Undecided
Los Angeles, California | Film Short
Drama, LGBTQ
Inspired by Hemingway's short story, "Hills Like white Elephants," UNDECIDED follows three people deciding whether or not to keep a pregnancy as they explore how the idea of "motherhood" elicits questions around identity, relationships, and their futures.
Undecided
Los Angeles, California | Film Short
Drama, LGBTQ
1 Campaigns | California, United States
Green Light
This campaign raised $20,000 for development. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
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Inspired by Hemingway's short story, "Hills Like white Elephants," UNDECIDED follows three people deciding whether or not to keep a pregnancy as they explore how the idea of "motherhood" elicits questions around identity, relationships, and their futures.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
We are so happy to announce that Public School Pictures has signed on to produce Undecided! Lead by Emily Ruhl (BLUE MOON, 13TH STEPPING) and Zack Parker (THUNDER ROAD), Public School Pictures is a full-service creative studio with three goals: to share our hunger for visually interesting and envelope pushing stories with the world, to create the next generation of dynamic, challenging, forward thinking cinematic experiences, and to bring to our clients the highest tier of content production.
From everyone on the Undecided and Public School Pictures team, we can't wait to show you what we're making!
Synopsis
Undecided follows three conversations taking place around the same time in different parts of the United States. The script is inspired by Ernest Hemingway’s short story, "Hills Like White Elephants," which titillated its readers back in 1927. The story follows "the man" and "the girl" in conversation over beers at a Spanish train station, contemplating an operation that she may have. The dialogue goes back and forth, with each character weighing the pros and cons, and the audience is left without a definitive resolution. In hindsight, it is clear that the operation to which the characters are referring is an abortion, though this is never clarified in the short story.
Our three modern-day characters are in a similar deliberation with someone close to them over whether or not to keep a pregnancy. The dire straits of the situation are both increased and decreased within a modern context, but the nuances and challenges which characterize the decision placed on those contemplating a pregnancy align between the 1920s and the 2020s. Each character goes back and forth, digging deeper into how the socially constructed idea of "motherhood" elicits questions around identity, relationships, and bodily autonomy. The three pairs all have their own desires and motivations which drive them to push for or against the potential abortion, but by the end, we don’t find out whether or not each character decides to keep the pregnancy. Because, frankly, it’s none of our business.
Inspiration
For Undecided, we chose to follow in Hemingway’s footsteps by not explicitly disclosing to what the characters are referring. This is a nod at the ongoing controversy surrounding abortion today. Nearly 100 years later, this controversy allows Hemingway’s original story to slip easily into modern day.
In the background of the film is the September 2021 Texas abortion ban, which prohibits the administration of abortions after 6 weeks and is being put into effect at the time during which the film takes place. We chose to set the film solely in the United States to maintain the stakes that this tacit context engenders. The ban is not the focus of the film, but rather an additional layer to the already difficult situation each pregnant character finds themselves in. We made this choice to highlight the weight of this decision on a person even before the state or other actors become involved. The decision to keep or end a pregnancy is not an easy one for anybody: no matter the legality or accessibility of abortion, it is encompassed by complex traumas, pressures, and situational conflicts. This was a crucial notion for us to underline.
Unfortunately, the messages brought forth in Undecided have become more and more prevalent in the past few months, coming to a head with the recent move to overturn Roe vs. Wade (a 1973 Supreme Court decision which ruled that the Constitution of the United States protects a pregnant person’s freedom of choice).
Undecided is a small glimpse into what that conversation looks like for many people in varying circumstances across the country, every day.
Main Characters
MICKEY (nonbinary, early 20s) is from New York City, living out their gap year between high school and university. They hate authority and kombucha and love sarcasm and slam poetry. Mickey tends to walk around with a smile on their face and some tune in their head that they aren’t afraid to belt out loud. They usually know what to say and do, which makes this moment of uncertainty all the more overwhelming.
TABITHA (girl, 16) has never left her Texan hometown, except in books. She moves through the world with some uncertainty, as though her skin is the wrong fit but she is too stubborn to admit it. She and her brother, Andrew, were raised by a single mother who, from Tabitha’s perspective, spent more time working than being a good mom. She feels pressured by her mom to be “stronger” but doesn’t exactly know what that means
WENNY (woman, 30s) knows who she is and doesn't do bullshit. She met her husband, Jonah, in high school, where they connected on the fact that they were both bullied. They were best friends all the way through college where they finally realized their feelings for each other. He has always been slightly in awe of her effortlessness and warmth. He is the most authentic person she knows, and she feels she can completely be herself around him.
Visual Inspiration
Undecided highlights the internal struggles of individuals facing a decision that is entangled in external societal perceptions and status quos. We will be utilizing tight close ups juxtaposed with wide shots to emphasize this constant back and forth. Drawing from films such as Always, Sometimes, Rarely, Never, Mickey and the Bear and Peanut Butter Falcon the final presentation will be grounded through the muted colors of deep greens, yellows, and blues. The story is one that is rooted in our day to day and we want keep that way.
Timeline
Development & Pre Production: October 2021- September 2022
Funding: May 25- July 24th
Casting: June 1- July 31st
Rehearsals: August 1-15th
Pre-production planning (booking flights, hotels, scheduling): August 1- September 15th
Production: September 15- October 1, 2022
Undecided will be filming in NYC in September 2022.
Post-Production: October 2022-April 2023
Festival Strategy and Distribution: May 2023- May 2024
Festivals Under consideration: Cannes Film Festival, SXSW, Sundance, Palm Springs Short
Goals for distribution: Netflix, HBO, Argo, Mubi
Funding Goals
The overall funding goal for Undecided is $33,000 including development, production, post-production, and festivals.
The Seed&Spark Goal is $21,000 which would take care of paying our production crew & cast as well as travel, food, and lodging during production in September 2022.
Our budget includes the following four areas:
- Production costs for Cast & Crew- $15,000: Having a fully staffed and fairly paid cast & crew is fundemental for our filmmaking process
- Travel, Lodging, Food during production- $6,000: We are filming with a full cast and crew for 1 week in NYC in September
- Post- Production- $8,000: Post production fees including Editing, sound mixing, graphics, and festival fees.
- Development / Pre- Production- $4,000: Development planning including screenwriting competition fees and production team fees.
Undecided has been recognized by the following Screenplay Competitions:
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Crew Costs
Costs $10,000
Having an exceptional cast & crew is fundamental to the filmmaking process
Travel, Lodging, Food
Costs $6,000
We are filming with a full cast and crew for 1 week in NYC in September
Star-studded Cast
Costs $5,000
We look forward to working with our cast made up of 3 main characters and 5 supporting characters.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Francesca Scotti-Goetz (writer) is an artist and social justice advocate based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She began observing her surroundings through writing and photography at a young age, using the pen and lens to better understand the people and places around her. Attending the Cannes Film Festival for the first time in 2021, Francesca unearthed a passion for film that had previously never extended past going to the cinema on rainy Sunday afternoons. This was the driving force in her involvement in the Undecided project. The screenplay medium was daunting to her as she felt it lacked a descriptive and expository quality that she had relied on when writing in the past, but she took on the project as a form of experimentation and soon learned that the act of conveying the layers to a conversation—an interaction, an emotion, a history—without the explicit wording she was used to, was a challenge she thoroughly enjoyed. Undecided is her first attempt at such a feat.
Sofia Kunz (director) is a dreamer and observer. As an actor and director, she recalls being mezmerized by her father's ability to seemlessly slip a joke into the most serious of conversations, her first glimpse into effective storytelling. Last year, her short film, co-directed and co-produced with Annabella Fazio, previewed at the Cannes Film Festival Court Metrage. Filmmaking is the chance to connect with an audience on stories that need to be told. Passionate about elevating female filmmaking she hopes to prioritize the importance of female collaboration in an industry that can so often divide.
Annabella Fazio (producer) is a lover of all things filmmaking. From a young age, she was "producing" short plays with her friends in the backyard and inviting neighbors to watch. In the two decades since then, Annabella has followed her childhood intuition to become an emerging actor and producer. Last year her debut co-directed and co-produced short film was previewed at the Cannes Film Festival Court Metrage. As an avid traveler who has lived on multiple continents, Annabella is focused on elevating the modern experience of women and AFAB people all over the world and dreams of starting a documentary production company.
We are excited to introduce, Agustina Biasutto, our director of photography! Augustina is an Argentinian-born, South Florida-raised, Brooklyn-based DoP. She has been recognized for her work, most recently as a finalist for the ASC Heritage Awards.
Annabella and Sofia's debut short film, Kaleidoscope, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival Court Metrage 2021.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
We are so happy to announce that Public School Pictures has signed on to produce Undecided! Lead by Emily Ruhl (BLUE MOON, 13TH STEPPING) and Zack Parker (THUNDER ROAD), Public School Pictures is a full-service creative studio with three goals: to share our hunger for visually interesting and envelope pushing stories with the world, to create the next generation of dynamic, challenging, forward thinking cinematic experiences, and to bring to our clients the highest tier of content production.
From everyone on the Undecided and Public School Pictures team, we can't wait to show you what we're making!
Synopsis
Undecided follows three conversations taking place around the same time in different parts of the United States. The script is inspired by Ernest Hemingway’s short story, "Hills Like White Elephants," which titillated its readers back in 1927. The story follows "the man" and "the girl" in conversation over beers at a Spanish train station, contemplating an operation that she may have. The dialogue goes back and forth, with each character weighing the pros and cons, and the audience is left without a definitive resolution. In hindsight, it is clear that the operation to which the characters are referring is an abortion, though this is never clarified in the short story.
Our three modern-day characters are in a similar deliberation with someone close to them over whether or not to keep a pregnancy. The dire straits of the situation are both increased and decreased within a modern context, but the nuances and challenges which characterize the decision placed on those contemplating a pregnancy align between the 1920s and the 2020s. Each character goes back and forth, digging deeper into how the socially constructed idea of "motherhood" elicits questions around identity, relationships, and bodily autonomy. The three pairs all have their own desires and motivations which drive them to push for or against the potential abortion, but by the end, we don’t find out whether or not each character decides to keep the pregnancy. Because, frankly, it’s none of our business.
Inspiration
For Undecided, we chose to follow in Hemingway’s footsteps by not explicitly disclosing to what the characters are referring. This is a nod at the ongoing controversy surrounding abortion today. Nearly 100 years later, this controversy allows Hemingway’s original story to slip easily into modern day.
In the background of the film is the September 2021 Texas abortion ban, which prohibits the administration of abortions after 6 weeks and is being put into effect at the time during which the film takes place. We chose to set the film solely in the United States to maintain the stakes that this tacit context engenders. The ban is not the focus of the film, but rather an additional layer to the already difficult situation each pregnant character finds themselves in. We made this choice to highlight the weight of this decision on a person even before the state or other actors become involved. The decision to keep or end a pregnancy is not an easy one for anybody: no matter the legality or accessibility of abortion, it is encompassed by complex traumas, pressures, and situational conflicts. This was a crucial notion for us to underline.
Unfortunately, the messages brought forth in Undecided have become more and more prevalent in the past few months, coming to a head with the recent move to overturn Roe vs. Wade (a 1973 Supreme Court decision which ruled that the Constitution of the United States protects a pregnant person’s freedom of choice).
Undecided is a small glimpse into what that conversation looks like for many people in varying circumstances across the country, every day.
Main Characters
MICKEY (nonbinary, early 20s) is from New York City, living out their gap year between high school and university. They hate authority and kombucha and love sarcasm and slam poetry. Mickey tends to walk around with a smile on their face and some tune in their head that they aren’t afraid to belt out loud. They usually know what to say and do, which makes this moment of uncertainty all the more overwhelming.
TABITHA (girl, 16) has never left her Texan hometown, except in books. She moves through the world with some uncertainty, as though her skin is the wrong fit but she is too stubborn to admit it. She and her brother, Andrew, were raised by a single mother who, from Tabitha’s perspective, spent more time working than being a good mom. She feels pressured by her mom to be “stronger” but doesn’t exactly know what that means
WENNY (woman, 30s) knows who she is and doesn't do bullshit. She met her husband, Jonah, in high school, where they connected on the fact that they were both bullied. They were best friends all the way through college where they finally realized their feelings for each other. He has always been slightly in awe of her effortlessness and warmth. He is the most authentic person she knows, and she feels she can completely be herself around him.
Visual Inspiration
Undecided highlights the internal struggles of individuals facing a decision that is entangled in external societal perceptions and status quos. We will be utilizing tight close ups juxtaposed with wide shots to emphasize this constant back and forth. Drawing from films such as Always, Sometimes, Rarely, Never, Mickey and the Bear and Peanut Butter Falcon the final presentation will be grounded through the muted colors of deep greens, yellows, and blues. The story is one that is rooted in our day to day and we want keep that way.
Timeline
Development & Pre Production: October 2021- September 2022
Funding: May 25- July 24th
Casting: June 1- July 31st
Rehearsals: August 1-15th
Pre-production planning (booking flights, hotels, scheduling): August 1- September 15th
Production: September 15- October 1, 2022
Undecided will be filming in NYC in September 2022.
Post-Production: October 2022-April 2023
Festival Strategy and Distribution: May 2023- May 2024
Festivals Under consideration: Cannes Film Festival, SXSW, Sundance, Palm Springs Short
Goals for distribution: Netflix, HBO, Argo, Mubi
Funding Goals
The overall funding goal for Undecided is $33,000 including development, production, post-production, and festivals.
The Seed&Spark Goal is $21,000 which would take care of paying our production crew & cast as well as travel, food, and lodging during production in September 2022.
Our budget includes the following four areas:
- Production costs for Cast & Crew- $15,000: Having a fully staffed and fairly paid cast & crew is fundemental for our filmmaking process
- Travel, Lodging, Food during production- $6,000: We are filming with a full cast and crew for 1 week in NYC in September
- Post- Production- $8,000: Post production fees including Editing, sound mixing, graphics, and festival fees.
- Development / Pre- Production- $4,000: Development planning including screenwriting competition fees and production team fees.
Undecided has been recognized by the following Screenplay Competitions:
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Crew Costs
Costs $10,000
Having an exceptional cast & crew is fundamental to the filmmaking process
Travel, Lodging, Food
Costs $6,000
We are filming with a full cast and crew for 1 week in NYC in September
Star-studded Cast
Costs $5,000
We look forward to working with our cast made up of 3 main characters and 5 supporting characters.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Francesca Scotti-Goetz (writer) is an artist and social justice advocate based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She began observing her surroundings through writing and photography at a young age, using the pen and lens to better understand the people and places around her. Attending the Cannes Film Festival for the first time in 2021, Francesca unearthed a passion for film that had previously never extended past going to the cinema on rainy Sunday afternoons. This was the driving force in her involvement in the Undecided project. The screenplay medium was daunting to her as she felt it lacked a descriptive and expository quality that she had relied on when writing in the past, but she took on the project as a form of experimentation and soon learned that the act of conveying the layers to a conversation—an interaction, an emotion, a history—without the explicit wording she was used to, was a challenge she thoroughly enjoyed. Undecided is her first attempt at such a feat.
Sofia Kunz (director) is a dreamer and observer. As an actor and director, she recalls being mezmerized by her father's ability to seemlessly slip a joke into the most serious of conversations, her first glimpse into effective storytelling. Last year, her short film, co-directed and co-produced with Annabella Fazio, previewed at the Cannes Film Festival Court Metrage. Filmmaking is the chance to connect with an audience on stories that need to be told. Passionate about elevating female filmmaking she hopes to prioritize the importance of female collaboration in an industry that can so often divide.
Annabella Fazio (producer) is a lover of all things filmmaking. From a young age, she was "producing" short plays with her friends in the backyard and inviting neighbors to watch. In the two decades since then, Annabella has followed her childhood intuition to become an emerging actor and producer. Last year her debut co-directed and co-produced short film was previewed at the Cannes Film Festival Court Metrage. As an avid traveler who has lived on multiple continents, Annabella is focused on elevating the modern experience of women and AFAB people all over the world and dreams of starting a documentary production company.
We are excited to introduce, Agustina Biasutto, our director of photography! Augustina is an Argentinian-born, South Florida-raised, Brooklyn-based DoP. She has been recognized for her work, most recently as a finalist for the ASC Heritage Awards.
Annabella and Sofia's debut short film, Kaleidoscope, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival Court Metrage 2021.