Mid-20s Crisis - a Tomato Tomato Pictures Production

New York City, New York | Series

Comedy, Satire

Sara Demetree

1 Campaigns | New York, United States

Green Light

This campaign raised $6,647 for production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.

59 supporters | followers

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Mid-20s Crisis was written by a woman, will be directed by a woman, is being produced by women, and will feature a strong ensemble of women on the screen. It'll make you laugh while you simultaneously reach for the tissue box and your phone to text your friends you love them.

About The Project

  • The Story
  • Wishlist
  • Updates
  • The Team
  • Community

Mission Statement

Tomato Tomato is a production company founded by and for women who intend to use their platform to employ, uplift, and give voices to fellow women artists. -Sara Demetree & Emma Crockett.

The Story


Iris just turned 25. She has no career prospects, she doesn’t have a credit card, but the thing that is freaking her out the most is that she has never been in love. She’s always had this idea of who she would be when she grew up, but now, she is grown-up, and her life looks nothing like what she imagined. Thus ensues the existential crisis. Luckily, Iris has great friends, who remind her she’s not the only one struggling with these missed milestones. They all have something that eats away at them, that keeps them up at night. Mid-20’s Crisis is a story of adulthood, of being in your 20’s in New York City, of failures and friendships. This is a story for all those that still feel they’re coming of age.



What makes this story different from “Girls” or “Sex and the City” is the time in which we are making this and the generation we are making it with: Gen Z’s in post-pandemic New York City. We want to make people laugh and feel seen! They say you should make the kind of art that you would watch yourself, and "Mid-20s Crisis" is the kind of show we've been craving. We want to bring a voice to the challenges, mistakes, and aspirations women face in their mid-20s. As woman in our twenties, we feel the weight of so many unmet goals. Constantly seeing people succeed around us and feel a step (or two) behind. We’re all just trying to figure out who we are and where we fit into this world. While some of us are just learning how to pay our own taxes and apply for a credit card, others are buying a house and getting married.


"Mid-20s Crisis" is a project that speaks on the struggles of our generation, told straight from the horse’s mouth. A majority of our cast and crew is made up of women who have been drawn to this project because they feel represented within the story. Your involvement is not only an investment in this series, but also in a shared experience that resonates with many. 



When I moved to NYC at twenty, I was determined to be an actor. I was in a great acting school, meeting people, and getting better every day. The day after graduation I woke up with a pit in my stomach. I realized I no longer had any excuse. The amount of cold emails I sent in that first month out of acting school was enough to set some sort of record. The amount of responses I got back…. I can count on one hand. I truly felt a lack of control. To be an actor is to be at the mercy of other people’s opinions of you.


When I turned 23 I thought I was a failure. My eight-year old self who would recite her Oscar speech at night to help her fall asleep definitely thought she would have won an Oscar (or five) at this point. As laughable as that sounds to my grown-up self now, I still manifest those dreams. That's when I started writing. If no one would cast me, then I would cast myself! I wrote a short film about an influencer and filmed it with my friend's DSLR camera, guerilla filmmaking style. No budget with a five-person cast and crew, and it actually made people laugh!!? Writing finally allowed me to control my own narrative.


I'm a year out of school now, and most days, I feel like I know what I’m doing and the direction I am going. Other days, I look around at people my age who have a yearly salary, healthcare, and can afford to pay their own rent, and I panic. I don’t even want that life, but a part of me wonders if I should want it? I feel like I’m behind again. Should I be traveling? Should I be saving? Should I be dating? Should I be alone? This is how “Mid-20s Crisis” was born.



We are still in the early stages of creating "Mid-20s Crisis," and this campaign is crucial to fund our production and post-production. Reaching this goal will be a dream come true. We have big plans for this series, we want to make the whole thing. Once we finish filming and editing, we plan to submit the pilot to festivals in hopes to find a distributor that will help fund the rest of our series which will consist of six episodes. We want to eventually be able to compensate everyone who worked on and devoted their time to this project. If we happen to surpass our goal, that’s where the money will be going  first; paying our people. Then festival submissions, and finally, saving for the making of the rest of the episodes in the series. Your support is an integral part of this journey, and we are committed to keeping our supporters updated throughout our process.


Schedule for 2024:


Principal photography in NYC: January 4th - 8th


Post production: January 9th - March/April


Submission to festivals: April onward


Wishlist

Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.

Costume and Production Design

Costs $200

This would be for costuming and possible needs in terms of set dressing or production design (the background of what you see on the film).

ALL CREW

Costs $1,100

We believe crew members are invaluable to any tv/film set. Director, camera operators, lighting, electric, sound, etc.

Craft Services/Catering

Costs $1,500

This includes food for cast and crew, meals as well as snacks for a 4-day shoot.

Locations

Costs $800

This would be payment for any public locations we shoot in such as a bar, restaurant, or cafe.

Post-production Sound

Costs $500

This is sound editing for when we are finished filming and have to edit all the sound footage including sound mixing.

Graphics

Costs $250

This would be any graphics that need to be edited after the film is shot by a graphics designer.

Transportation

Costs $200

This would cover the cost of gas getting from one location to the next, as well as cast/crew travel expenses.

Insurance

Costs $500

This insurance would cover if there was damage to any equipment we use and/or accidents/injuries to cast/crew.

Post-production work

Costs $1,000

This is to cover administration fees/contingencies/unplanned expenses

Cash Pledge

Costs $0

About This Team



Sara Demetree and Emma Crockett decided to start Tomato Tomato while on a trip to the Toronto Film Festival. The girls were really inspired by seeing all of the artists at TIFF and how even a film with a small-budget and team could be a true success story. They decided that with the resources they had from acting school, people they collectively knew in NYC, and a great mindset - they too could be a success. As women they want women's stories to be heard and told, but also the importance of telling of the trials and tribulations that go into being young and living in one of the greatest - but most expensive cities in the world. Thinking about the last 25 years, yes women have told their stories of living in the Big Apple, it is not a new concept - but the pandemic really changed the people living in New York City. Emma and Sara had to spend the first year of acting school completely online. In one of the most social cities in the world, they were confined to their apartments. When they could finally go to school in person, it was with Covid tests and masks. Imagine learning and acting (including voice, dialect, and speech coaching) in a mask. The girls really heard a calling for change, and that is why our company was founded.



Sara Demetree (producer, casting director, production manager), is a New York based actor and producer. She graduated from the Atlantic Acting School, while studying acting she has also been involved in producing Broadway musicals since 2013. These credits include Moulin Rouge!, Wicked (Asia and Australia tour), Of Mice and Men, and Escape to Margaritaville. She is so excited to start working on tv/film and had her first experience working on a film set this year as an assistant on Wildcat directed by Ethan Hawke. Sara is a proud graduate of The Florida State University's BA Theatre program as well as the Editing, Writing, & Media program. In her spare time Sara makes product videos for Small Pet Select, a pet food company for small mammals, including her 3 rabbits Primrose, Chester, and Pepper. Find more at sara-demetree.com.


Emma Claire Crockett (producer, artistic director) - is a Brooklyn based actress and filmmaker. She studied at the the Atlantic Acting School (where she met a lot of her fellow collaborators!) Her most recent acting credit is in an upcoming horror short where she plays the titular character in “Poor Creature.” She currently interns at The Actor’s Studio where she gets to further study her passion for story telling. Find out more at https://www.emmaclairecrockett.com/.




Grace Rucci (screenwriter), is a New York Based actor, writer, and filmmaker. After graduating from the Atlantic Acting School she wrote and producer her first short film, “Influence,” (which you can now check out on YouTube!) Ever since then Grace has had the writing bug. She feels inspired by writer/actors such as Pheobe Waller Bridge, Lena Dunham, and of course, the GOAT, Greta Gerwig. All female artists who paved the way for women, like her, to see themselves as filmmakers. Grace is so honored to be Tomato Tomato’s first produced work, and can’t wait for audiences to see this silly, honest, relatable show they’ve created! Check out some of Grace's work here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhfUtHgvL9I&t=8s .


Yael Grunseit (director), is a filmmaker and writer originally from Sydney, currently living in New York. Her writing can be found at Harbor Editions, Voiceworks and Shirley Magazine. She is completing her MFA in film at Brooklyn College and is currently in post-production for her short A Big Hug. Her work often centres female sexuality, technology, friendship and tenderness.


Isa Furtado (cinematography), Isa is a cinematographer and director from Brazil who portrays stories of people from all over the world. In the past three years, she has been working as a director and DP on award-winning narrative and fashion films premiering in festivals in NY, Rome, Paris, and LA. She also is a professor assistant in the advanced cinematography undergrad class and directing class for masters at School of Visual Arts. “Being a Brazilian woman is an open invitation for people to put me in a box with their preconceptions of who I am. Through my work, I unapologetically show my real identity.”


Current Team

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