The Prologue

If you are unfamiliar with my work and would like to see another project I've done, please check out https://www.youtube.com/lessthansuper.

The Back Story

It started out simple enough.

One night I went to a party and made a new friend. After the appropriate amount of time I found him on Facebook and soon our friendship was official. So naturally I did what anyone does when they meet someone they find interesting: I skimmed through his profile.*

I quickly found myself on his actor page and hovering over the link to watch his reel. I hesitated for a moment, and then clicked.

Fast forward a couple months and one of my super talented friends asked me to check out his reel and give him feedback.

A few months later and I found myself editing reels for friends. Suddenly my life was consumed by reels. It was like a really strange YouTube rabbit hole that lasted for a very long time (and hasn't really stopped).

So wait. Let's go back. Why did I hesitate? And what is the point to this story?

Well, reels can be really boring. And after the second or third reel I watched I realized that although I'm surrounded by amazing talent, it often doesn't get showcased very well, since many of the clips in their reels are from poorly made student films, timed competition films, independent films or clips from really big projects in which they had not so big roles. In short, they were rather underwhelming.

Being an Assistant Director myself, which isn't really a role that lends itself to even making a reel, I decided it would be great to get people together and shoot quick 1-3 page scenes that will help promote everyone involved. I put the idea out to our community and everyone loved it, but no one took action on finding or creating material to write. So since I fancy myself a screenwriter, I decided to come up with some scripts on my own. And so it began.**

The Film

The idea for this scene came about after watching a number of film festival submissions. Indie filmmakers love to explore the nuances of sex and relationships so this short is my my "what if?" take on familiar ideas. Honestly, I can't go too much into it, since the film is only three minutes long, including credits, so you'll just have to take my word on it. It's really funny. Here's what some people are saying about it.

"I LOVE [this]" - Dean S.

"[It's] amazing!" - Katie C.

"I like it!" - Shannon F.

"It's really really funny!" - probably someone at some point

Now, usually my plan for films is to make them and immediately release them online. And, really, that was the original plan. But the more I thought about it, the more I decided to try a festival run with it. Why? Because it's a quick, quirky rom-com and everyone needs more of that in their life. And by traveling around with it at festivals, it will give me and my team a chance to travel with it and talk about what we're doing in Nashville.

As much as I want people to see what I can do and what my cast and crew can do, I really want people to be see and hear about what our community is doing. And that is why we need you!***

The Ask

Submitting to festivals can be really expensive, and every little bit helps! By contributing to this campaign you not only give us the financial support to apply to these festivals, you also show the festivals that you believe in us and our community and want to see us on the circuit. Numbers talk.

We have a list of about 25 places we'd like to submit to, including the Nashville Film Festival and several other highly regarded festivals. If you know anything about film festivals you know there's never a guarantee, and while we don't feel like it's beneficial to submit to any and every festival, the law of averages tells us that the more we can submit to, the greater our chances of being accepted.

That being said, the decision to do a festival run was not made lightly. Our film has a high production value, stellar performances, a solid script and is short enough that it is easily programmable, all of which increases our likelihood of being accepted. We wouldn't waste our 

time or your money if we didn't think we had a really good chance of getting in a good number of them.

The Need

• $500 - This is how much we need to submit to 12 festivals we know we can attend in person. This includes ones within driving distance like Nashville, New Orleans, Atlanta and Austin and more prestiged ones that are further away but many Nashville filmmakers still attend, like Sundance and TIFF.
• Everyone worked on this project because they believe in me and believe in my vision. That means more to me than I can express. But I also believe in paying my cast and crew, even a little, so when we exceed our goal I'd like to give back to them.
• $400 - Once my team is taken care of, the money we raise will go to the remaining 13 festivals I'd like to apply to, including LA Shorts and AFI as well as a few International festivals like Leeds and Cork.
• If we are blessed with an overwhelming amount of support to get us this far, I will cry, and then put the rest of the money aside to help with travel expenses to these festivals so more of us can go and talk on the red carpet about how amazing you are!

The Epilogue

Want to know more ways you can help? Here are a few options! Feel free to get creative with your own.

• Share this campaign with all your friends. And I do mean ALL of them. If you like them, we'll like them too.
• Click the Follow button. Remember, numbers count. Woah, unintentional joke there! But seriously, folks, if we get 500 or more followers Seed & Spark gives us their gift box, which includes waivers for certain festival fees, which is exactly what we need!
• Tell us where you'll be! We aren't just limited to the festivals on my list. We want to go where our audience is. So if there's a great festival near you, let us know and we'll try to make it there!
• Speaking of knowing about great festivals, if you're involved with any and want to give us a waiver, we'll gladly take that too!

*It's not really stalking when it's now the norm, right?

**Did I win the award for using the word reel the most times in a crowdfunding campaign?

***How many of you said finally? I know I did. I can be a little long winded. Writer, remember?