Gus spends all of his time - working, living, and recreating - in an unseen Virtual Reality world. Gigworkers come and go, tending to all of his personal needs, from delivering his food to (ahem) his personal hygiene. His unhealthy immersion in the virtual world and his entitled treatment of the Gigworkers lead to a vision in which the workers take violent revenge. This traumatic moment gives Gus a moment of clarity and he seizes on an encounter with a sympathetic Gigworker, Fred, as a chance to reengage with humanity. Can he overcome his addiction to instant gratification?  

The Cave is a satire of modern life, one that will be all too familiar to audiences, even with the dystopian elements heightened to a cartoonish degree. As a filmmaker, my scripts are usually formed around a particular fear of mine. With The Cave, I'm trying to confront one terrifying idea: we are all like Gus.

It’s a commentary on our relationship to technology, convenience, and the labor of the workers who make our privileged lives possible. But most importantly, it’s funny as hell. I think humor is one of the best ways of disarming an audience and opening us up to discussion of hard topics. And even if no one thinks about this film beyond the surface level, I KNOW we made something funny - in fact, I ruined several takes because I was laughing too hard.

This is my second short film as writer and director. I shot my first short, Unlawful Combatant, in 2019, shortly before COVID hit the US. I spent the pandemic editing and submitting it to film festivals. After all this time, I was desperate to make something again, so I wrote this script with my friend Will Madden in mind for the lead, and the idea that it would be a no-cost, low effort shoot. However, as I began to share it with peers and saw their enthusiasm for the story, it became clear that this project was worth putting money into a real crew and compelling production design. 

Production Strategies

It was also an experiment to implement production strategies that reduce impact on the environment and on our crew (namely, scheduling 10 hour production days instead of the typical 12) and having a Sustainability Producer on the team who organized and facilitated a low waste production. I often work as a Production Assistant, and it feels like half my job is throwing away nearly full water bottles and other forgotten trash. I get it - productions need to move fast, people need to snack and hydrate, and all that stuff is convenient. But we couldn’t make a film critical of modern wastefulness and the demand for speed and convenience without doing our best as a low budget production to limit waste and create a less strenuous schedule for our amazing crew. 

Sustainability

Sustainability is very important to me. The climate crisis is obvious to anyone who steps outside their home (so, not our protagonist Gus). At this point, we know that the modern lifestyle is not a sustainable one. In this context, it's hard to justify all the waste that goes into a standard film production. So our Sustainability Producer, Patrick Dorsey, was brought on from the beginning to help shape the production into a more eco-friendly one. Patrick is a filmmaker, but he also has a Masters in Sustainability Leadership, so he was able to guide us to more environmentally-friendly decisions while understanding the realities of filmmaking.

For us, "low waste" didn't just mean reusable water bottles, but actually shaping the production around being less resource-intensive. Patrick worked on everything from the big picture, like advising on script changes to save gas, to the smaller scale, like finding us a way to recycle single serving food wrappers (shoutout TerraCycle)! There were a few costs associated with these measures, but overall, it didn't cost more than a normal production's catering and craft services would - it turns out disposable water bottles are expensive!

We weren't a zero-waste production, but we kept the landfill trash down to two small bags for the whole two day production - not bad for a crew of 20 people.

Crew Welfare

Film is not a solitary medium. Every project, no matter how small, involves many people. While most of my experiences on set have been positive, young film professionals are often exploited because of our passion for the work. As a director, I want to make sure that everyone's time is respected and that people can have a normal life while doing the job they love. Twelve-hour days are kind of ridiculous, but they continue to be the norm because... we allow them to be. Shooting in 10 hour days took some creative scheduling and flexibility on set, but it was treated as a priority, and we found ways to make it happen. Full transparency: with the crew's permission, we shot right up until the 10 hour mark on day 2, so wrap out for most crew put them at about 10 hours 45 minutes, with a 30 minute lunch each day. This probably could have been avoided with some more careful planning on my part, and we proved that for the next project 10 hour days are possible.

Budget

Since we've completed production already, this campaign is about recouping our investment; I put a lot of my own money into this, as well as money loaned to me by friends. On top of that, many of our Key crew members (including DP, 1st AD, and Producers) volunteered their time and effort because they loved the script. Their generosity is deeply appreciated and their effort definitely shows up on screen!

By making a contribution to us now, you're making it possible for this film to get professionally finished and put out into the world. You're also supporting us as early-career filmmakers: rewarding our faith in this project and making it possible for me and the rest of the team to keep making independent, original films like this without going completely broke!

This chart shows how our budget broke down. Most of it is going towards paying our crew; the rest of it is going into the visuals and craft of the film, and mandatory production costs like insurance.

Post-Production

I will be editing and sound designing/mixing the film myself. We've included a small budget for other Post services like color grading, DCP creation, some festival submissions, marketing etc. We also plan to apply for Finishing Grants that can provide some of these professional services, so if you know any we'd be a good fit for, let us know!

We will be sending the film to festivals as part of our release plan, but the main goal is to get this film in front of as wide of an audience as possible as soon as we can. That means we'll be releasing it online, hopefully by the end of the year or early 2024.

THANK YOU!

Truly any amount you can give is appreciated, and if you can't afford to contribute, sharing this campaign or following us on Seed & Spark and our social media pages is a big help, too.

By contributing to, following, or sharing this campaign, you’re supporting our efforts to make hilarious, entertaining, and meaningful films without compromising our desires to create a more people and planet friendly film industry!

-Jack