The Alternate
Oakland, California | Film Feature
Sci-Fi, Thriller
Struggling filmmaker Jake accidentally unlocks a portal to an alternate world where his dreams have come true. The only problem? There’s an Alternate Jake living in this world and only one Jake can have the perfect life. The Alternate explores entitlement and what it means to work for one’s dreams.
The Alternate
Oakland, California | Film Feature
Sci-Fi, Thriller
1 Campaigns | California, United States
Green Light
This campaign raised $21,440 for production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
199 supporters | followers
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Struggling filmmaker Jake accidentally unlocks a portal to an alternate world where his dreams have come true. The only problem? There’s an Alternate Jake living in this world and only one Jake can have the perfect life. The Alternate explores entitlement and what it means to work for one’s dreams.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
What is The Alternate?
The Alternate is an indie/sci-fi thriller from Jeffrey Allard, executive producer of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006).
Our story follows Jake, a down-on-his-luck videographer who discovers a portal to another dimension in which he has everything he has always wanted: the perfect version of his wife Kris, the filmmaking career of his dreams, and the son he never had.
Jake quickly starts traveling back and forth between these two worlds - spying on his other self, falling in love with alternate Kris, and getting to know his son. Jake soon sees that the other version of himself is not as perfect as he seems - and decides to change places with his other self and take the good life for himself.
Why are We Making this Film?
Finding the right story to tell is one of the hardest aspects of filmmaking. What story is worth the years you will spend with the film? What story will keep you going when things look hopeless? Luckily for us, The Alternate is that story. Jake's struggle for his dream life is a common one artists of all types share. Seeing Jake make the choices he does when presented with an easy fix to his problems will hopefully challenge our audience to consider what they would do in Jake's place. We really want to highlight this theme of entitlement that runs rampant in American culture, and the danger that lies in giving into the idea that your dreams can come true even if you don't put in the work for them. The Alternate is a straight-up thrilling, frightening, and occasionally funny indie sci-fi film with a social conscience. What more do you want out of a sci-fi thriller?
Where Will All the Money Go?
Your most appreciated contributions will be going into five main categories: cast and crew wages (we gotta pay our team for their work); catering & craft services (we gotta feed 'em!); post production (Jake and Alt-Jake need to go through that portal quite a few times); gear and set essentials (hard drives, ink, and paper are must haves!); and of course film festival submissions (we gotta get this movie out into the world!). All additional funds raised will go directly into the film to beef up all deparments.
What Else Do You Get? (UPDATED 10.27)
As we continue on our journey, we'll be sharing more goodies with the Seed&Spark community as we hit our milestones. As we hit each one, we'll reveal the next milestone goodie that will be unlocked. For example, when we hit $7,500 we will release the full 2-minute teaser trailer for "The Alternate" and the first video in our making-of documentary series. The rest of the milestones are a surprise... for now!
What Makes Our Indie Movie Special?
We're a hard-working passionate group of professional filmmakers who work on commerical spots for a living. But for the majority of us, working on a creative sci-fi thriller is not what we get to do on a daily basis. The Alternate is a passion project that has been refined over five years of development and is ready to be brought to life. We will honor your commitment to us by making the best movie we possibly can - and have fun while doing it!
Thanks for checking out The Alternate!
Here's a collection of behind-the-scenes stills, images from our pitch deck, and more.
Still Want More???
You scrolled down this far, eh? Here are all of my short films from the last seven years, so you can follow my journey as a filmmaker.
Strange Thing
Here is my first pro short film, which has racked up almost 200k hits alone (120k on YouTube and almost 70k on Vimeo). Pretty cool, huh?
Zombie vs. Drone
My second short film landed on Boing Boing and has racked up over 38k hits. Nothing to sneeze at!
Brother
My third short film stars popular NYC comedian Capone Lee and has 11k views between YouTube and Vimeo.
Thanks so much for checking out our page!
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Cast and Crew Wages!
Costs $12,500
We need funds to pay for our wonderful cast and crew, especially in week three!
Color & VFX
Costs $2,500
If the film is going to look good, we need to put some money into post, especially the VFX!
Sound Design
Costs $2,500
They always say our eyes are more forgiving then our ears, help us make the movie sounds superb!
Feed Us!
Costs $5,000
Everyone is doing us a favor by working on our low budget film, so the least we can do is feed them!
Film Festival Submissions!
Costs $1,250
Once the film is done the film needs to get seen (and sold) so film festivals are a must!
Set Essentials!
Costs $1,250
We will need ink/paper for call sheets, hard drives and a ton of little things to keep us going!
Share this update!
About This Team
We've assembled an amazing team for this film! Here's a peak at our key crew members.
Alrik Bursell - Writer/Director
Alrik Bursell is a freelance shooter/editor/producer who’s worked on feature films and corporate videos. He has directed five short films including Strange Thing, which played at over 20 film festivals worldwide. Alrik has also worked on commercial videos for brands such as the NFL, Comcast Xfinity and HBO.
Jeffrey Allard - Producer
Jeffrey Allard has produced 19 feature films, including executive producing the last two Texas Chainsaws Massacre reboots which brought in over $250 million in worldwide sales. Jeff's films have premiered at Sundance, SXSW and the Toronto International Film Festival. Prior to founding Indie Entertainment, Jeff held executive positions in the corporate finance industry for 18 years.
Marcella Cortland - Producer
In 5 years Marcella Cortland has racked up producer or actor credits on 14 shorts and 3 features. She's also a director, screenwriter, and the host of the San Jose International Short Film Fest!
Seana Meek - Producer
Seana Meek originally hails from Canada as a TV personality and show-runner with the Citadel Theatre and Edmonton Fringe Festival. She works in SF's high-tech sector and has been producing short and documentary films for 5 years - including her feature Break Night in 2017.
Bianca Beyrouti - Associate Producer
Bianca Beyrouti is a Bay Area born-and-bred filmmaker with nearly a decade’s worth of narrative short and feature credits to her name. She's most well-known as the producer of Bring Me an Avocado, the Oakland-shot feature drama which world premiered at Cinequest this year and continues to rack up awards and praise on the festival circuit. She’s also hard at work on her fourth season of the award-winning documentary series Independent Lens.
Jason Joseffer - Cinematographer
Jason Joseffer is a local SF cinematographer who has shot two feature films and thousands of short films and commercials. Jason’s commercial work includes national campaigns and the web series 100 Years of Fashion, which got 270 million views online! Jason has been on this project for over five years and has read more drafts of the script than anyone else.
Hilton Day - First Assistant Director
Hilton J. Day is an SF-based freelance Assistant Director in the film and video production industry. For the last five years he has worked on various productions, specializing in corporate advertising, feature films, music videos, and network television shows. His credits include Bumble Bee, Sorry to Bother You and The Last Black Man in San Francisco.
Robert Riutta - Production Designer
Rob Riutta has production designed 11 features and half a dozen short films - including Alrik's short film Brother. Rob has also worked in the art department on films such as MDMA, The Boat Builder and Fruitvale Station, just to name a few.
Matthew Stouppe - Gaffer
Matthew Stouppe is a Bay Area gaffer with over 9 years in the film industry. He's taught a new generation of lighting technicians in the Bay Area with his popular workshops, becoming a mentor for many young filmmakers. His years of experience on countless union and non-union productions allows him to know exactly what it takes to shoot your project in the Bay Area.
Margaret Caragan - SFX Makeup Artist
Margaret Caragan is the founder and owner of Pandora FX. She has worked in the Bay Area as a special makeup effects artist for 14 years. Caragan studied Fine Art at the Academy of Art University, earning a Bachelor’s in Sculpture. She spends the majority of her time managing teams as a department head, creating highly detailed designs and executing them for commercials and independent films. She specializes in casualty and character makeups, creating custom prosthetics for creatures, likeness, old age, injuries and extreme transformations.
Colin W. Guthrie - Sound Design
Colin W. Guthrie is a sound and video editor, post-production engineer, production sound mixer, and independent filmmaker based in Berkeley, CA. Colin has over 15 years of experience in post-production and workflow for feature film, documentary, commercial and music video. Colin is passionate about filmmaking and dedicated to meaningful and creative high-fidelity audiovisual storytelling. Colin has done post sound for numerous projects for American Zoetrope including Twixt, Tetro, Somewhere and Apolocylpse Now: The Final Cut.
Elizabeth Fox - Head Makeup Artist
Elizabeth Fox has been a professional working makeup artist since 2000. Her background in theater arts and years of experience as a skincare educator help define hercreative instinct as a makeup artist. Her makeup and hair work has appeared in magazines from Bust to Vanity Fair and on the burlesque stages of NYC. Elizabeth has worked on over 20 feature films including The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Sorry to Bother You and the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why.
Zeke Faust - Visual Effects
Zeke Faust is a filmmaker, visual effects artist, and partner at Chariotdrive. Chariotdrive is an LA-based production and post-production studio that offers a complete post pipeline including VFX supervision, editorial, VFX, CGI, grading, and finishing.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
What is The Alternate?
The Alternate is an indie/sci-fi thriller from Jeffrey Allard, executive producer of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006).
Our story follows Jake, a down-on-his-luck videographer who discovers a portal to another dimension in which he has everything he has always wanted: the perfect version of his wife Kris, the filmmaking career of his dreams, and the son he never had.
Jake quickly starts traveling back and forth between these two worlds - spying on his other self, falling in love with alternate Kris, and getting to know his son. Jake soon sees that the other version of himself is not as perfect as he seems - and decides to change places with his other self and take the good life for himself.
Why are We Making this Film?
Finding the right story to tell is one of the hardest aspects of filmmaking. What story is worth the years you will spend with the film? What story will keep you going when things look hopeless? Luckily for us, The Alternate is that story. Jake's struggle for his dream life is a common one artists of all types share. Seeing Jake make the choices he does when presented with an easy fix to his problems will hopefully challenge our audience to consider what they would do in Jake's place. We really want to highlight this theme of entitlement that runs rampant in American culture, and the danger that lies in giving into the idea that your dreams can come true even if you don't put in the work for them. The Alternate is a straight-up thrilling, frightening, and occasionally funny indie sci-fi film with a social conscience. What more do you want out of a sci-fi thriller?
Where Will All the Money Go?
Your most appreciated contributions will be going into five main categories: cast and crew wages (we gotta pay our team for their work); catering & craft services (we gotta feed 'em!); post production (Jake and Alt-Jake need to go through that portal quite a few times); gear and set essentials (hard drives, ink, and paper are must haves!); and of course film festival submissions (we gotta get this movie out into the world!). All additional funds raised will go directly into the film to beef up all deparments.
What Else Do You Get? (UPDATED 10.27)
As we continue on our journey, we'll be sharing more goodies with the Seed&Spark community as we hit our milestones. As we hit each one, we'll reveal the next milestone goodie that will be unlocked. For example, when we hit $7,500 we will release the full 2-minute teaser trailer for "The Alternate" and the first video in our making-of documentary series. The rest of the milestones are a surprise... for now!
What Makes Our Indie Movie Special?
We're a hard-working passionate group of professional filmmakers who work on commerical spots for a living. But for the majority of us, working on a creative sci-fi thriller is not what we get to do on a daily basis. The Alternate is a passion project that has been refined over five years of development and is ready to be brought to life. We will honor your commitment to us by making the best movie we possibly can - and have fun while doing it!
Thanks for checking out The Alternate!
Here's a collection of behind-the-scenes stills, images from our pitch deck, and more.
Still Want More???
You scrolled down this far, eh? Here are all of my short films from the last seven years, so you can follow my journey as a filmmaker.
Strange Thing
Here is my first pro short film, which has racked up almost 200k hits alone (120k on YouTube and almost 70k on Vimeo). Pretty cool, huh?
Zombie vs. Drone
My second short film landed on Boing Boing and has racked up over 38k hits. Nothing to sneeze at!
Brother
My third short film stars popular NYC comedian Capone Lee and has 11k views between YouTube and Vimeo.
Thanks so much for checking out our page!
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Cast and Crew Wages!
Costs $12,500
We need funds to pay for our wonderful cast and crew, especially in week three!
Color & VFX
Costs $2,500
If the film is going to look good, we need to put some money into post, especially the VFX!
Sound Design
Costs $2,500
They always say our eyes are more forgiving then our ears, help us make the movie sounds superb!
Feed Us!
Costs $5,000
Everyone is doing us a favor by working on our low budget film, so the least we can do is feed them!
Film Festival Submissions!
Costs $1,250
Once the film is done the film needs to get seen (and sold) so film festivals are a must!
Set Essentials!
Costs $1,250
We will need ink/paper for call sheets, hard drives and a ton of little things to keep us going!
Share this update!
About This Team
We've assembled an amazing team for this film! Here's a peak at our key crew members.
Alrik Bursell - Writer/Director
Alrik Bursell is a freelance shooter/editor/producer who’s worked on feature films and corporate videos. He has directed five short films including Strange Thing, which played at over 20 film festivals worldwide. Alrik has also worked on commercial videos for brands such as the NFL, Comcast Xfinity and HBO.
Jeffrey Allard - Producer
Jeffrey Allard has produced 19 feature films, including executive producing the last two Texas Chainsaws Massacre reboots which brought in over $250 million in worldwide sales. Jeff's films have premiered at Sundance, SXSW and the Toronto International Film Festival. Prior to founding Indie Entertainment, Jeff held executive positions in the corporate finance industry for 18 years.
Marcella Cortland - Producer
In 5 years Marcella Cortland has racked up producer or actor credits on 14 shorts and 3 features. She's also a director, screenwriter, and the host of the San Jose International Short Film Fest!
Seana Meek - Producer
Seana Meek originally hails from Canada as a TV personality and show-runner with the Citadel Theatre and Edmonton Fringe Festival. She works in SF's high-tech sector and has been producing short and documentary films for 5 years - including her feature Break Night in 2017.
Bianca Beyrouti - Associate Producer
Bianca Beyrouti is a Bay Area born-and-bred filmmaker with nearly a decade’s worth of narrative short and feature credits to her name. She's most well-known as the producer of Bring Me an Avocado, the Oakland-shot feature drama which world premiered at Cinequest this year and continues to rack up awards and praise on the festival circuit. She’s also hard at work on her fourth season of the award-winning documentary series Independent Lens.
Jason Joseffer - Cinematographer
Jason Joseffer is a local SF cinematographer who has shot two feature films and thousands of short films and commercials. Jason’s commercial work includes national campaigns and the web series 100 Years of Fashion, which got 270 million views online! Jason has been on this project for over five years and has read more drafts of the script than anyone else.
Hilton Day - First Assistant Director
Hilton J. Day is an SF-based freelance Assistant Director in the film and video production industry. For the last five years he has worked on various productions, specializing in corporate advertising, feature films, music videos, and network television shows. His credits include Bumble Bee, Sorry to Bother You and The Last Black Man in San Francisco.
Robert Riutta - Production Designer
Rob Riutta has production designed 11 features and half a dozen short films - including Alrik's short film Brother. Rob has also worked in the art department on films such as MDMA, The Boat Builder and Fruitvale Station, just to name a few.
Matthew Stouppe - Gaffer
Matthew Stouppe is a Bay Area gaffer with over 9 years in the film industry. He's taught a new generation of lighting technicians in the Bay Area with his popular workshops, becoming a mentor for many young filmmakers. His years of experience on countless union and non-union productions allows him to know exactly what it takes to shoot your project in the Bay Area.
Margaret Caragan - SFX Makeup Artist
Margaret Caragan is the founder and owner of Pandora FX. She has worked in the Bay Area as a special makeup effects artist for 14 years. Caragan studied Fine Art at the Academy of Art University, earning a Bachelor’s in Sculpture. She spends the majority of her time managing teams as a department head, creating highly detailed designs and executing them for commercials and independent films. She specializes in casualty and character makeups, creating custom prosthetics for creatures, likeness, old age, injuries and extreme transformations.
Colin W. Guthrie - Sound Design
Colin W. Guthrie is a sound and video editor, post-production engineer, production sound mixer, and independent filmmaker based in Berkeley, CA. Colin has over 15 years of experience in post-production and workflow for feature film, documentary, commercial and music video. Colin is passionate about filmmaking and dedicated to meaningful and creative high-fidelity audiovisual storytelling. Colin has done post sound for numerous projects for American Zoetrope including Twixt, Tetro, Somewhere and Apolocylpse Now: The Final Cut.
Elizabeth Fox - Head Makeup Artist
Elizabeth Fox has been a professional working makeup artist since 2000. Her background in theater arts and years of experience as a skincare educator help define hercreative instinct as a makeup artist. Her makeup and hair work has appeared in magazines from Bust to Vanity Fair and on the burlesque stages of NYC. Elizabeth has worked on over 20 feature films including The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Sorry to Bother You and the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why.
Zeke Faust - Visual Effects
Zeke Faust is a filmmaker, visual effects artist, and partner at Chariotdrive. Chariotdrive is an LA-based production and post-production studio that offers a complete post pipeline including VFX supervision, editorial, VFX, CGI, grading, and finishing.