A Brief Summary

  My name is Danny O’Keefe and I am a TV/Film student at DeSales University in Center Valley, PA. I am the writer and director of Birdsong, a senior seminar project being produced at our school. I have a strong theatre background from high school and I specialize in stop motion animation.

  Birdsong is more than a coming of age story, in fact our protagonist Ethan is far past the age where he should have figured his life out. This film deals with concepts that we have all struggled with; chasing our dreams, balancing work and play, mentoring our children, and the impending job hunt that awaits a recent college grad. This film involves but is not about teen pregnancy and will hopefully help others who are having issues getting their life together. The tough choices are not the ones we want to make but the ones we have to make in order to survive in an American economy. It is never to late to pick yourself back up and get back in the race.

  Contributors of this film will be helping students at DeSales learn budgeting and build resume material in preparation for the industry. Donations will be put towards set design, costume design, and payment of professional talent. With your generosity we can produce a film to help others discover themselves and inspire them to make smarter life choices.

Meat The Team

What We Need & What You Get

What we need:

• Simply put, a budget
• The school does not offer grants and most money put into our student films are out of pocket
• Actors
• Most of our donations, roughly two thirds, will go towards actors who deserve compensation for their hard work
• Outside hires are important as many characters exceed the age of 27
• Set pieces
• This film needs strong set design with instruments, posters, trophies, etc.
• Costume
• We need less towards costume but will need a few iconic wardrobe items like specific colored sneakers and shoe laces
• Transportation
• The film is shot in the Lehigh Valley and we will need some money for transportation from location to location
• Craft services
• A small about of the budget will go towards some food for the actors and crew (water and granola) while on longer shoots

What you get:

  Do you want a ukulele signed by the cast and crew? Check out the “select a perk” section to see what you can get. Perks range from credits and soundtracks to a ukulele of your own signed by the cast and crew.

If our initial goal is not met:

  We hate to see it happen but sometime goals are not met. If our goal is not reached three fourths of the proceeds will go to actors and the rest will be paid with what’s left and what I have in my pocket at the time.

Why This Story is Important

Everyone at one point in their life has felt lost. We try everything to follow our dreams and live happy lives but sometimes it seems like the world is throwing everything obstacle in our path. Similar films like Juno and Inside Llewyn Davis have touched so many people in showcasing stories of hardship and big life changes. I hope to do the same.

My parents have always been very supportive of my dreams, but like most others in the world I have struggled finding a balance in the pursuit of my dream and real work; the kind we need to pay for apartments and food and bills. It took me a while but I was able to find myself and find a routine that works. Some people never get their priorities straight and it is heartbreaking. With a film like this I hope others can find their own routine and make the decisions that help them succeed. This connection will be made not only in Ethan’s character but in everyone he connects with throughout the film.

Ethan has left his education to follow his dream of writing music, but he can never seem to focus and spreads himself too thin between him, his dream, his work, and his family. He wants to take on the world but it is too much. This character plays to the artist and the dreamer alike. How many times have you worried as a parent for your child’s success and wellbeing? Ethan’s parents deal with this almost every day and voice a lot of parents’ fears. Ethan’s high school sweetheart is fed up with Ethan’s casual attitude. We all worry the most about the people we love.

This is a marketable film that plays on issues of dream chasing, growing up, balance of work and play, parent worries, the dwindling job market, and teen pregnancy.

Challenges

This is an ambitious film and we are a small college. Some challenges we must overcome include:

• Casting a child actor
• Casting older actors
• Shooting the film with a tight schedule
• Producing high quality composition
• Locking down a small business as a location

These are going to be difficult to overcome, however, we are already making strives towards making these things happen.

• We have a child actor auditioning already who can play the ukulele as the role requires
• We have a vast theatre department at our school and surrounding schools who we will be reaching out to for actors
  
•  If we need to cast younger we will do so
  
• We have a week to shoot the film from March 14th to March 20th and we already have most locations locked down
• One example is a radio station that we have scheduled already for that week of shooting
• We have access to high quality production equipment at our school
• We will be shooting on a RED 4K camera with a variety of cinema lenses
• If we cannot find a local nosiness we can easily change the location in the script, but that is the last location we need and we are working very hard to find one
• We have a stellar, hand picked crew, all of which have had extensive experience in their designated positions

A little about my experience. I have directed several films in high school through college. I have worked on two films that won awards for runner up and best in show at our film festival where I directed one and assistant directed the other. My past employment includes an internship at Shufflebox Productions in Kutztown, PA, a student volunteer at SIGGRAPH in Los Angeles, CA, as well as videography for local businesses in West Hartford, CT. I am currently the videographer and graphic designer for the office of Student Engagement and Leadership at our school and previously worked as a 3D printer technician at our 3D printing space in Trexler Library.

I strive to make films with unique, new takes on old ideas. This film incorporates strong composition of music elements and film in tangent.

Other Ways You Can Help

Even if you cannot donate money, any other help is greatly appreciated. Such things include donations of food and props. Props include:

• Blank trophies
• Music posters
• Instruments you would find in an elementary school band
• Envelopes
• Headphones
• An old cell phone

Please share this with your friends and family as even if you can’t donate at this moment others may be interested. Don’t forget to use the Indiegogo sharing tools