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After failing to make ends meet as an artist, Alison (Erica Hill) is forced to move back with her parents (Risa Cohen & Ted Powers), who have made radical changes to their small-town home and lifestyle. In seeking to re-connect with her childhood best friend, Mackenzie (Stephanie Moran), she soon finds herself beset by an unknown force and drawn toward a destiny she could never have fathomed.
Bracing, tense, and unsettling against a sweltering summer backdrop, Joe Craib's atmospheric horror short "Empty Nest" manifests the fears of failure and retreat faced by many young adults in its most terrifying form.
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Ted Powers & Erica Hill in "Empty Nest" (screenshot)
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After meeting at Queen’s University, a series of chance encounters within Toronto’s independent film industry led Sean Meldrum & Joe Craib and found Start The Picture. Rather than adding to the sizable pile of break-up-dramas and discount-Tarantino flicks, Sean and Joe have committed to trying something off the beaten path. Start The Picture’s films dare to attempt unconventional storytelling, risking failure in the pursuit of innovation. And what better way to risk failure than funding a film through the generosity of the Internet?
In accordance with our mandate, “Empty Nest” is an ambitious and challenging film that we believe asks important questions about our lives in 2019. We are a production company committed to releasing high quality and professional works of art.
As our film nears completion, we have realized that if we are to achieve the standard of film-making we’ve committed to, our budget is short by $3,500. We want to ensure this film does not become more white noise in the world of horror cinema. With this commitment to quality in mind, we are launching a fundraiser that will both enable us to afford a strong post-production and allow the film lovers in our community to play a vital role in the realization of a powerful piece of short fiction.
As young filmmakers, we are often left with no choice but to self-fund our own projects. This costs a considerable sum of money, especially if you pay your collaborators for their work, as we do. It is the reality of establishing yourself in an industry. There is only so much we can do to allow our films to compete with the big-budget projects of our contemporaries.
What we have right now: a film that has been shot.
What we need: a film that is edited, colour-corrected, scored, sound-designed and distributed.
This is where, admittedly, we have fallen short. In order to ensure post-production is completed with a level of quality we have pursued thus far, we need to turn to outside backers.
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Risa Cohen and Erica Hill in "Empty Nest" (screenshot)
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Our goal for this campaign is $3500. This is roughly equal to the amount that has been spent thus far in getting the film to its current state. Every dollar raised from this campaign will go directly into paying for:
Labour - hiring and paying the professionals that will work in post-production roles on the film; and Submission Fees for film festivals around the world that we will strategically seek out to best present the film to welcoming audiences.
This isn’t a one-way street! If you are able to pledge to our film, you will receive something in return. Our rewards are compounding - for example if you pledge $500, you receive each of the rewards that come with the smaller pledges.
$15 earns you a shout out on our social media pages and a place in the special thanks section of the film’s credits.
$25 earns you a digital copy of the film for you to stream or download.
$100 earns you a copy of the film’s poster .
$750 earns you an associate producer credit on the film.
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Erica Hill in "Empty Nest" (screenshot)
Every pledge towards “Empty Nest” will aid in the transformation of the film from low budget horror flick to hauntingly beautiful chill fest! Movies, even short ones, cost a lot of money to bring together and every dollar pledged will have a direct impact on the quality of this film.
Our budget for our raised funds is illustrated below.
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This campaign also has flexible funding – so even if we do not meet (or, even better, exceed ) our goal, we will still be able to put funds raised into the film. If that turns out to be the case, those funds will be equally distributed among the four departments in the graphic above. That does not mean we will be reducing the budget for those departments - we will simply have to pay for the remainder out of our own pockets. While not an ideal scenario, we do not want to under-pay or cut corners with this stage of the film.
Of course, we understand that everyone may not be able to contribute financially to our campaign – and that’s okay! Independent filmmaking is fueled by a strong community spirit, and every voice is significant. If you do not have the means to donate but would still like to support our film, we encourage you to help spread the word about our campaign! You can share the web link to your friends, family, colleagues – whoever you think would love to check us out!
You can also visit our website at startthepicture.com, and follow our social media pages:
Facebook.com/startthepicture
Instagram: @startthepicture
And if you haven’t already, watch and share our trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC-izMtTDX4
Once again, we want to thank you so much for checking out this campaign! We know there is an incredible saturation of short film projects out there looking for funding, so we appreciate every single person who gave us a bit of their time. We will be updating this page as the campaign goes along, so keep your eyes peeled. With your help, we look forward to sharing the final "Empty Nest" film with the world very soon!
Yours in filmmaking,
Joe Craib & Sean Meldrum
Co-founders, Start the Picture