Who are you?

Hello! We are independent artists hailing from Ohio. Nonie Shiverick is a film writer, director, and producer from Cleveland who focuses on female-led projects in the horror genre. Her past crowdfunded projects include "Scales," which won awards in festivals worldwide, and "Dark Water," which premiered at the Academy Award Qualifying Cleveland International Film Festival and recently won an Honorable Mention for Best Short at the Lady Filmmakers Film Festival in Beverly Hills. Dylan Speeg is an animator and artist from Cincinnati. His past works have been featured in top animation festivals around the country. Eli Manos is a composer from Cleveland. He has performed professionally throughout Ohio, and recently released his first album of piano compositions. This will be his eleventh time working with Nonie!

We are seeking funding for our next collaborative project, the animated short film "Dogwood," which tells the story of the magical experience that is dog ownership, from the perspective of the dogs... woof! The script has already won awards in screenwriting competitions, and was in Official Selection with HollyShorts in LA. We plan to use traditional 2D animation techniques to bring the story to life, and give our dogs their due. We can't do it alone, however, and that's where you come in.

Hold on... you said dogs?

I sure did! Here's a quick logline:

Left abandoned and neglected on the streets, Shadow, a shepherd-mix puppy, is taken in by a kindly stranger and his dog, Elsie. In his new home, he learns the meaning of friendship, family, and the heartbreaking reality of losing someone you love.

I'll forgive you. But what about the money?

We are independent artists who work gig to gig to pay our bills. We love what we do and would probably happily do it for free (don't tell anyone that), but for some reason we are unable to pay our rent or buy groceries with jaunty song and dance numbers which is bullshit but here we are. Until that's a thing, we will need to pay ourselves a nominal fee for our work as well as pay any other artists we bring onboard (foley, sound effects, voiceover artists, editors, additional animators, etc). 

We also plan to take this to festivals. Any residual funds not used in the actual creation of the project will go towards festival fees (which run as high as $100+ per entry), and enabling the team to travel to festivals to promote the project in person. This usually runs a single person at least $1000 with hotels and flights. Festivals are key tools for promotion, networking and securing future gigs for ourselves. Dylan and Nonie met while their films were screening at the Cleveland International Film Festival last year, and now here we are doing a project together. The proof is in the pudding!

That's good for you, but what do I get?

Glad you asked! We have compiled a list of tiered incentives to peak your interest. We have signed character cards, social media shoutouts, animatics, premiere tickets, etc. Those who donate over $50 will have the opportunity to have a pet memorialized in the end credits if they choose to do so!

ALL DONORS WILL BE THANKED BY NAME IN THE END CREDITS.

I'm poor/got stuff going on/etc.

No worries! If you can't donate, we would appreciate you helping to spread the news. Tell your friends, tell your enemies, tell your dogs to tell their friends to tell their humans, slide into our DMs to offer us words of encouragement. We'll take it. There's a saying in the industry that films aren't made but forced into existence. Filmmaking is HARD, even if it's just a short film. We will have a lot of challenges and obstacles in our way and even a simple "good boy" from time to time helps.