Hi there,
I'm David Call and I wrote and will be directing and acting in COLE. After over a decade helping to tell other artist's stories as an actor, making many independent films of all sizes and many dozens of television episodes, I'm finally ready to step behind the camera again and tell one of my own and I'm hoping you'll help me.
THE STORY
Cole is a military veteran recovering from a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) which has left him with a form of speech impairment called aphasia, specifically 'anomic aphasia'. While his mental faculties are fine, the speech center of his brain has been damaged, making it difficult for him to find the proper words or put them in the right order, especially in stressful situations. Now that he's out of the military and re-building his life in the civilian world he needs to find a job, a task made all the more stressful and uncertain by the disability he has to conquer.
Our film follows Cole and his wife Ashley as he spends the morning preparing for an interview, rehearsing what he wants to say and struggling to keep his aphasia under control when the moment of truth arrives.
Why COLE?
I chose this story because I wanted to make something simple and direct that also held special meaning for me.
As someone with close family and friends currently serving in the armed forces, these are issues I am very familiar with and care deeply about. My brother is an active duty combat veteran and this script came about after visiting him on post and talking with him and some other soldiers and vets. We discussed the difficulties they faced reentering the civilian world and how the all too common depiction of vets in film and television as unstable & psychologically troubled or as unimpeachable heroes had led a widening of the gulf between them and their civilian counterparts, making it increasingly difficult for them to find jobs and re-integrate into American society.
FUNDING & BUDGET
Even though COLE is a short film, it's still a film and to make it with the quality and care it deserves will cost some money. Fortunately, I and my production team have a lot of experience making high-quality independent films with very limited resources, so you can trust that every dollar we raise will be accounted for and spent wisely.
The budget for this 15-minute short film is $20,000.
About 10% of that goes to IndieGoGo and PayPal/credit card processing.
The rest will be spent on payment to the cast and crew, and "hard costs," of a 4-day shoot and post-production.
Cast and crew payments include actors, Production Department (producers & production assistants), Camera Department (cinematographer, assistant cameramen, grips, electricians), sound mixer, script supervisor, production designer, editor, and post production supervision,
"Hard costs" include craft service set food, prop purchases, meals for cast and crew, equipment rental, vehicle rental, production supplies, batteries, hard drives, film festival submission fees, and promotion.
If we are unable to reach our entire fund-raising goal here, there are two possibilities for the money. We will either see what we can eliminate from the production to make a smaller budget work, or we will hold the money in an account while other fund-raising efforts are made to achieve the target amount. In either case, the contributions will ONLY be used for the production of COLE.
In the event we raise more money than our goal, the funds will be used to pay the cast and crew more than just the bare minimum, get more and better equipment, have better options in post production, and have more effective means of promoting the film.
PERKS
We don't expect something for nothing and we've put together a great set of perks and rewards for our backers. We take our contributors seriously and want them to feel part of the production. That is why the perks are focused on credits on the film, behind the scenes photos and videos, scripts and cast & crew screening invitations.
All perks over the $35 price will have password access to the final cut of the film online.
THE TEAM
David Call (writer/director/actor)
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David has been a staple of the American indie film scene for the last decade, appearing in films such as TINY FURNITURE, JAMES WHITE, GABRIEL, THE GIRL IN THE BOOK, TWO GATES OF SLEEP, DEAD MAN'S BURDEN, AMERICANA and many others. He has also been on multiple TV series, most recently THE BREAKS, QUANTICO, THE MAGICIANS, SMASH, GOSSIP GIRL, FRINGE, RESCUE ME and more. This will be his 2nd time behind the camera, his first short film, B.U.S.T., won a Special Jury Prize at the Dallas Film Festival.
Carlos Zozaya (producer)
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Carlos is an very smart young filmmaker that I met working on AMERICANA. He has also worked on films with Sebastian Silva, Anna Rose Holmer and Nick Pesce. The guy knows how to get things done and get them done right.
Zach Kuperstein (cinematographer)
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Zach is a great DP recommended to me by my friend's at Borderline Films. His work on their Sundance sensation THE EYES OF MY MOTHER won Best Cinematography at Fantastic Fest and was nominated at the Independent Spirit Awards and Cameraimage. He also just finished shooting the upcoming feature, JONATHAN. You can see his work here.
Other Ways You Can Help
Even if you can't contribute financially, there are still ways you can help us get this film made.
The most important thing you can do is to spread the word about this campaign. Please share this link on social media, whether it's Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, AOL IM, sky writer or carrier pigeon, literally everything helps.
Thank you for taking a look and we hope you support our campaign!
Carlos is an very smart young filmmaker that I met working on 
