About "Bottleneck"

Jess is trapped. Approaching her mid-twenties, she still lives in her hometown on Vancouver Island with her college boyfriend Scott. The only good times in her life are party nights with her newly-single friend Kayla. But soon a pattern of self-destruction forces Jess to face her apathy towards life and the creeping discomfort that comes any time she is sober.

About the Project

Bottleneck is a short film that explores addiction in millennials - the way we abuse substances and use love as a crutch to cope with the crushing realities of life, and the excuses we make about what is a party and what is a problem.

This short film is serving as proof-of-concept for a feature film that will be used as a thesis for writer-director James Weicker's MFA.

Who Are We?

James Weicker - Director & Writer
Born and raised in Victoria, James Weicker received his undergraduate degree in Creative Writing from the University of Victoria. During this time he studied screenwriting and filmmaking, as well as fiction. James has worked as a writer and director on several indie short film and video projects, ranging from sketch comedy to web advertisements. In his last semester as an undergrad, he completed his first feature-length screenplay, Six Shooter, which went on to earn 4th runner-up for WGI’s 2018 Michael Collyer Memorial Fellowship and a 7.8/10 rating on blklst.com. Also during this time, he co-wrote/directed a short film, "Windfall", which was accepted to the 2018 Toronto Lift-off Festival. James is currently hard at work on his MFA at UVic, where he is focused on filmmaking and screenwriting.

Rylan Gladson - Director of Photography & Editor
Rylan Gladson graduated from the University of Victoria in 2017 with a major in Writing and a minor in Film Studies. He has served as editor and cinematographer on the Out to Lunch sketch series, 3 short films, 3 music videos, and the Mehlennials web series. He is currently the director of videography at Beautiful Life Studios in Vancouver.

Jakelene Plan - Assistant Director & Producer
Jakelene graduated from the University of Victoria with a degree in Creative Writing and Economics in 2017. She has stage managed for Langham Court Theatre (Girl in the Goldfish Bowl, 2017) and St. Luke's Players (Duets, 2017). Her one-act play, Cavendish, was performed by the Student Alternative Theatre Company in 2016, and that same year she was awarded both the Grant MacEwan Creative Writing Scholarship and the Candis Graham Lambda Literary Scholarship.  

Roi Batke - Costume Designer
Roi Batke is a seamstress and artist based out of Victoria. A regular ol’ Dolly Parton, she works a 9 to 5 sewing for the local and ethical clothing brand Smoking Lily. In the future Roi plans to relocate to Montreal to pursue further education in fashion design and textile art.

Sophie Underwood - "Jess"
Sophie Underwood is a Victoria-based actor, puppeteer, writer, and producer. She graduated from the University of Victoria in 2018 with a double-major in Creative Writing and Theatre. Since then, she’s been co-running Over the Moon Theatre with co-puppeteer Kiley, and working as a writer and development coordinator with local film company Less Bland Productions.

Kiley Verbowski - "Kayla"
Kiley Verbowski is a professional puppeteer and co-owner of Over The Moon Puppet Theatre. She mostly performs live, and for small children, but is excited about her film debut. She most recently appeared in Ernie and Bethy, a SATCo production written by Sophie Underwood, and at the SKAMpede theatre festival. This is her last semester at the University of Victoria’s Writing program, with a focus in playwriting and journalism.

Zander Felton - "Scott"
Musician/actor Zander Felton is striding into the film side of the entertainment industry after many successful years as a musical theatre performer and instrumentalist across BC. Zander Felton holds a BMus in Vocal Performance from the University of Victoria while also playing violin and guitar professionally. Zander continues to strive to be as employable as possible in the entertainment business.

Hostion Ho - "John"

What We Need

We are fortunate to have access to our locations and most of our technical equipment for free, courtesy of supportive members of our film community and the University of Victoria’s Creative Writing department. That said, there are several items that we need to rent or purchase to effectively produce "Bottleneck" over the course of our five-day shoot.

• Lights ($300)
• Camera equipment ($350)
• Sound editing ($1200)
• Props and costumes ($600)
• Travel expenses ($550)
• Post-production (TBD)

Total? We need about $3,000.

Our priorities are for the technical equipment to get this baby made - rentals for a monitor, follow focus, battery-powered lights, etc etc. Anything that you can contribute would first and foremost go towards that, followed by our sound editing and mixing, and then helping our crew recoup the costs of actually travelling and joining us on our film shoot.

Any money raised beyond $3,000 will then go towards submission fees to national and international film festivals.

OK, But What Am I Getting?

• $5: You're going to be able to watch our movie! Hurray!
• $20: You're going to get a shout-out by name in our end credits. Also, you will be able to see the movie.
• $50: You will get a copy of our poster (TBD but it's cool as hell so there) signed by the cast and crew, plus all of the above
• $100: You will receive a full producer credit on "Bottleneck," and you will be invited to our wrap party. Travel expenses not included. Also all of the above.

Risks & Challenges

Honestly? It's gonna be super frickin' difficult to shoot a movie without any money. It's possible, but yikes, none of us really have the financial ability to drop several thousand dollars on equipment without suffering for it.

Other Ways You Can Help

Ok, we all know that most of you WANT to help, but financially can't make it happen. But there are ways that you can get involved! We are looking for:

• Volunteers to join us as background players for a shoot on Sunday, March 15, 2020 - send us a message if you would like to participate!
• Folks to share this campaign on their social media! Help us get the word out to as many people as possible.