The Gaff
Los Angeles, California | Film Short
Drama, Sport
Tommy hasn't been okay in a while. But on Saturday at 7am, he walks into his local pub in LA to watch Tottenham for the first time in a while — and for two hours, he forgets and escapes. As he goes to leave, someone asks if he's okay. Overwhelmed, Tommy heads back inside to be embraced by The Gaff.
The Gaff
Los Angeles, California | Film Short
Drama, Sport
1 Campaigns | California, United States
27 supporters | followers
Enter the amount you would like to pledge
$2,282
Goal: $16,000 for production
Tommy hasn't been okay in a while. But on Saturday at 7am, he walks into his local pub in LA to watch Tottenham for the first time in a while — and for two hours, he forgets and escapes. As he goes to leave, someone asks if he's okay. Overwhelmed, Tommy heads back inside to be embraced by The Gaff.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
Gaff - noun, a British slang term for a house, apartment, or other building, especially as being a person's home.
The Gaff is set at a Pub in Highland Park, Los Angeles, at 7am on a Sunday morning — when the streets are empty, the city is still asleep, and one man is already awake, carrying more than he'll ever say out loud.
Tommy, a British expat in his thirties, makes his way through the quiet blue dawn to The Greyhound, his local pub, where a group of Tottenham Hotspur fans have gathered to watch their team play a Premier League match live from England. For two hours, the weight he carries lifts. The chants start, the pints are poured, and strangers become brothers.
The film moves through the rhythm of a match day — the anticipation, the agony, the joy, the release — as Tommy finds in this unlikely community something he didn't know he was looking for. But when the final whistle blows and the pub empties out, someone asks him if he's okay. And for the first time in a long time, he doesn't know how to answer.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW OUR PITCH DECK
I represented Tottenham Hotspur as a triallist at Academy level growing up. I might be the longest trialist in the clubs history with all of the injuries I had while there. I got to know the physios better than my teammates. Football wasn't just something I loved — it was my whole life. When said injuries forced me to retire early, I lost the thing that defined me. And I'm not sure I've ever fully faced what that meant.
What I do know is that I found my way back to the game as a fan. And in doing so, I found something I didn't know I needed. I realised the club that gave me so much as a kid is still giving, even 5,500 miles away.
I've faced my own mental health struggles. Getting out of bed felt impossible. The world felt heavy in a way that's hard to explain to someone who hasn't been there. What pulled me through wasn't a single conversation or a breakthrough moment — it was community. People who showed up. People who didn't always say the right thing, but were there.
For me, that community in Los Angeles was a Tottenham Hotspur pub called The Greyhound at 7am on a Saturday morning.
Waking up before dawn to watch football with strangers seemed insane at first. Now it's getting there early to have a beer with my new family before kickoff. That shift — from stranger to family, from isolated to held — is what The Gaff is all about.
Tommy represents every man who is carrying something he can't put into words. The pub gives him somewhere to be. The football gives him permission to feel. And the people around him — without even knowing it — give him a reason to come back.
This film is a love letter to everyone who struggles to get out of bed. It exists to tell them that there is a reason to. And that people care more than you know.
I am making this film for every version of myself that felt he couldn't ask for help
- Kurt Devonshire, Writer & Director.
Tommy's world outside the pub is cold, blue, grey, isolating. Empty streets, rain-slicked pavements, a lone figure dwarfed by urban architecture. Small against the world. The pre-dawn walk is shot wide — Tommy is a dot in the frame.
The pub interior is the opposite — warm amber and gold tones, low light, intimate. Cluttered, lived-in, real. Not a glamorous bar, a proper local. The kind of place that holds you.
The human detail is close. Pint glasses, hands, faces caught mid-emotion — gasping, laughing, singing, staring at the football match. The BEDLAM that breaks out when a goal goes in. The camera gets in tight on the things that matter.
The emotional register sits somewhere between Green Street, This Is England and a Ken Loach film — social realist, masculine, tender underneath the surface.
Our TARGET budget is $16,000, but our DREAM budget is $20,000. Every penny goes directly to the people and resources that make this film possible — because this film is about community, and that starts on set.
Our target budget breaks down as follows:
Cast & Crew — $8,800 Fair rates for every single person who shows up. Making a film about community means treating the people telling that story with exactly that.
Location & Permits — $1,500 The Greyhound is the heart of this film. Securing it properly means we can shoot without compromise.
Equipment Rentals — $1,800 The cameras, lenses and lighting that bring the amber warmth of a Sunday morning pub to life on screen.
Catering & Craft Services — $1,400 Long shoot days require fed and energised crews. No great film was ever made on an empty stomach.
Post Production — $1,500 Sound design, music licensing, colour grading and DCP creation — the work that takes the film from the pub to the festival screen.
Legal & Insurance — $1,000 Keeping our team protected and our production above board.
Set & Wardrobe — $350 The details that make The Greyhound feel lived in and real.
If we don't raise a minimum of 80% of our Seed&Spark funding goal ($12,000), we won't receive any of our funding. The Gaff is a labour of love — but bringing it to life requires your support. Here's how you can be part of it:
PLEDGE to our campaign — every contribution, no matter the size, gets us one step closer to telling this story. You're not donating. You're the fuel that gets us there.
FOLLOW our Seed&Spark page — by hitting the heart button at the top of the page, you help us unlock film festival waivers, production gear, and so much more. It costs nothing and means everything.
FOLLOW US on Instagram @TheGaff.Film to stay connected, get behind the scenes updates, and join our growing community as we make this film.
LIKE, COMMENT, AND SHARE our posts to help amplify the story. The more people who hear about The Gaff, the closer we get to the pub.
Share the love — copy and paste these messages:
I'm backing @TheGaff.Film — a short film about football, community, and the spaces that save us without knowing it. Support it now on @seedandspark: https://seedandspark.com/fund/the-gaff
Just pledged to @TheGaff.Film. A film about British expats, mental health, and what it means to find your people at 7am in a pub in LA. Please share: https://seedandspark.com/fund/the-gaff
@TheGaff.Film is the film men didn't know they needed. A story about community, football, and asking for help — even when you don't have the words. Back it here: https://seedandspark.com/fund/the-gaff
This one's personal. @TheGaff.Film is a love letter to everyone who struggles to get out of bed — and the people who make it worth it. Support now:https://seedandspark.com/fund/the-gaff
I don't support Spurs, but I support @TheGaff.Film . Join us on our journey: https://seedandspark.com/fund/the-gaff
Every pledge, follow, and share brings us closer to last orders. Thank you for being part of The Gaff family.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Equipment Rental
Costs $1,800
The cameras, lenses and lighting equipment that will capture the amber warmth of a Sunday morning pub at dawn.
Cast & Crew Rates
Costs $8,800
Fair rates for every actor and crew member who brings The Gaff to life. Making a film about community means looking after your community.
Location Fees
Costs $1,500
Compensating The Greyhound fairly for allowing us to shoot our film on site + booking parking and permits.
Legal & Insurance
Costs $1,000
Keeping our cast, crew and production protected from day one.
Catering & Craft Services
Costs $1,400
Keeping a hardworking crew fed and energised through a long shoot day.
Post Production
Costs $1,500
From the chants that fill the pub to the edit/colour grade/score that makes the dawn feel lonely and the screen feel warm.
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Kurt is a writer-director from London, now based in Los Angeles. His work as a filmmaker has taken him around the festival circuit — most notably with a short film selected for the Short Film Corner at the Festival de Cannes in 2016.
With an MFA in Screenwriting, Kurt has developed several feature films and is now actively moving toward producing his own work. The Gaff marks a deeply personal next chapter in that journey.
Alongside his work as a filmmaker, Kurt brings extensive on-set experience as a First Assistant Director, having worked across feature films and major commercial productions with clients including Hasbro and Mattel, and alongside A-list talent. He knows what it takes to make a film — both from the logistical and creative sides.
Colt is an independent producer from the Chicago suburbs, now based in Los Angeles. While earning his degree at NYU he gravitated toward filmmaking, working as a production assistant on some of the biggest sets in the city and later at Nine Stories with Riva Marker and Jake Gyllenhaal.
In LA he supported Oscar-nominated director Lucy Walker before pursuing producing full-time during the pandemic. He earned an MFA in Producing from AFI with his films screening at festivals worldwide and winning at DGA Student Film Awards and Palm Springs ShortFest.
Since graduating, Colt has produced three feature-length films and continues to develop several more. Most recently as producer, Colt collaborated with Monkeypaw Productions and Universal on the short film, Imago, written and directed by Ariel Zengotita. It went on to premiere at TIFF and SXSW, winning Best International Short at Puerto Rico Film Festival
David is a Los Angeles based producer and the founder and Executive Producer of The Nancy Boy Corporation. His background is in ambitious and grass-roots story creation, collaborating with dynamic theater and film makers.
Previously he founded and led the growth of The Project [theatre] in Miami, and has produced an array of short films, music videos and commercials awarded at film festivals around the country including Sundance, SXSW, Dances with Films, Sidewalk and Los Angeles Cinefest. He received his Masters in Film from the University of Southern California.
David served as Executive Producer on the Jesse Eisenberg led film Sasquatch Sunset which premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival and is distributed by Bleecker Street. He recently completed post production of the feature film, Petunia, which will premiere at film festivals in fall 2026. He is also a passionate educator, teaching workshops about acting, writing and filmmaking and serves as an adjunct producing professor at the University of Southern California.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
Gaff - noun, a British slang term for a house, apartment, or other building, especially as being a person's home.
The Gaff is set at a Pub in Highland Park, Los Angeles, at 7am on a Sunday morning — when the streets are empty, the city is still asleep, and one man is already awake, carrying more than he'll ever say out loud.
Tommy, a British expat in his thirties, makes his way through the quiet blue dawn to The Greyhound, his local pub, where a group of Tottenham Hotspur fans have gathered to watch their team play a Premier League match live from England. For two hours, the weight he carries lifts. The chants start, the pints are poured, and strangers become brothers.
The film moves through the rhythm of a match day — the anticipation, the agony, the joy, the release — as Tommy finds in this unlikely community something he didn't know he was looking for. But when the final whistle blows and the pub empties out, someone asks him if he's okay. And for the first time in a long time, he doesn't know how to answer.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW OUR PITCH DECK
I represented Tottenham Hotspur as a triallist at Academy level growing up. I might be the longest trialist in the clubs history with all of the injuries I had while there. I got to know the physios better than my teammates. Football wasn't just something I loved — it was my whole life. When said injuries forced me to retire early, I lost the thing that defined me. And I'm not sure I've ever fully faced what that meant.
What I do know is that I found my way back to the game as a fan. And in doing so, I found something I didn't know I needed. I realised the club that gave me so much as a kid is still giving, even 5,500 miles away.
I've faced my own mental health struggles. Getting out of bed felt impossible. The world felt heavy in a way that's hard to explain to someone who hasn't been there. What pulled me through wasn't a single conversation or a breakthrough moment — it was community. People who showed up. People who didn't always say the right thing, but were there.
For me, that community in Los Angeles was a Tottenham Hotspur pub called The Greyhound at 7am on a Saturday morning.
Waking up before dawn to watch football with strangers seemed insane at first. Now it's getting there early to have a beer with my new family before kickoff. That shift — from stranger to family, from isolated to held — is what The Gaff is all about.
Tommy represents every man who is carrying something he can't put into words. The pub gives him somewhere to be. The football gives him permission to feel. And the people around him — without even knowing it — give him a reason to come back.
This film is a love letter to everyone who struggles to get out of bed. It exists to tell them that there is a reason to. And that people care more than you know.
I am making this film for every version of myself that felt he couldn't ask for help
- Kurt Devonshire, Writer & Director.
Tommy's world outside the pub is cold, blue, grey, isolating. Empty streets, rain-slicked pavements, a lone figure dwarfed by urban architecture. Small against the world. The pre-dawn walk is shot wide — Tommy is a dot in the frame.
The pub interior is the opposite — warm amber and gold tones, low light, intimate. Cluttered, lived-in, real. Not a glamorous bar, a proper local. The kind of place that holds you.
The human detail is close. Pint glasses, hands, faces caught mid-emotion — gasping, laughing, singing, staring at the football match. The BEDLAM that breaks out when a goal goes in. The camera gets in tight on the things that matter.
The emotional register sits somewhere between Green Street, This Is England and a Ken Loach film — social realist, masculine, tender underneath the surface.
Our TARGET budget is $16,000, but our DREAM budget is $20,000. Every penny goes directly to the people and resources that make this film possible — because this film is about community, and that starts on set.
Our target budget breaks down as follows:
Cast & Crew — $8,800 Fair rates for every single person who shows up. Making a film about community means treating the people telling that story with exactly that.
Location & Permits — $1,500 The Greyhound is the heart of this film. Securing it properly means we can shoot without compromise.
Equipment Rentals — $1,800 The cameras, lenses and lighting that bring the amber warmth of a Sunday morning pub to life on screen.
Catering & Craft Services — $1,400 Long shoot days require fed and energised crews. No great film was ever made on an empty stomach.
Post Production — $1,500 Sound design, music licensing, colour grading and DCP creation — the work that takes the film from the pub to the festival screen.
Legal & Insurance — $1,000 Keeping our team protected and our production above board.
Set & Wardrobe — $350 The details that make The Greyhound feel lived in and real.
If we don't raise a minimum of 80% of our Seed&Spark funding goal ($12,000), we won't receive any of our funding. The Gaff is a labour of love — but bringing it to life requires your support. Here's how you can be part of it:
PLEDGE to our campaign — every contribution, no matter the size, gets us one step closer to telling this story. You're not donating. You're the fuel that gets us there.
FOLLOW our Seed&Spark page — by hitting the heart button at the top of the page, you help us unlock film festival waivers, production gear, and so much more. It costs nothing and means everything.
FOLLOW US on Instagram @TheGaff.Film to stay connected, get behind the scenes updates, and join our growing community as we make this film.
LIKE, COMMENT, AND SHARE our posts to help amplify the story. The more people who hear about The Gaff, the closer we get to the pub.
Share the love — copy and paste these messages:
I'm backing @TheGaff.Film — a short film about football, community, and the spaces that save us without knowing it. Support it now on @seedandspark: https://seedandspark.com/fund/the-gaff
Just pledged to @TheGaff.Film. A film about British expats, mental health, and what it means to find your people at 7am in a pub in LA. Please share: https://seedandspark.com/fund/the-gaff
@TheGaff.Film is the film men didn't know they needed. A story about community, football, and asking for help — even when you don't have the words. Back it here: https://seedandspark.com/fund/the-gaff
This one's personal. @TheGaff.Film is a love letter to everyone who struggles to get out of bed — and the people who make it worth it. Support now:https://seedandspark.com/fund/the-gaff
I don't support Spurs, but I support @TheGaff.Film . Join us on our journey: https://seedandspark.com/fund/the-gaff
Every pledge, follow, and share brings us closer to last orders. Thank you for being part of The Gaff family.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Equipment Rental
Costs $1,800
The cameras, lenses and lighting equipment that will capture the amber warmth of a Sunday morning pub at dawn.
Cast & Crew Rates
Costs $8,800
Fair rates for every actor and crew member who brings The Gaff to life. Making a film about community means looking after your community.
Location Fees
Costs $1,500
Compensating The Greyhound fairly for allowing us to shoot our film on site + booking parking and permits.
Legal & Insurance
Costs $1,000
Keeping our cast, crew and production protected from day one.
Catering & Craft Services
Costs $1,400
Keeping a hardworking crew fed and energised through a long shoot day.
Post Production
Costs $1,500
From the chants that fill the pub to the edit/colour grade/score that makes the dawn feel lonely and the screen feel warm.
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Kurt is a writer-director from London, now based in Los Angeles. His work as a filmmaker has taken him around the festival circuit — most notably with a short film selected for the Short Film Corner at the Festival de Cannes in 2016.
With an MFA in Screenwriting, Kurt has developed several feature films and is now actively moving toward producing his own work. The Gaff marks a deeply personal next chapter in that journey.
Alongside his work as a filmmaker, Kurt brings extensive on-set experience as a First Assistant Director, having worked across feature films and major commercial productions with clients including Hasbro and Mattel, and alongside A-list talent. He knows what it takes to make a film — both from the logistical and creative sides.
Colt is an independent producer from the Chicago suburbs, now based in Los Angeles. While earning his degree at NYU he gravitated toward filmmaking, working as a production assistant on some of the biggest sets in the city and later at Nine Stories with Riva Marker and Jake Gyllenhaal.
In LA he supported Oscar-nominated director Lucy Walker before pursuing producing full-time during the pandemic. He earned an MFA in Producing from AFI with his films screening at festivals worldwide and winning at DGA Student Film Awards and Palm Springs ShortFest.
Since graduating, Colt has produced three feature-length films and continues to develop several more. Most recently as producer, Colt collaborated with Monkeypaw Productions and Universal on the short film, Imago, written and directed by Ariel Zengotita. It went on to premiere at TIFF and SXSW, winning Best International Short at Puerto Rico Film Festival
David is a Los Angeles based producer and the founder and Executive Producer of The Nancy Boy Corporation. His background is in ambitious and grass-roots story creation, collaborating with dynamic theater and film makers.
Previously he founded and led the growth of The Project [theatre] in Miami, and has produced an array of short films, music videos and commercials awarded at film festivals around the country including Sundance, SXSW, Dances with Films, Sidewalk and Los Angeles Cinefest. He received his Masters in Film from the University of Southern California.
David served as Executive Producer on the Jesse Eisenberg led film Sasquatch Sunset which premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival and is distributed by Bleecker Street. He recently completed post production of the feature film, Petunia, which will premiere at film festivals in fall 2026. He is also a passionate educator, teaching workshops about acting, writing and filmmaking and serves as an adjunct producing professor at the University of Southern California.