White Death
Needham, Norfolk County | Film Feature
Drama
Sharks, movies, dreams, what else is there?
White Death
Needham, Norfolk County | Film Feature
Drama
1 Campaigns | Massachusetts, United States
Green Light
This campaign raised $12,035 for production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
87 supporters | followers
Enter the amount you would like to pledge
Sharks, movies, dreams, what else is there?
Participating In
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
STRETCH GOAL ANNOUNCED ! PLEASE HELP US REACH $15,000 and make this film in a fashion we only dreamed of ! We reached our first funding goal quickly and now have the chance to raise more money which would allow us more time filming on the water, post production help + more.
Side by side with my obsession of all things film, I share an infatuation with all things sharks. It's not too hard to imagine where this came from being a child of the seventies. Oh Mr. Spielberg. A few years ago I decided to combine these passions.
Due to the growing seal population, the great whites started coming to the very waters that Hollywood immortalized them in some thirty years prior. So I began making a documentary about this reality and the apex predators on Cape Cod. It was intense to say the least. I tracked the giant fish down and got in a cage with them holding my go-pro by a shaky thread. While I was working on this adventure, I was struck with some unfortunate news...my father passed.
This isn't that moment on American Idol where heartstring music is cued and gunned at your emotions. No, it's real and his passing was sudden, hitting me like a freight train. The documentary production stopped as did the world I as I knew it...I remember though while I was working on the film, I fantasized about showing the completed version to my father and blowing him away...winning his praise over tenfold...growing up in an Irish Catholic home, kind words weren't exactly commonplace...but my parents were great and this is by no means a judgement of them. I was and am beyond lucky and thankful for all they did for me...
In time I began feeling the creative urge again. I channeled my father's passing into a narrative screenplay. The devised storyline and characters were pretty close to home, allowing a real outlet for this bottled pain. The basic story follows blue collar construction worker Brian Sullivan who has never done anything but slander the family name, quarrel with his straight laced brother and disappoint his impossible to please father. The family construction business just won't cut it for the young buck who fancies himself a filmmaker. Yet his magnum opus, a documentary in progress about great white sharks, is a disaster. When his old man is given 6 months to live Brian will stop at nothing for one last chance at redemption; engaging a reckless pursuit of the most feared apex predator as well handling some old unhealed personal wounds.
The Carcharodon carcharias or great white is also known as white death. Yet in regards to my humble film that title represents more. It literally encapsulates the plaster and paint that the main character is covered in day after day and spends countless hours scrubbing off his worn hands. Yet this physical frustration pales in comparison to the psychlogical undertow the 35 year old has been caught in. Here, the title alludes to the depression and complacency brought about by a monotonus, unfulfilled existence. In some sense it's like almost like a slightly premature mid-life crisis (think Bill Murray, orange camo and a treadmill).
This type of existence is dangerous and exhausting - searching for that approval. Perhaps my father wasn't the best at expressing emotions, perhaps I'm flawed myself as well. Perhaps. God damn right I am. End of the day, we're all just humans. What I'm trying to get at is, I didn't need to win my father's approval through the silver screen, I already had it. And deep down inside I knew that.
This film speaks to that delicate and detrimental place...a place common to many...we build these high walls and shroud ourselves in technology, yet at the end of the day we can break in a heartbeat if that reaction is not what we expected or needed...
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Shark boat trip!
Costs $2,000
It's a movie about making a movie about SHARKS! We gotta go out and get in the cage!
Paper for Cast n Crew
Costs $4,000
This will cover all actors fees/compensation as well as our 3 man crew.
Big Mac Attack
Costs $1,500
We gotta eat. But we won't be getting that rubbish, don't worry. Not looking for any heart attacks.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
From the terrain of suburban backyard filmmaking, I been making DIY films for as long as I can remember. VHS, hi-8, mini-dv I got stacks of tapes in the basement documenting my many creations, most bad, a pinch good, but all are part of the learning curve. It started with my own version of Robocop and grew from there. Everyone's Got One was my first feature film, a riff on King of Comedy. In 2010 I made the feature Phillip The Fossil premiering at SXSW and winning a special jury award. My next feature Rubberneck came in 2012 and was distributed by Tribeca fIlms. And most recently I am one of the featured documentarian directors in the up and coming election day documentary simply titled 11/8/16; an account of that rather "interesting" day. Orchard distribtuon is releasing the film in the fall on the anniversary - Garth Donovan
Dennis Staroselsky has been acting professionally since the age of 13. His credits include the the world premiere of An Early History of Fire, at The New Group NYC , as well as appearances at regional theatres such as the A.R.T. The Huntington Theatre Co., Geva Theatre Center, Dallas Theater Center, The Paper Mill Playhouse. His TV & Film credits include Nurse Jackie, All My Children, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Jericho, The Michael J. Fox Show, Ghostwriter, Law & Order, White Colllar , Madame Secretary and the feature films Rubberneck, We Don’t Belong Here. Dennis currently can be seen as “Detective Jones” in the Kathryn Bigelow feature Detroit as well as the upcoming feature The Burning Woman, alongside Sienna Miller and Aaron Paul. As a playwright his first full length play Just About Cured was produced by the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York City in the fall of 2014. He holds a BFA from Boston University and an MA in theater education from NYU.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
STRETCH GOAL ANNOUNCED ! PLEASE HELP US REACH $15,000 and make this film in a fashion we only dreamed of ! We reached our first funding goal quickly and now have the chance to raise more money which would allow us more time filming on the water, post production help + more.
Side by side with my obsession of all things film, I share an infatuation with all things sharks. It's not too hard to imagine where this came from being a child of the seventies. Oh Mr. Spielberg. A few years ago I decided to combine these passions.
Due to the growing seal population, the great whites started coming to the very waters that Hollywood immortalized them in some thirty years prior. So I began making a documentary about this reality and the apex predators on Cape Cod. It was intense to say the least. I tracked the giant fish down and got in a cage with them holding my go-pro by a shaky thread. While I was working on this adventure, I was struck with some unfortunate news...my father passed.
This isn't that moment on American Idol where heartstring music is cued and gunned at your emotions. No, it's real and his passing was sudden, hitting me like a freight train. The documentary production stopped as did the world I as I knew it...I remember though while I was working on the film, I fantasized about showing the completed version to my father and blowing him away...winning his praise over tenfold...growing up in an Irish Catholic home, kind words weren't exactly commonplace...but my parents were great and this is by no means a judgement of them. I was and am beyond lucky and thankful for all they did for me...
In time I began feeling the creative urge again. I channeled my father's passing into a narrative screenplay. The devised storyline and characters were pretty close to home, allowing a real outlet for this bottled pain. The basic story follows blue collar construction worker Brian Sullivan who has never done anything but slander the family name, quarrel with his straight laced brother and disappoint his impossible to please father. The family construction business just won't cut it for the young buck who fancies himself a filmmaker. Yet his magnum opus, a documentary in progress about great white sharks, is a disaster. When his old man is given 6 months to live Brian will stop at nothing for one last chance at redemption; engaging a reckless pursuit of the most feared apex predator as well handling some old unhealed personal wounds.
The Carcharodon carcharias or great white is also known as white death. Yet in regards to my humble film that title represents more. It literally encapsulates the plaster and paint that the main character is covered in day after day and spends countless hours scrubbing off his worn hands. Yet this physical frustration pales in comparison to the psychlogical undertow the 35 year old has been caught in. Here, the title alludes to the depression and complacency brought about by a monotonus, unfulfilled existence. In some sense it's like almost like a slightly premature mid-life crisis (think Bill Murray, orange camo and a treadmill).
This type of existence is dangerous and exhausting - searching for that approval. Perhaps my father wasn't the best at expressing emotions, perhaps I'm flawed myself as well. Perhaps. God damn right I am. End of the day, we're all just humans. What I'm trying to get at is, I didn't need to win my father's approval through the silver screen, I already had it. And deep down inside I knew that.
This film speaks to that delicate and detrimental place...a place common to many...we build these high walls and shroud ourselves in technology, yet at the end of the day we can break in a heartbeat if that reaction is not what we expected or needed...
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Shark boat trip!
Costs $2,000
It's a movie about making a movie about SHARKS! We gotta go out and get in the cage!
Paper for Cast n Crew
Costs $4,000
This will cover all actors fees/compensation as well as our 3 man crew.
Big Mac Attack
Costs $1,500
We gotta eat. But we won't be getting that rubbish, don't worry. Not looking for any heart attacks.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
From the terrain of suburban backyard filmmaking, I been making DIY films for as long as I can remember. VHS, hi-8, mini-dv I got stacks of tapes in the basement documenting my many creations, most bad, a pinch good, but all are part of the learning curve. It started with my own version of Robocop and grew from there. Everyone's Got One was my first feature film, a riff on King of Comedy. In 2010 I made the feature Phillip The Fossil premiering at SXSW and winning a special jury award. My next feature Rubberneck came in 2012 and was distributed by Tribeca fIlms. And most recently I am one of the featured documentarian directors in the up and coming election day documentary simply titled 11/8/16; an account of that rather "interesting" day. Orchard distribtuon is releasing the film in the fall on the anniversary - Garth Donovan
Dennis Staroselsky has been acting professionally since the age of 13. His credits include the the world premiere of An Early History of Fire, at The New Group NYC , as well as appearances at regional theatres such as the A.R.T. The Huntington Theatre Co., Geva Theatre Center, Dallas Theater Center, The Paper Mill Playhouse. His TV & Film credits include Nurse Jackie, All My Children, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Jericho, The Michael J. Fox Show, Ghostwriter, Law & Order, White Colllar , Madame Secretary and the feature films Rubberneck, We Don’t Belong Here. Dennis currently can be seen as “Detective Jones” in the Kathryn Bigelow feature Detroit as well as the upcoming feature The Burning Woman, alongside Sienna Miller and Aaron Paul. As a playwright his first full length play Just About Cured was produced by the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York City in the fall of 2014. He holds a BFA from Boston University and an MA in theater education from NYU.