Summary

Hi! I'm Rebecca, the director for the short film "Hannah". I am a London-based, mixed race filmmaker in my second year at the University of Portsmouth. Due to our first year being limited by the COVID-19 pandemic, we were unable to shoot off of the university campus. This means that with restrictions being eased, as a team we have to work even harder this year to expand our portfolios! 

For me personally, "Hannah" will be the first independent short film I will be entering into film festivals, and I have high hopes!  Our crew will all finally be able to create a diverse, enticing and exciting project with some highly talented individuals. "Hannah" is entering a very white-centric part of the film industry, showing how films can be naturally progressive, which is important to me as I rarely see myself and my family represented onscreen, which is also similar for many of my colleagues on the production. This film will ignite my career properly, a career I hope to be full of inclusive diversity, strong narratives, and films that analyse the deep feelings within oneself. 

Synopsis

"Hannah" is a short horror film following the main character, named Hannah, around her old family home after the death of a family member. She is drawn into pursuing a ghost child and thereby unlocking secrets about her past as she searches for her mother, who she saw and can hear in the house, but can't find. 

Your Contribution

With your help, "Hannah" will be possible to bring to life. your donations will give us the budget so that we can hire the extra help we need for specialist crew external from the University of Portsmouth, pay for quality actors, and enter film festivals that not only show this project to the world, but also display our ability to make a mark within the industry. From these festivals, my team and I could be hired for immediate creative work and noted down as high prospects for future largescale productions. Your name can also be credited on our production as a sponsor, executive producer, or producer, which will be showcased worldwide! If we don't reach the entire goal, all of the money raised will still go towards the production, however we will be forced to make budget cuts.

The Impact

Unfortunately, the University of Portsmouth is unable to provide financial aid towards any projects we make. As students, money can be tight and we have to raise all the money for the production ourselves. Your donations will mean that we will be able to make something that is visually and auditorily appealing. The budget is more than we can contribute individually. By donating to our project, you will be helping some student filmmakers create a project that could get us into the industry. Members of the team have successfully crowdfunded and participated in paid work external from the course before, and will help provide further opportunities for everyone involved.

With this project, I personally hope to create a film I will be proud of that I can show to potential employers and be positively received with. The budget we want is more than I earn in 6 months, working part-time alongside university, but it is an extremely small budget for the industry. Without your help, I will only be able to make one or two good films before the end of my course. With your help, this could be the first in a line of many projects. 

Risks & Challenges

As always, there are risks with our project. Primarily, it is essential that we reach our crowd funding goal or come as close to it as possible. We have already accomplished the hurdle of finding the perfect location, a large farmhouse in the countryside which we can have access to for an extended period of time for all the cast and crew. As a group we have already paid the deposit for the location. If we reach our goal, we will be able to keep this location, meaning that the film will be visually stunning, and cater to all the other needs that the crew and production needs. If we don't, we will have to cut down on crew, use inexperienced actors, which will lower the quality of our work.

A risk for us as a team, is that the project won't be amongst the best at film festivals. It is our chance to get a foot into the industry young, and although we are certain it will do well in our course, that is not a certainty worldwide.