Normans
Los Angeles, California | Film Short
Comedy, Drama
Norman is tolerated but unseen; he lives a life on the periphery, invisible in the world. A strange series of events leads him to a late-night support group for men who share his name -- and his condition. To them, Norman isn't just a name. It's a pattern. And their leader has a plan.
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Goal: $20,000 for production
Norman is tolerated but unseen; he lives a life on the periphery, invisible in the world. A strange series of events leads him to a late-night support group for men who share his name -- and his condition. To them, Norman isn't just a name. It's a pattern. And their leader has a plan.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
There’s a specific kind of loneliness that comes from feeling invisible in your own life.
Not dramatic loneliness. Not cinematic loneliness. The quieter kind. The kind where people forget your name seconds after hearing it. Where you become dependable instead of memorable. Functional instead of seen.
That feeling became the seed for NORMANS.
What started as a dark joke — “What if being named Norman was treated like a social condition?” — slowly evolved into something much stranger, funnier, and more personal. Beneath the absurd premise is a story about belonging, identity, masculinity, and the dangerous comfort of being told there's a simple explanation for you feel disconnected from the world.
Tonally, NORMANS lives somewhere between The Lobster, Being John Malkovich, and Brazil — deadpan, unsettling, funny, and painfully human.
The film follows a man who has spent his entire life unnoticed, until one day somebody finally notices him. Unfortunately, it’s a cult-like support group for men named Norman who believe the world is systematically suppressing them.
The humor comes from how seriously everyone takes this idea.
The danger comes from how badly they need it to be true.
At its core, NORMANS is about the human need to feel seen — and how easily that need can be manipulated.
We’re making this film because we believe audiences are hungry for stories that are original, uncomfortable, funny, and deeply reflective of the strange moment we’re all living through. Stories that make us laugh… and then make us question why we were laughing in the first place.
I know why NORMANS makes me laugh, but my hope is that it speaks to audiences for their own reasons — whether that’s loneliness, identity, belonging, insecurity, or simply the absurdity of trying to exist in the modern world. If it connects in just one honest way, that’s enough.
I’d love to follow in the footsteps of filmmakers such as Spike Jonze, Terry Gilliam, and David Cronenberg — they have always approached strange, surreal stories with sincerity and humanity. That’s the tradition I hope NORMANS belongs to: weird, funny, unsettling films that use absurdity to say something painfully real.
With your support, we can bring this bizarre little world to life.
And hopefully make something unforgettable about people who are terrified of being forgettable.
Norman is a middle-aged office worker whose greatest talent is going unnoticed. He lives a life defined by quiet insignificance.
At work, coworkers constantly call him the wrong name — Neil, Nate, Nick — and he never corrects them. His apartment is devoid of personality. His life of monotony runs on quiet routine and lowered expectations. He exists on the periphery, tolerated but unseen.
Then one day, after an embarrassing lunch incident at work, Norman discovers a strange flyer in a coffee shop that seems to be made just for him:
“ARE YOU A NORMAN?”
Curiosity — or desperation — leads him to a late-night support group made up entirely of men named Norman. Each share eerily similar experiences of being overlooked, underestimated, and quietly relied upon.
To them, “Norman” isn’t just a name.
It’s a condition.
Leading the group is Alpha Norman, only slightly more charismatic, and a deeply sincere man who reframes their invisibility as something intentional: the world depends on Normans, he argues, which is why it keeps them small, manageable, and unseen.
What begins as validation slowly evolves into ideology.
Then ritual.
Then something far more dangerous.
As Norman becomes increasingly pulled into the group’s worldview, he’s forced to confront a question he’s artfully avoided:
Is he finally being seen… or simply being told who he is… again?
NORMANS is a dark comedy about loneliness, identity, and the stories people tell themselves in order to feel seen.
The film explores how ordinary frustrations — feeling ignored, forgotten, unseen — can become powerful when someone reframes them as part of a larger system. What begins as harmless validation can quickly transform into tribalism, grievance, and blind belonging.
But the film is also deeply empathetic toward its characters.
The Normans are not villains. They are people desperate for meaning. Desperate for recognition. Desperate to believe their pain matters.
And that need is universal.
Despite its absurd premise, the film aims to feel painfully human. Because the truth is:
Everyone has felt like a Norman at some point.
Are you a Norman? Take our quiz and find out!
DEAD PAN. SATIRICAL. UNSETTLING.
Normans is a DARK ABSURDIST COMEDY grounded in realism.
The world is familiar but slightly off—heightened in subtle ways. Performances are deadpan and restrained, allowing the absurdity of the situation to emerge organically.
The humor comes from SOCIAL DISCOMFORT, overly serious treatment of trivial ideas, and the
gap between perception and reality.
As the film progresses, the tone shifts gradually from awkward comedy → unsettling satire → quiet psychological horror.
FLUORESCENT. COMPOSED. ABUSRD
The look elevates Normans internal struggles with composition, lighting, and color palette. Framed with the precision and seriousness of a psychological thriller.
The camera observes the characters with uncomfortable patience. Static compositions, symmetrical framing, slow pushes, and overly composed wide shots emphasize the emotional rigidity of the world and the quiet absurdity trapped inside it.
MUTED. BARE. MONOTONE
The locations that form the world Norman inhabits reflect his painfully average and invisible existence.
The color palette begins muted and institutional: soft grays, washed-out blues, faded greens, sickly fluorescents. A world designed to feel emotionally pre-installed.
As the Normans begin to find belonging and purpose, the imagery becomes subtly more heightened and controlled, reflecting the seductive certainty of the group.
FUNTIONAL. DETAILED. OUTDATED
Just like Norman, the production design reflects a world filled with objects that feel
mass-produced, faded, and forgotten:
Fluorescent lighting, generic artwork, stained office carpet, mismatched folding chairs, microwaves with broken clocks, coffee mugs no one claims. Nothing is overtly stylized, but everything feels emotionally standardized and outdated.
Normans will shoot over 4 productions days mid-August with a small but professional cast and crew in Los Angeles, California. With the $20K we are raising through Seed & Spark, we will be able to pay our cast and crew a small daily rate for their work on the project, but also put as much on the screen as possible with our locations and production design. Below you can see how we have these funds allocated.
Are you a Norman? Take our quiz and find out!
Late June 2026: Launch our Seed&Spark campaign
Late July 2025: Complete our Seed&Spark campaign
June through July 2026: Pre-Production
Mid August 2026: Principal Photography
September - December 2026: Post-Production
Winter 2026: Festival Submissions!
CAMPAIGN GOAL - $20,000
Why do we need to raise $20K on Seed&Spark to make this short film? Because we have amazing artists at every level showcasing their talents and we want to pay them all. We have multiple locations that will bring the world of Normans to life and really sell the tone and situational comedy of the story. We have production and costume design that will help create specific and thought out environments, looks, and textures where the story of Normans will shine. The costs of making a great film adds up quickly. We want to do right by Normans and our team!
**All donations are in collaboration with our Fiscal Sponsor, Alliance of Women Directors, and are tax-deductible**
STRETCH GOAL - $30,000
Any additional funds raised will help cover our post-production costs such as editing, color correction, sound design, music, and score!
- Back our campaign! Your dollars go directly to making this film a reality.
- Follow our campaign on Seed&Spark. By clicking FOLLOW at the top of the page you'll receive updates from our team and give us momentum by showing the audience we have reached.
- Spread the word IRL and online! Follow us on all the platforms: AreYouANorman. It helps more than you know!
Are you a Norman? Take our quiz and find out!
Norman's Debut album - All By Myself (1993)
Featuring Norman on Vocals
Featuring Norman on Bass
Featuring Norman on Keys
and
Featuring Norman on Drums
Perfect for dance parties of 1!
Hits include:
Alone - Heart
Creep - Radiohead
Boulevard of Broken Dreams - Green Day
Here I Go Again - Whitesnake
Dancing On My Own - Robyn
I Wish - Skee-lo
Loser - Beck
I'm Still Standing - Elton John
Mr. Cellophane - John C. Reilly (Chicago)
of course All By Myself.... AND MORE....
Check out @AreYouANorman for more details!
**Graphics for incentive images and album cover contain AI Generated photos **
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Cubicle Farm Location
Costs $2,000
Help us secure the perfect cubicle farm where Norman works and truly feels invisible.
Rec Center Location
Costs $4,000
Help us secure the recreation center where Norman finds his truth... or so he thinks.
Catering + Craft Services
Costs $1,500
We would love to feed our cast and crew well and keep them happy while asking them to do amazing and hard work for lower rates
Production Design
Costs $1,000
Help us build the weird and specific world of NORMANS and bring it to life with the amazing props and design needed to make it feel real
Costume Purchases + Rentals
Costs $1,000
Help us dress our cast in oversized, ill-fitting, out of touch clothes so they can truly become Normans.
Location Permits + Fees
Costs $2,000
This will allow us to shoot in and around our hometown of sunny Los Angeles!
Casting
Costs $2,000
This will allow us to hire talented actors who are already taking a lower rate to help us bring NORMANS to life!
Crew
Costs $6,500
Help us pay the amazing people who are working for reduced rates to bring every aspect of this story and world of NORMANS to life!
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
RACHAEL MIRA KLIMAN
Writer/Director/Producer
I did the whole film school thing at NYU Tisch and AFI. I’ve been lucky enough to travel the world photographing my experiences. I am a Local 600 union member. I nerd out on Sci-Fi and dystopian futures. And I love a good slice of life movie about people where not much even happens. I believe passion is contagious and even sometimes outweighs resources. I love to embroider, make pasta from scratch, and want to have a vegetable garden one day. I’m drawn to character driven stories about the human experience and collaborations with filmmakers who use every aspect of this medium as a chance to elevate what’s on the page. I hope one day that I get to be a part of making something that moves people, makes people feel something, makes people think, and maybe even brings people together in a theater to laugh and cry and have a shared experience with a bunch of strangers.
JACKIE RYAN-KRICHEVSKY
Producer
Jackie is a Producers Guild of America physical production committee co-chair with decades of producing experience in film and episodic TV, including Pretty Little Liars and The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers. She is currently producing several projects for Lost Light Films and Sr. Manager of Production Innovation for Disney Television. Her award-winning productions have been distributed by Canal+ and selected at festivals globally, and she was recently selected to live pitch on the main stage of the Marche du Film Cannes.
SANAM SAFINIA
Producer
Raised in Carlsbad, but grew up in LA. Started in the industry in 2015 through the Production Office, with every intention of scooting into a Writer's room. Worked in the Production Office on several TV shows and movies, but needed a change. With grit and moxie became and still works as a 399 Teamster and does independent writing and producing.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
There’s a specific kind of loneliness that comes from feeling invisible in your own life.
Not dramatic loneliness. Not cinematic loneliness. The quieter kind. The kind where people forget your name seconds after hearing it. Where you become dependable instead of memorable. Functional instead of seen.
That feeling became the seed for NORMANS.
What started as a dark joke — “What if being named Norman was treated like a social condition?” — slowly evolved into something much stranger, funnier, and more personal. Beneath the absurd premise is a story about belonging, identity, masculinity, and the dangerous comfort of being told there's a simple explanation for you feel disconnected from the world.
Tonally, NORMANS lives somewhere between The Lobster, Being John Malkovich, and Brazil — deadpan, unsettling, funny, and painfully human.
The film follows a man who has spent his entire life unnoticed, until one day somebody finally notices him. Unfortunately, it’s a cult-like support group for men named Norman who believe the world is systematically suppressing them.
The humor comes from how seriously everyone takes this idea.
The danger comes from how badly they need it to be true.
At its core, NORMANS is about the human need to feel seen — and how easily that need can be manipulated.
We’re making this film because we believe audiences are hungry for stories that are original, uncomfortable, funny, and deeply reflective of the strange moment we’re all living through. Stories that make us laugh… and then make us question why we were laughing in the first place.
I know why NORMANS makes me laugh, but my hope is that it speaks to audiences for their own reasons — whether that’s loneliness, identity, belonging, insecurity, or simply the absurdity of trying to exist in the modern world. If it connects in just one honest way, that’s enough.
I’d love to follow in the footsteps of filmmakers such as Spike Jonze, Terry Gilliam, and David Cronenberg — they have always approached strange, surreal stories with sincerity and humanity. That’s the tradition I hope NORMANS belongs to: weird, funny, unsettling films that use absurdity to say something painfully real.
With your support, we can bring this bizarre little world to life.
And hopefully make something unforgettable about people who are terrified of being forgettable.
Norman is a middle-aged office worker whose greatest talent is going unnoticed. He lives a life defined by quiet insignificance.
At work, coworkers constantly call him the wrong name — Neil, Nate, Nick — and he never corrects them. His apartment is devoid of personality. His life of monotony runs on quiet routine and lowered expectations. He exists on the periphery, tolerated but unseen.
Then one day, after an embarrassing lunch incident at work, Norman discovers a strange flyer in a coffee shop that seems to be made just for him:
“ARE YOU A NORMAN?”
Curiosity — or desperation — leads him to a late-night support group made up entirely of men named Norman. Each share eerily similar experiences of being overlooked, underestimated, and quietly relied upon.
To them, “Norman” isn’t just a name.
It’s a condition.
Leading the group is Alpha Norman, only slightly more charismatic, and a deeply sincere man who reframes their invisibility as something intentional: the world depends on Normans, he argues, which is why it keeps them small, manageable, and unseen.
What begins as validation slowly evolves into ideology.
Then ritual.
Then something far more dangerous.
As Norman becomes increasingly pulled into the group’s worldview, he’s forced to confront a question he’s artfully avoided:
Is he finally being seen… or simply being told who he is… again?
NORMANS is a dark comedy about loneliness, identity, and the stories people tell themselves in order to feel seen.
The film explores how ordinary frustrations — feeling ignored, forgotten, unseen — can become powerful when someone reframes them as part of a larger system. What begins as harmless validation can quickly transform into tribalism, grievance, and blind belonging.
But the film is also deeply empathetic toward its characters.
The Normans are not villains. They are people desperate for meaning. Desperate for recognition. Desperate to believe their pain matters.
And that need is universal.
Despite its absurd premise, the film aims to feel painfully human. Because the truth is:
Everyone has felt like a Norman at some point.
Are you a Norman? Take our quiz and find out!
DEAD PAN. SATIRICAL. UNSETTLING.
Normans is a DARK ABSURDIST COMEDY grounded in realism.
The world is familiar but slightly off—heightened in subtle ways. Performances are deadpan and restrained, allowing the absurdity of the situation to emerge organically.
The humor comes from SOCIAL DISCOMFORT, overly serious treatment of trivial ideas, and the
gap between perception and reality.
As the film progresses, the tone shifts gradually from awkward comedy → unsettling satire → quiet psychological horror.
FLUORESCENT. COMPOSED. ABUSRD
The look elevates Normans internal struggles with composition, lighting, and color palette. Framed with the precision and seriousness of a psychological thriller.
The camera observes the characters with uncomfortable patience. Static compositions, symmetrical framing, slow pushes, and overly composed wide shots emphasize the emotional rigidity of the world and the quiet absurdity trapped inside it.
MUTED. BARE. MONOTONE
The locations that form the world Norman inhabits reflect his painfully average and invisible existence.
The color palette begins muted and institutional: soft grays, washed-out blues, faded greens, sickly fluorescents. A world designed to feel emotionally pre-installed.
As the Normans begin to find belonging and purpose, the imagery becomes subtly more heightened and controlled, reflecting the seductive certainty of the group.
FUNTIONAL. DETAILED. OUTDATED
Just like Norman, the production design reflects a world filled with objects that feel
mass-produced, faded, and forgotten:
Fluorescent lighting, generic artwork, stained office carpet, mismatched folding chairs, microwaves with broken clocks, coffee mugs no one claims. Nothing is overtly stylized, but everything feels emotionally standardized and outdated.
Normans will shoot over 4 productions days mid-August with a small but professional cast and crew in Los Angeles, California. With the $20K we are raising through Seed & Spark, we will be able to pay our cast and crew a small daily rate for their work on the project, but also put as much on the screen as possible with our locations and production design. Below you can see how we have these funds allocated.
Are you a Norman? Take our quiz and find out!
Late June 2026: Launch our Seed&Spark campaign
Late July 2025: Complete our Seed&Spark campaign
June through July 2026: Pre-Production
Mid August 2026: Principal Photography
September - December 2026: Post-Production
Winter 2026: Festival Submissions!
CAMPAIGN GOAL - $20,000
Why do we need to raise $20K on Seed&Spark to make this short film? Because we have amazing artists at every level showcasing their talents and we want to pay them all. We have multiple locations that will bring the world of Normans to life and really sell the tone and situational comedy of the story. We have production and costume design that will help create specific and thought out environments, looks, and textures where the story of Normans will shine. The costs of making a great film adds up quickly. We want to do right by Normans and our team!
**All donations are in collaboration with our Fiscal Sponsor, Alliance of Women Directors, and are tax-deductible**
STRETCH GOAL - $30,000
Any additional funds raised will help cover our post-production costs such as editing, color correction, sound design, music, and score!
- Back our campaign! Your dollars go directly to making this film a reality.
- Follow our campaign on Seed&Spark. By clicking FOLLOW at the top of the page you'll receive updates from our team and give us momentum by showing the audience we have reached.
- Spread the word IRL and online! Follow us on all the platforms: AreYouANorman. It helps more than you know!
Are you a Norman? Take our quiz and find out!
Norman's Debut album - All By Myself (1993)
Featuring Norman on Vocals
Featuring Norman on Bass
Featuring Norman on Keys
and
Featuring Norman on Drums
Perfect for dance parties of 1!
Hits include:
Alone - Heart
Creep - Radiohead
Boulevard of Broken Dreams - Green Day
Here I Go Again - Whitesnake
Dancing On My Own - Robyn
I Wish - Skee-lo
Loser - Beck
I'm Still Standing - Elton John
Mr. Cellophane - John C. Reilly (Chicago)
of course All By Myself.... AND MORE....
Check out @AreYouANorman for more details!
**Graphics for incentive images and album cover contain AI Generated photos **
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Cubicle Farm Location
Costs $2,000
Help us secure the perfect cubicle farm where Norman works and truly feels invisible.
Rec Center Location
Costs $4,000
Help us secure the recreation center where Norman finds his truth... or so he thinks.
Catering + Craft Services
Costs $1,500
We would love to feed our cast and crew well and keep them happy while asking them to do amazing and hard work for lower rates
Production Design
Costs $1,000
Help us build the weird and specific world of NORMANS and bring it to life with the amazing props and design needed to make it feel real
Costume Purchases + Rentals
Costs $1,000
Help us dress our cast in oversized, ill-fitting, out of touch clothes so they can truly become Normans.
Location Permits + Fees
Costs $2,000
This will allow us to shoot in and around our hometown of sunny Los Angeles!
Casting
Costs $2,000
This will allow us to hire talented actors who are already taking a lower rate to help us bring NORMANS to life!
Crew
Costs $6,500
Help us pay the amazing people who are working for reduced rates to bring every aspect of this story and world of NORMANS to life!
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
RACHAEL MIRA KLIMAN
Writer/Director/Producer
I did the whole film school thing at NYU Tisch and AFI. I’ve been lucky enough to travel the world photographing my experiences. I am a Local 600 union member. I nerd out on Sci-Fi and dystopian futures. And I love a good slice of life movie about people where not much even happens. I believe passion is contagious and even sometimes outweighs resources. I love to embroider, make pasta from scratch, and want to have a vegetable garden one day. I’m drawn to character driven stories about the human experience and collaborations with filmmakers who use every aspect of this medium as a chance to elevate what’s on the page. I hope one day that I get to be a part of making something that moves people, makes people feel something, makes people think, and maybe even brings people together in a theater to laugh and cry and have a shared experience with a bunch of strangers.
JACKIE RYAN-KRICHEVSKY
Producer
Jackie is a Producers Guild of America physical production committee co-chair with decades of producing experience in film and episodic TV, including Pretty Little Liars and The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers. She is currently producing several projects for Lost Light Films and Sr. Manager of Production Innovation for Disney Television. Her award-winning productions have been distributed by Canal+ and selected at festivals globally, and she was recently selected to live pitch on the main stage of the Marche du Film Cannes.
SANAM SAFINIA
Producer
Raised in Carlsbad, but grew up in LA. Started in the industry in 2015 through the Production Office, with every intention of scooting into a Writer's room. Worked in the Production Office on several TV shows and movies, but needed a change. With grit and moxie became and still works as a 399 Teamster and does independent writing and producing.