, but when destiny calls, you gotta answer.  

LIZBETH (She/Her)

The kind of person you instantly fall in love with, Lizbeth controls any room she’s in. People don’t even have to ask what her major is because she screams *or rather - sings* Theatre Major. Of course, her brilliant personality aside, she has also been known to be cunning and resourceful, I mean, how else is one going to get anywhere in this world?

She adores her life and is always on the hunt to keep the party going. Literally nothing could ever get her down…except maybe Dracula attempting to make her a full blown Vampy Minion, but you know…never say never? 

DRACULA (They/Them / Your Highness Thank You Very Much)

Ugh. Another bio? Please. Dracula’s been around for fricken centuries, don’t you mortals get it by now? Fine. They’ll indulge you one last time. 

Dracula is a literal queen of night. Darkness is their domain. They are sexy and they know it so don’t even try and pretend like you weren’t looking their way. And hey- before you start groaning on and on about how cliché it is for a vampire to be out hunting on Halloween night, a lifetime of eternity is stupid exhausting, so why not have the occasional night of frivolity with walking happy meals?

BARBIE (She/Her)

You’ve seen Disco Barbie. You’ve seen Evening Gown Barbie. But nothing could have possibly prepared you for the fantabulous prowess of Vampire Barbie.

Not much is known about this exquisite minion of the underworld before Dracula turned her at a Halloween party, but she got her immortality, newfound strength and lust for blood and RAN.WITH.IT.

POP.PUNK.CAMP.

Our set dec and overall visual aesthetic will be an ode to 1960s & 70s glam with a grungy punk underground sound that really makes this Halloween party one to DIE for.  

"My brother made me watch Night of the Living Dead when I was five and I haven't been the same since" - Cassie 

Horror movies are a part of us on the Lost Boys Pizza team. We have such a love and admiration for the pratical effects, prop work, and makeup design that goes into making horror movies and we are dedicated to creating all of our effects in camera/on set, because honestly, what's the point of making a horror movie if your cast isn't getting covered in goo? 

Let's talk money! 

FOOD - $5000 

We're working with a cast and crew of 30-40 people for 6 days of shooting. For most productions, food costs will be about 30% of the budget which includes Crafty (snacks to keep our minions happy and energized), Catering (one to two meals per shooting day), and Coffee (to keep the director happy) 

CAST & CREW - $4000

We are fortunate enough to be working with amazingly talented cast and crew memebers. While the majority of our team is local to Chicago, we are working with a select few people from Los Angeles and will be flying them out and finding a place to house them becasue apparently Cassie's closet isn't an appropriate lodging option. 

COSTUMES, PROPS & SET DEC - $3000

We are SO GRATEFUL that DePaul University has sounds stages with pre-built sets for student to learn with and utilize for our own projects. In order to bring this punk pop Halloween party to life on these sets, we will need to seriously dec it out like an actual underground punk club. We are also bringing in our own bathroom stall to transform the bathroom set into a public bar bathroom. This set piece is also a staple in one of our big bad fight sequences.

Our costumes range from: Newsies, a Halloween Treat, 80's work-out Barbie, and Dracula. Multiples of these costumes will be needed as Halloween night progresses and our heroes go through multiple battles and get scathed (as one does at a Halloween party) 

We will also be utilizing several stunt props including a breakaway toilet lid, a wooden stake, and lots and lots of bloody tampons. 

SPECIAL FX - $1000 

Our team is dedicated to the application of in-camera special effects. As such, we will need to run tests before we get to set and practice with fake heads and bodies to pull off successful vamp staking and glitter explosions. 

POST PRODUCTION: EDITNG, COLOR CORRECTION, SOUND DESIGN - $2000 

Post is truely where the project comes together and is often overlooked in the pre-production process on student films. We want to make sure we get our post-production process on the right foot creating the smoothest process for our editing team, sound designer, and colorist in order to get our final project to you in a timely matter! 

So...Did you know that COVID-19 has affected filmmaking?

My cohort (my class) is known as the Covid Cohort because we started our program in 09/2020 - the first group of students to start film school completely online. No one was filming. Our classes focused on writing and teaching us shot composition and visual design.

This year has been a long and exhausting journey re-learning how to approach production in a COVID-19 world. Thankfully, DePaul has been guiding us, figuring out how we can best return to set safely to film our thesis projects. 

A LOOK INTO OUR COVID SAFETY PLAN:

• Proof of Vaccination will be required of all cast & crew
• A negative COVID-19 test must be provided before a member of the cast and crew can step onto set
• PPE including face masks and gloves will be provided to everyone on set, including personal mask baggies for cast to stow their masks while filmming
• Location
  • We are filming on Depaul Cinespace Sound Stages which provides us with: 
    • Space for Zone A and Zone B crew areas to socially distance during production
    • Great air filtration (which can be difficult when filmming in smaller spaces)
• Crafy & Catering
  • Snacks will be single served items 
  • Meals will be individually wrapped 
• Hair, Makeup & SFX
  • Filmming on DePaul's sound stages means we'll have plenty of space for socially distanced makeup stations for our cast members 
  • Our HMU & SFX artists will be provided with extra PPE (face shields and/or goggles) in addition to their masks when working in close proximity with our cast members 

I remember working in the Production Office of a very small budget streaming show a few years ago and a couple weeks into production, the flu had started going around to each member of the crew on set and eventually it reached those of us in the office. The production coordinator, both of our production assistants, and I (the production secretary) all had fevers and took turns napping in an empty office throughout the day because...that was...the only option any of us had at the time. If we can say there's something good that came from the pandemic, it's that the industry is finally taking the health of film crews seriously.

You know you want to.

Even if you are unable to contribute financially, we would LOVE to have you along for the ride! Please follow us on our social media!

Instagram: @lostboyspizzashortfilm

Facebook: @lostboyspizzashortfilm

TikTok: @lostboyspizzashort film

And follow our Seed & Spark campaign to stay up-to-date on the most recent and exciting news as we move from pre-production into production! Plus, as an added bonus, the more followers and online support we get, the more savings and discounts we recieve!!! Making a profile takes less than five minutes so it's perfect to do while you're on the train, ignoring the show you've got on TV right now, or even reading this on your bathroom break at work! 

If you can, please share our campaign with your friends, family, and that person you haven't talked to in like five years, but have been thinking about texting recently!

"But LBP, what will I say to them?" Well, lovely supporter, you! You can say something like this: 

"Hey! Check out this super awesome short film- I know I know, short film. gross. But trust me! This one ACTUALLY looks cool and fun! www.seedandspark.com/fund/lost-boys-pizza "

Or this:

"Hey Chuck! It's Marvin. Your cousin, MARVIN BARRY! You know that short film you've been dying to watch? Well look at this! www.seedandspark.com/fund/lost-boys-pizza "

Or this: 

"Hey! I found this super awesome short film campaign on Seed and Spark today. It's a thesis film for a grad student at DePaul about saving the world, but more importantly, a Halloween party, from vampires that explode into glitter! I thought you'd get a kick out of the page because you love campy horror comedies!! www.seedandspark.com/fund/lost-boys-pizza "