Side Affects
Chicago, Illinois | Film Short
Drama, Experimental
Side Affects is a dark, timely satire about grief, control, and the systems that profit from our pain. In a world where wellness is sold and truth is staged, this film challenges how we process emotion—and who benefits when we don't. Help us tell this story now, when it matters most.
Side Affects
Chicago, Illinois | Film Short
Drama, Experimental
4 Campaigns | Illinois, United States
Green Light
This campaign raised $4,868 for production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
56 supporters | followers
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Side Affects is a dark, timely satire about grief, control, and the systems that profit from our pain. In a world where wellness is sold and truth is staged, this film challenges how we process emotion—and who benefits when we don't. Help us tell this story now, when it matters most.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
The Story
In a controlled environment, truth is a product.
What happens when grief becomes profitable?
When suffering is measured by how “palatable” it looks in a commercial or news segment?
When a pill promises relief—not from your pain, but from being inconvenient?
When your grief is no longer yours—because a company owns it?
That’s where Side Affects begins.
The film follows Mark Allison, a meek and paranoid employee at ValeoCo, the pharmaceutical company behind the “miracle drug” Zorbitraf. Mark is still reeling from the death of his father — and from his own dependency on Zorbitraf, which he suspects caused both tragedies.
When celebrity journalist Aida Monaco offers to help him expose Valeo, she’s eager to feature his story. But as Mark prepares to appear on her television show, he can’t shake the feeling he’s being watched. Unscheduled corporate visits and a cryptic envelope only tighten the pressure.
With the clock ticking toward showtime, Mark must decide whether to face his fears — and risk everything — for justice for his father, himself, and every patient taking Zorbitraf.
Visual Worlds
The film moves between three distinct visual realities:
The Advertisement – Aspect Ratio 4:3. Clean, pastel light with no shadows. Inspired by 1960s drug commercials. Soft tungsten lighting, vintage framing, and cheerful performances create a surreal aesthetic — a lie pretending to care.
The TV Show – Aspect Ratio 16:9. Balanced, clinical, theatrical lighting with precise camera work. A stage designed to manipulate how truth is perceived.
Reality – Aspect Ratio 2.4:1. Handheld, wide shots with deep shadows, LED RGB tubes, and broken symmetry. Harsh, isolating, and unfiltered.
The transitions are abrupt. Jarring. And, like corporate messaging, deliberate.
Why Us
We are senior film students at Columbia College Chicago, and Side Affects is our thesis film — the culmination of our training in screenwriting, directing, cinematography, and production design. This project will represent us as we enter the industry.
Our approach is deliberate and exact: every aspect of the film, from aspect ratio to lighting ratio, has been pre-visualized to create three distinct visual “worlds.” We’re not chasing spectacle for its own sake — we’re building a sharp, controlled piece that examines how truth is shaped, framed, and sold.
Why This
More than a corporate hit piece, Side Affects explores the nature of truth in our contemporary world and its relationship with the individual. It asks: What can a single person do? And what will they sacrifice to do it?
The pharmaceutical setting is deliberate. It’s one of the most trusted and least questioned industries — a perfect lens to explore how truth can be manipulated, softened, and sold back to the public. Mark’s journey isn’t just about one drug or one company. It’s about the mechanics of control: how reality is curated, dissent neutralized, and facts replaced by a more “marketable” story.
Why You Should Care
It has become almost ordinary to see large corporations do whatever it takes to prosper — even if it means bending ethics to the breaking point. Side Affects takes you inside that machinery through the eyes of someone trapped within it: Mark Allison, an employee deep in the belly of the beast, trying to claw his way out.
It’s a David-and-Goliath story without romanticizing the fight. The power imbalance is real, the stakes are high, and the opposition is not simply a villain — it’s a system designed to protect itself. Supporting this film means supporting a narrative that challenges viewers to question what they’re told, especially when the source appears credible.
Why We Need Money
We’re not a big studio — we’re students working with limited funds. We are operating entirely through grassroots support, and every dollar we raise directly impacts what ends up on screen.
Your contributions will go toward:
- Food & Crew Support – keeping our cast and crew going through long days
- Production Design – crafting the contrasting worlds of advertisement, TV studio, and reality
- Transportation & Locations – securing and moving between controlled shooting spaces
- Gear – achieving the precise look and tone our story demands
- Actor Compensation – paying our performers fairly for their craft
Any amount — truly — will make a difference. This film has many moving parts, and your support helps all of them work in sync.
Why Now
There is no better moment to make Side Affects. The act of spinning the truth has become brazen, yet it still slips past suspicion when wrapped in the right packaging.
The world of medicine is one of those packages. We are conditioned to trust it, to see it as an unquestionable good. But when that trust is exploited, the consequences are personal, systemic, and long-lasting. Now is the time to tell this story, while the gap between truth and narrative is both visible and widening.
Context
We are in the final stages of pre-production:
- Script locked (third draft)
- Visual style and lighting plans fully developed
- Columbia College Chicago crew assembled and ready to shoot
How funds will be used:
- Gear – For precise control over each visual world
- Production Design – Building the contrasting realities of advertisement, TV studio, and real life
- Locations & Transportation – Securing controlled environments for shooting
- Food & Crew Support – Sustaining the team during long shoot days
- Actor Compensation – Paying talent fairly for their work
If we exceed our goal:
- Expanded festival submissions
- Accessibility tools (captions, audio descriptions)
- Additional post-production refinement for color and sound
Timeline:
- Shoot: October 17-19,2025
- Post-Production: Immediately after filming
- Premiere: Manifest 05/15/2026
- Festival Submissions: June 2026
How You Can Help
✅ Pledge – Every contribution directly shapes what appears on screen.
✅ Share – Send the campaign link through social media, email, or word-of-mouth.
✅ Follow – Stay connected with updates and behind-the-scenes progress.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Human Assets
Costs $900
Bringing our test subjects to life—funding helps us pay the people who embody ValeoCo’s finest (and most broken).
Controlled Testing Environments
Costs $250
Help us secure a sterile kitchen, a grief-stricken apartment, and a TV studio where truth goes to die.
Pharma Department Supplies
Costs $250
Pills, urns, mics, stress balls—tools for compliance, grief, and control. Every object tells a story ValeoCo owns.
Reality Enhancement Division
Costs $500
Environments optimized for emotional suppression, brand clarity, and pharmaceutical persuasion.
Subject Relocation Services
Costs $600
Our personnel and experimental gear must be discreetly relocated between testing environments.
Sustenance Initiative Program
Costs $1,500
Even devoted test subjects need to eat. Help us feed cast and crew so they don’t collapse—or worse, turn into actual zombies.
Image Compliance Protocol
Costs $300
From grieving son to grinning exec—help us maintain appearances under pressure.
The Emergency Dose
Costs $250
Helps cover unexpected emergencies—gear failure, missing props, or last-minute fixes that keep the production moving.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Meet our wonderful Team
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
The Story
In a controlled environment, truth is a product.
What happens when grief becomes profitable?
When suffering is measured by how “palatable” it looks in a commercial or news segment?
When a pill promises relief—not from your pain, but from being inconvenient?
When your grief is no longer yours—because a company owns it?
That’s where Side Affects begins.
The film follows Mark Allison, a meek and paranoid employee at ValeoCo, the pharmaceutical company behind the “miracle drug” Zorbitraf. Mark is still reeling from the death of his father — and from his own dependency on Zorbitraf, which he suspects caused both tragedies.
When celebrity journalist Aida Monaco offers to help him expose Valeo, she’s eager to feature his story. But as Mark prepares to appear on her television show, he can’t shake the feeling he’s being watched. Unscheduled corporate visits and a cryptic envelope only tighten the pressure.
With the clock ticking toward showtime, Mark must decide whether to face his fears — and risk everything — for justice for his father, himself, and every patient taking Zorbitraf.
Visual Worlds
The film moves between three distinct visual realities:
The Advertisement – Aspect Ratio 4:3. Clean, pastel light with no shadows. Inspired by 1960s drug commercials. Soft tungsten lighting, vintage framing, and cheerful performances create a surreal aesthetic — a lie pretending to care.
The TV Show – Aspect Ratio 16:9. Balanced, clinical, theatrical lighting with precise camera work. A stage designed to manipulate how truth is perceived.
Reality – Aspect Ratio 2.4:1. Handheld, wide shots with deep shadows, LED RGB tubes, and broken symmetry. Harsh, isolating, and unfiltered.
The transitions are abrupt. Jarring. And, like corporate messaging, deliberate.
Why Us
We are senior film students at Columbia College Chicago, and Side Affects is our thesis film — the culmination of our training in screenwriting, directing, cinematography, and production design. This project will represent us as we enter the industry.
Our approach is deliberate and exact: every aspect of the film, from aspect ratio to lighting ratio, has been pre-visualized to create three distinct visual “worlds.” We’re not chasing spectacle for its own sake — we’re building a sharp, controlled piece that examines how truth is shaped, framed, and sold.
Why This
More than a corporate hit piece, Side Affects explores the nature of truth in our contemporary world and its relationship with the individual. It asks: What can a single person do? And what will they sacrifice to do it?
The pharmaceutical setting is deliberate. It’s one of the most trusted and least questioned industries — a perfect lens to explore how truth can be manipulated, softened, and sold back to the public. Mark’s journey isn’t just about one drug or one company. It’s about the mechanics of control: how reality is curated, dissent neutralized, and facts replaced by a more “marketable” story.
Why You Should Care
It has become almost ordinary to see large corporations do whatever it takes to prosper — even if it means bending ethics to the breaking point. Side Affects takes you inside that machinery through the eyes of someone trapped within it: Mark Allison, an employee deep in the belly of the beast, trying to claw his way out.
It’s a David-and-Goliath story without romanticizing the fight. The power imbalance is real, the stakes are high, and the opposition is not simply a villain — it’s a system designed to protect itself. Supporting this film means supporting a narrative that challenges viewers to question what they’re told, especially when the source appears credible.
Why We Need Money
We’re not a big studio — we’re students working with limited funds. We are operating entirely through grassroots support, and every dollar we raise directly impacts what ends up on screen.
Your contributions will go toward:
- Food & Crew Support – keeping our cast and crew going through long days
- Production Design – crafting the contrasting worlds of advertisement, TV studio, and reality
- Transportation & Locations – securing and moving between controlled shooting spaces
- Gear – achieving the precise look and tone our story demands
- Actor Compensation – paying our performers fairly for their craft
Any amount — truly — will make a difference. This film has many moving parts, and your support helps all of them work in sync.
Why Now
There is no better moment to make Side Affects. The act of spinning the truth has become brazen, yet it still slips past suspicion when wrapped in the right packaging.
The world of medicine is one of those packages. We are conditioned to trust it, to see it as an unquestionable good. But when that trust is exploited, the consequences are personal, systemic, and long-lasting. Now is the time to tell this story, while the gap between truth and narrative is both visible and widening.
Context
We are in the final stages of pre-production:
- Script locked (third draft)
- Visual style and lighting plans fully developed
- Columbia College Chicago crew assembled and ready to shoot
How funds will be used:
- Gear – For precise control over each visual world
- Production Design – Building the contrasting realities of advertisement, TV studio, and real life
- Locations & Transportation – Securing controlled environments for shooting
- Food & Crew Support – Sustaining the team during long shoot days
- Actor Compensation – Paying talent fairly for their work
If we exceed our goal:
- Expanded festival submissions
- Accessibility tools (captions, audio descriptions)
- Additional post-production refinement for color and sound
Timeline:
- Shoot: October 17-19,2025
- Post-Production: Immediately after filming
- Premiere: Manifest 05/15/2026
- Festival Submissions: June 2026
How You Can Help
✅ Pledge – Every contribution directly shapes what appears on screen.
✅ Share – Send the campaign link through social media, email, or word-of-mouth.
✅ Follow – Stay connected with updates and behind-the-scenes progress.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Human Assets
Costs $900
Bringing our test subjects to life—funding helps us pay the people who embody ValeoCo’s finest (and most broken).
Controlled Testing Environments
Costs $250
Help us secure a sterile kitchen, a grief-stricken apartment, and a TV studio where truth goes to die.
Pharma Department Supplies
Costs $250
Pills, urns, mics, stress balls—tools for compliance, grief, and control. Every object tells a story ValeoCo owns.
Reality Enhancement Division
Costs $500
Environments optimized for emotional suppression, brand clarity, and pharmaceutical persuasion.
Subject Relocation Services
Costs $600
Our personnel and experimental gear must be discreetly relocated between testing environments.
Sustenance Initiative Program
Costs $1,500
Even devoted test subjects need to eat. Help us feed cast and crew so they don’t collapse—or worse, turn into actual zombies.
Image Compliance Protocol
Costs $300
From grieving son to grinning exec—help us maintain appearances under pressure.
The Emergency Dose
Costs $250
Helps cover unexpected emergencies—gear failure, missing props, or last-minute fixes that keep the production moving.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Meet our wonderful Team