Betrayal

A thriller

We are proposing a tragic and visceral short film about a troubled young husband who finds himself caught in a web of betrayal of his own making.  Written by Royce Hercules, who also stars, and produced and directed by Phil Borg, this thriller short film will show a dark side of the human psyche and dramatize the regrettable choices we make under the veil of extreme emotions.

We will be updating this campaign over the coming days and weeks with interviews and videos on the progress we've made, so please stay tuned and follow us!

Interview With Director/Producer Phil Borg

Hear from director Phil Borg on the origin of the project and his approach!

What Does the Public Think?

We have been working on this campaign since the summer of 2019. In fact, on Canada Day 2019 we headed out to ask some people about their experiences with "betrayal". What did they feel? What did they do about it? The answers were fascinating!

Get To Know Our Cast & Crew!

Happy New Year everyone!

We are into the final week of our campaign. We haven’t gotten all the support we were hoping for yet, but we know these things take time. We are hoping this final push in our campaign will reap the benefits to get this film made for us!

With that in mind, here are a few interviews from us all explaining our own experiences with this complicated subject matter.

The winner is.... Concept #2!

Thank so much for everyone who participated in our poster contest! 

Thanks for voting!

Story & Tone

Betrayal is about a tragic love triangle between three people who are each betraying each other.  Trevor wants to be a good family man, but is chronically unhappily.  Shawna is his unsatisfied wife, and Maurice is Trevor's childhood friend with whom Shawna is having an affair. On Trevor's 40th birthday, Shawna learns she is pregnant, and Trevor's mind is pushed beyond the realms of sanity when he realizes he may not be the father. Can he be saved before he loses control?

Visual touchstones include the neon-lit high-energy camera work of Christopher Doyle (Chunking Express, In the Mood for Love,), or more recently, Sean Price William’s electric work alongside the Safdie Brothers (Uncut Gems, Good Time).

Here are a few inspiration images to show you the tone that we are going for:

Why We Are Doing This

We not only feel this story is important for the world to see,  but we also just love the challenge of creating a difficult piece of drama. After all, it is this kind of subject matter that drew us to film and acting in the first place. Allow us to tell you in our own words:

The Team

Royce Hercules - Writer/Actor

Born in the United States raised in Canada, he began his acting career in 1994 and has been in a number of Theatre productions, Movies, Television, and Commercials. He continued to Horne his writing and producing skills. His first was a short film titled: The Doorman (2000) His next project: My Life or Theirs (2004) he wrote, produced, acted, composed the soundtrack for the movie. It was screened at the Action/Cut Film Festival., and the famous CAMERA BAR for private a screening, 300 invited guests. Acted in number of Theatre Shows, Film, Television Series, and Commercials. Written, Produce, and Performed, in his own music video. “It Was You Baby” (2013). It hit the top 50 billboard list on Our Stage. Next, Written and Acted in Doritos “Superbowl” Commercial Contest(2015) made it to the final round. Recently, completed Feature length Screenplay title: “POWER” (2016) with writing partner Desmond Blackman. Next, recently completed Short Length Screenplay title: “Betrayal” (2017) with writing partner Desmond Blackman.

Phil Borg - Director/Producer

Phil has written and directed one feature film (New Year, 2010), and eight short films. Most recently, his short Virtual Hitman premiered at the 2015 Vancouver Asian Film Fest where it won Best Canadian Short. His feature, New Year, which he also co-wrote, premiered at the Montreal World Film Festival, and the Clearwater Film Festival, where it won Best Film and Best Actress in 2011. It is being distributed by Multiple Media Entertainment in Canada and The Orchard in the US, and available for digital purchase/rental on Amazon and US iTunes. Phil's short film work has won multiple awards from organizations around Canada like the Vancouver Asian Film Festival and Queen’s University.

What We Need & What You Get

Despite being penniless filmmakers willing to put our all into a challenging short film, we want to assure any would-be financiers out there that a chance on us is not a shot in the dark.

We have a firm and achievable plan to get this film made that is ready to go. We are making this as an ACTRA Co-op production, which means everyone behind this campaign are working for the love of it, but we are realistic enough to know that love doesn't always translate into production value.

We are raising funds to pay the best Production Designer, Cinematographer, Sound Recordist, Post Production team we can find to ensure the final film will blow people away!

The budget for this short film is a modest yet still challenging $10,000.

 $7500 to shoot the film over the course of four days.

 $2500 to cover post production labour and distribution fees.

We need your help to raise these funds in order for us to get Betrayal made.

Production Plan

A marriage of brisk camerawork and tight staging will bring this story to life on a limited budget. The one element necessary for those elements to succeed is "time".  We are choosing a looser pace than customary in order to provide an arena for our actors and crew to come together in an explorative manner for our staging.

This plan of a 4-day shoot will favour a longer schedule than necessary to not only allow our actors to explore deeper performances on-set, but also give our production team the time to create and mold breathtaking camerawork. 

We believe this plan is both creatively ambitious and economically feasible given the small size of our production.

Pre-production: January 2020

Production: February 2020

Post-production February-March 2020

Betrayal’s primary destination will be the festival circuit where we hope it will play as a gripping dramatic thriller in short film programs, and showcase the talents and sensibilities of our cast and crew to the world. 

In Closing