After reluctantly agreeing to open her long term relationship, the naively romantic Charlotte starts a questionably casual, no-strings-attached relationship with Liam, a commitment-phobic Asian-American digital artist. Fueled from mutual attraction and a shared desire to escape their personal dissatisfactions, the two find much more in each other than the simple fling they expected.

As their physical connection deepens, cracks break through the surface. Charlotte buckles under the emotional weight of an open relationship she didn't truly want, while Liam, burned by heartbreak, hides behind a facade of nonchalance. Through sensual encounters, vulnerable conversations, and tender moments that suggest more than just sex, they both wrestle with what it means to desire connection without commitment.

Set against the backdrop of intimate apartments, hillside trails, and late night escapades, Uncuffed is a raw and contemporary exploration of modern love, the growing gray area between friends and lovers, and the intimidating ache of wanting more than you're willing to admit.

Characters:

Charlotte: Vibrant, sweet, and perhaps naive, Charlotte swifts through life with a disarming candidness. After reluctantly agreeing to open her long-term relationship, she reconciles with the reality that her life might not be the fairy tale she always knew her life would be. In coming to terms with this though, she discovers freedoms and sides of herself that, maybe, aren't so bad after all.

Liam: Cagey and introspective, Liam is a digital artist who lives much of his life in his own head. After being burned in a past relationship, he's reluctant to expose himself emotionally, yet can't help being drawn to the unabashed nature of Charlotte. Insistent on keeping things casual, he rejects the notion of connection and intimacy, perhaps lying to others and even himself.

Series Expansion:

As the Pilot to an expanding series, Uncuffed kicks off not only the stories of Charlotte and Liam, but the diverse cast of characters they will each encounter in episodes two through eight. With future episodes already written, we'll be exploring themes such as queer identity, hyper-connected loneliness, sexual stigma, and much more.

Style + Tone:

With an intimate, raw tone, and a naturalistic style, Uncuffed reflects the real world. Conversations are laden with subtext- the things left unsaid weigh as heavily as spoken words. Focus remains on glances, silences, and tender awkward energy of two people figuring each other, and themselves, out.

Visually, Uncuffed operates naturally yet dynamically. With a grounded color palette and justified lighting, we reflect real life, marrying it to a deep color scheme that shades emotional heights and trenches.

Creator's Statement:

Most of us, least of all myself, don't experience smooth sailing with dating. Apps taunt too many potential options, envy and FOMO are amplified by our screens; and none of us can figure out what the heck we actually want. Why can't we have everything? Don't we deserve that? And why does that thought scare us?

Liam and Charlotte particularly struggle with two themes I find interesting, both from personal experience, and because they exist in the relationship of Gen-Z relationship discourse: Vulnerability and sexuality. Through these characters, we'll confront challenges surrounding physical versus emotional intimacy, connection through vulnerability, societal pressure, and our own self judgements.

Constant discourse between real life friends, Instagram comments, and Tiktok videos echo these ideas as Gen Z grows into full-fledged adulthood. Waves of progressiveness are met with undertows of counter-culture, loneliness has skyrocketed to an all time high and there's a million contradicting self help influencers, blogs, and youtube videos promising to fix our problems, some much more problematic than others.

In a time of severe disconnect and dysphoria, Uncuffed tells a story that seeks to connect with all of you. Despite how isolating the current field can feel, and how perfect everyone else's lives may look; you're not alone.

Budget + Logistics:

With a production draft written, sizzle footage shot, and the core members of an excellent team, this campaign will support our costs for production. We highly believe in collaboration and hard work and, even for a small scale project, our budget prioritizes building a professional, complete, and passionate team. This allows us to not rely on indulgent technicals and focus on what, I believe, is most key to telling human stories: the humans. Further components of the budget include renting proper equipment, locations, and the wellness of our crew. Meeting our goal for this campaign will allow us to fully shoot our pilot this September.

Stretch goals:

The Pilot for Uncuffed is just the start. So if we've hit our target but you'd still like to contribute, don't worry! Any surplus contributions we receive will go directly into the production budgets of future episodes.

Thank you!

Uncuffed isn't possible without you. To immerse you in the world as much as possible and deliver our project on time, we really need your support. Please consider pledging, and any amount, no matter how big or small, will impactfully help in bringing this story alive.

We can't wait to share Uncuffed with you, and from the bottom of our hearts, we thank you for your time and support!