Thru The Late Night
Los Angeles, California | Film Short
Music, Comedy
Thru The Late Night is about chasing your dream when everything’s stacked against you. Struggling rap producer Jacques' faith in himself is tested after his all-nighter studio session spirals into chaos. It’s raw, hilarious, and painfully relatable for anyone feeling stuck in life.
Thru The Late Night
Los Angeles, California | Film Short
Music, Comedy
1 Campaigns | California, United States
Green Light
This campaign raised $13,700 for production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
46 supporters | followers
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Thru The Late Night is about chasing your dream when everything’s stacked against you. Struggling rap producer Jacques' faith in himself is tested after his all-nighter studio session spirals into chaos. It’s raw, hilarious, and painfully relatable for anyone feeling stuck in life.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
Thru the Late Night is a short film about what it takes to keep chasing your dream despite the universe throwing every obstacle it can to stop you.
It follows Jacques, a struggling music producer, who books a late-night session in a downtown LA studio to finish the song he sees as the one that will finally get him noticed. It’s his last shot. Rent’s due. His collaborators are flaking. Power outages, computer crashes, there may or may not be a demon in a duffel bag—yeah, it’s that kind of night. We've all been there.
Thru The Late Night is the most ambitious and personal project we've ever attempted. It's dark comedy that unfurls like a surreal dream yet is grounded in heartfelt emotion. Though it’s designed to be an equal parts hilarious and a tense, our film explores what it feels like to be lost and lonely in a very big world, overlooked, overstimulated, and clinging to a dream in a city that seems to be fighting against you.
If you've ever worked two jobs just to afford your side hustle, poured everything into a project no one asked you to make, questioned whether what you're working for is still worth it, then this is your story too.
Why We're Telling This Story
Because we’re living it!
All three of us—Joe, Heed, and Tyler—we're artists grinding to make our voices heard in Los Angeles, a city that rarely just hands out opportunities. We've known each other for years now, and somehow, through a lot of long nights and weird twists, we’ve become each other’s filmmaking team. Our collaborations started with music videos, then turned into short films, and now this. Thru the Late Night is the biggest and baddest project we've produced together...and the one that feels the most like us.
This story is grounded in the Los Angeles we know and sometimes love. Not the Hollywood red carpets or the influencer version you see on your phone. The real LA! It’s long drives across the city to scrape together rent. It’s chasing inspiration between deliveries, working on music in the back of your car, squeezing in shoots on your only day off. It’s about showing up to a studio session after ten hours on your feet, hoping you still have something left in the tank. That’s the version of LA this film was born from. And that’s the one we want to honor.
Jacques isn’t just a character. He’s a version of ourselves we all carry...the part that just keeps you going, even when every part of the world is telling you to quit.
Maybe you got a little bit of Jacques in you too!
What Your Support Means
Supporting this project means more than helping us rent a camera or secure a location. It means giving time and space to a story that usually gets overlooked. It means backing a cast and crew of artists who might also be working another job during the week too!
We’re not fundraising a massive, inflated budget. We just want to make a damn good short, for not that much, and we want to do it right.
Your support makes that possible. And we'd appreciate it for all eternity!
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Cast
Costs $3,500
Our actors bring this story to life. Every moment hinges on their talent, presence, and time.
Crew
Costs $3,500
This short only works with a skilled crew behind the scenes making sure it all runs safely and smoothly.
Equipment
Costs $3,000
We need solid camera and lighting gear to make this look professional and capture every detail. Lenses, grip equipment, you name it.
Production Design
Costs $2,250
The setting is a character too! This covers everything from recording studio gear to demon duffel bags.
Locations
Costs $1,000
Authentic LA locations give the film its soul. These fees help us shoot where the story belongs.
Festival Fees
Costs $750
Once the film is done, this helps us get it seen, submitting to festivals where it can reach new eyes.
Contingency
Costs $3,000
Things go wrong. Gear fails, someone gets sick, something breaks. This gives us a small cushion to problem-solve without derailing.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Joe Calardo is a writer/director from Cincinnati, Ohio. He started making stop-motion LEGO movies as a kid and just never stopped telling stories. These days, he lives in Los Angeles, where he directs and edits music videos, docs, and narrative projects—collaborating with artists like Anderson .Paak and J Balvin. Joe is passionate about fusing deeply personal stories with genre conventions and archetypes.
Tyler Patrick Jones is a producer born and bred in Los Angeles. His entry into the entertainment industry began when he was just 5 years old, as a constantly-working child actor featured in the films Minority Report, Red Dragon, and Bad News Bears, to name a few. Tyler put acting aside to focus fully on producing, where he feels most at home in the filmmaking process. He's recently produced a handful of shorts, and a Youtube doc-series with views in the millions.
Waahid Muhammad is a producer from Waco, Texas. His passion for music and business began formed at an early age with musical influence from his mom and brothers. After college, Waahid set his sights on Los Angeles, where he is currently based. Focused on developing local up and coming artists, Waahid has worked on numerous projects and collaborated with some of the most promising artists from Los Angeles such as Sham1016, Holland Izz, YVS Village, and Randy White, just to name a few.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
Thru the Late Night is a short film about what it takes to keep chasing your dream despite the universe throwing every obstacle it can to stop you.
It follows Jacques, a struggling music producer, who books a late-night session in a downtown LA studio to finish the song he sees as the one that will finally get him noticed. It’s his last shot. Rent’s due. His collaborators are flaking. Power outages, computer crashes, there may or may not be a demon in a duffel bag—yeah, it’s that kind of night. We've all been there.
Thru The Late Night is the most ambitious and personal project we've ever attempted. It's dark comedy that unfurls like a surreal dream yet is grounded in heartfelt emotion. Though it’s designed to be an equal parts hilarious and a tense, our film explores what it feels like to be lost and lonely in a very big world, overlooked, overstimulated, and clinging to a dream in a city that seems to be fighting against you.
If you've ever worked two jobs just to afford your side hustle, poured everything into a project no one asked you to make, questioned whether what you're working for is still worth it, then this is your story too.
Why We're Telling This Story
Because we’re living it!
All three of us—Joe, Heed, and Tyler—we're artists grinding to make our voices heard in Los Angeles, a city that rarely just hands out opportunities. We've known each other for years now, and somehow, through a lot of long nights and weird twists, we’ve become each other’s filmmaking team. Our collaborations started with music videos, then turned into short films, and now this. Thru the Late Night is the biggest and baddest project we've produced together...and the one that feels the most like us.
This story is grounded in the Los Angeles we know and sometimes love. Not the Hollywood red carpets or the influencer version you see on your phone. The real LA! It’s long drives across the city to scrape together rent. It’s chasing inspiration between deliveries, working on music in the back of your car, squeezing in shoots on your only day off. It’s about showing up to a studio session after ten hours on your feet, hoping you still have something left in the tank. That’s the version of LA this film was born from. And that’s the one we want to honor.
Jacques isn’t just a character. He’s a version of ourselves we all carry...the part that just keeps you going, even when every part of the world is telling you to quit.
Maybe you got a little bit of Jacques in you too!
What Your Support Means
Supporting this project means more than helping us rent a camera or secure a location. It means giving time and space to a story that usually gets overlooked. It means backing a cast and crew of artists who might also be working another job during the week too!
We’re not fundraising a massive, inflated budget. We just want to make a damn good short, for not that much, and we want to do it right.
Your support makes that possible. And we'd appreciate it for all eternity!
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Cast
Costs $3,500
Our actors bring this story to life. Every moment hinges on their talent, presence, and time.
Crew
Costs $3,500
This short only works with a skilled crew behind the scenes making sure it all runs safely and smoothly.
Equipment
Costs $3,000
We need solid camera and lighting gear to make this look professional and capture every detail. Lenses, grip equipment, you name it.
Production Design
Costs $2,250
The setting is a character too! This covers everything from recording studio gear to demon duffel bags.
Locations
Costs $1,000
Authentic LA locations give the film its soul. These fees help us shoot where the story belongs.
Festival Fees
Costs $750
Once the film is done, this helps us get it seen, submitting to festivals where it can reach new eyes.
Contingency
Costs $3,000
Things go wrong. Gear fails, someone gets sick, something breaks. This gives us a small cushion to problem-solve without derailing.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Joe Calardo is a writer/director from Cincinnati, Ohio. He started making stop-motion LEGO movies as a kid and just never stopped telling stories. These days, he lives in Los Angeles, where he directs and edits music videos, docs, and narrative projects—collaborating with artists like Anderson .Paak and J Balvin. Joe is passionate about fusing deeply personal stories with genre conventions and archetypes.
Tyler Patrick Jones is a producer born and bred in Los Angeles. His entry into the entertainment industry began when he was just 5 years old, as a constantly-working child actor featured in the films Minority Report, Red Dragon, and Bad News Bears, to name a few. Tyler put acting aside to focus fully on producing, where he feels most at home in the filmmaking process. He's recently produced a handful of shorts, and a Youtube doc-series with views in the millions.
Waahid Muhammad is a producer from Waco, Texas. His passion for music and business began formed at an early age with musical influence from his mom and brothers. After college, Waahid set his sights on Los Angeles, where he is currently based. Focused on developing local up and coming artists, Waahid has worked on numerous projects and collaborated with some of the most promising artists from Los Angeles such as Sham1016, Holland Izz, YVS Village, and Randy White, just to name a few.