Short Summary
Franks is a short comedy detailing the betrayal and triumph in the world of competitive hot dog eating. Our film centers around a relationship between a father and a son who don't see eye to eye, resulting the two to compete against each other to see who is the better eater.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have...
Franklin "The Frank" Sammartino, a 16-time world hot dog eating champion who broke multiple records and reignited the sport of competitive eating in the 80s. Once the larger-than-life face of the sport, with a larger-than-life ego, he now coaches his son Frankie Jr. in efforts to assert dominance and maintain a bloodline of fierce competitive eaters.
And in this corner...
Frankie Jr., the son of the former hot dog eating legend but isn't proud to be known for it. He hopes to step out of The Frank's shadow and prove to himself that he can be the top dog at eating hot dogs without his father's help.
But that's not all, LOOK OUT! It's...
Terry Zbyszko, The Frank's greatest rival and the only person to ever beat him in a world championship match, all the way back in 1986. Zbyszko is now a bitter old coot looking to get one over on The Frank's foe one last time by coaching his son, Frankie Jr., all the way to the top.
And finally we have...
Katie, the Adrian to Frankie Jr.'s Rocky. This fiery-tempered individual is the latter's girlfriend, confidant, and assistant trainer. She will always be there for Frankie Jr. no matter what.
Meat the Team
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Drew Jacob [Writer/Director] is a Texas born and raised fourth year senior at The University of Texas at Austin, set to graduate with a degree from the Radio-Television-Film program. With a lifelong desire to make people laugh, Drew’s worked hard to hone his craft as a comedy writer and director during his time in school, directing previous films such as The A-Men, a story depicting the LDS Church’s fictional special intelligence unit, and 5 Angry Bodybuilders, a parody of the famous film 12 Angry Men. With a broad array of stories under his belt, Drew’s excited to enter the world of sports movies, and to effectively lampoon them in the process!
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Jacob Salter [Producer] is currently double majoring in Radio-Television-Film and Plan II Honors at the University of Texas at Austin. Ever since his profound first theater going experience at the age of 7 (Clifford's Really Big Movie, 2004), he has been mesmerized by the silver screen. He loves both designing his own projects and helping other filmmakers realize their vision from pre-production through to post, and has gathered an extensive working knowledge of the filmmaking process through experience on sets in a variety of roles in Los Angeles, Austin, and Fayetteville. His previous credits include Writer/Director on the short film Dating In the 90s, Director on the music video Cicadas for Arkansas band Mildenhall, and Production Assistant on the upcoming Austin-shot feature film Bandkids. He is interested in stories that incite catharsis in the viewer, and he hopes that Frank’s makes you laugh, cry, and throw up just a little bit in your mouth. Post-graduation, he plans to move to Los Angeles and persuade studio executives to throw obscene dollar amounts his way for his own films and the films of his friends.
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Theodore "Ted" Kim [Co-Producer] is trying to find balance between peace and prosperity. But when he's not, Mr. Kim takes on film projects like this one and concentrates everything on producing. Graduating this year, Ted promised his frat friend, Chad Musclebox, that he would go hard this semester which led Musclebox and his fraternity brothers to believe something else. Instead, he was referring to this film. Ted's parents are now okay with him studying Radio-Television-Film because their back-up plan is his much successful, younger sister who studies Accounting and Computer Science. Ted aspires to make his parents proud, hopefully deserving him a chair at the dinner table. His dream job is to write for a late night show, sitcom, or comedic movie. If that never happens, then he is okay with the idea of living in a lighthouse with his mermaid wife.
The Impact
Donating on your behalf will help us achieve the look, sound, feel, and taste of what competitive hot dog eating is all about. Funding gives us more opportunities to adapt the stories we create on the big screen. Every contribution will truly go a long way in helping us out from cast and crew, locations, hotdogs (no duh), equipment, costumes, to even a working projectile vomit machine.
LOCATIONS - We plan to film at a gym, two different arenas for the preliminaries and finals, a hotel, a newsroom, and a bingo hall. In total, we have six locations to film with the help from our cast and crew. Your donation will benefit us to rent these locations throughout our shoots. (Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UdONrUGYJBeAu2...)
EQUIPMENT - Our crew needs additional equipment that helps achieve a certain look for our film whether those are vintage lenses, a practical throw up machine, or lights. Besides locations, your money is supporting the lighting and composition of our film. (Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/16aY5bEcXgHahEU...)
DESIGN AND WARDROBE BREAKDOWN - Concerning composition and the look of the film, set design and wardrobe are important features to creating the atmosphere and authenticity of our film. Our crew consists of three, hardworking Production Designers who compiled a budget breakdown of where your money is going in relations to wardrobe, props, and set design. (Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1msD5quoTRwMCb2...)
Our crew is dedicated. And you might as well say stimulated from the idea of this story becoming a reality. Whether it's $5 or $1,000, any amount is greatly appreciated and will benefit towards the cost of our production.
Risks & Challenges
One of the biggest risks and challenges we have is managing the crowd/extras, especially when shooting the preliminaries and finals. However, there is nothing to fear due to the immense planning and training our crew has gone through. Besides good communication and scheduling, if we are able to socially distance and mask up, production will go smooth as a baby's bottom.
Other Ways You Can Help
If you can't spend a penny on this project because you are saving up to buy a new house and new family, worry no more! We've all been there. Shouting us out on social media or spreading the word to your new family members and neighborhood dogs means the world to us. It not only impacts the crew. It impacts student filmmakers all over the globe!
Follow us on Instagram at franksmovie2022. Please tag us to pictures of hot dogs if you want to waste precious time.
