Short Summary

Lily

Lily is a short film about a little clown who owns a flower shop. All Lily wants is to make someone’s day with what she loves most, flowers. During a day in Lily's life, dealing with rejection, frustration, and unforeseen coincidences, she loses faith in her ability to impact anyone’s life in a positive way—until one magical moment gives her pause to reconsider how she sees herself and her work in a more inspiring light.

Get to Know Our Campaign

Hi there! Thanks for looking at our campaign! My name is Sierra Haynes. I’m in my last semester as a theatre student at one of Canada’s top theatre training programs, Studio 58. I come from a very diversified background in the arts. I have professional experience as an actress in film, theatre, and voice over. For my graduating project, I’m looking to combine all of my passions into one whimsical short film. Lily is a little bit of theatre and a lot a bit of film.

I am so thrilled to share this imaginative piece with you in particular because of our creative team! Jack, Quinn, Emerenne, and Ben, Lily's core creative team, have dedication, impeccable style, and always seek to raise the bar for themselves in their work.  I know for a fact that we have a lot to bring to the table, and I’ve seen the magic that happens when emerging artists are trusted to deliver work made in collaboration.

By raising $5000, we will have the funds to produce this short film to the fullest extent of our artistry. The pre-production meetings with the team have been so stunning. We all have a strong, whimsical vision we’d like to see come to life, and as the project leader, I hope funds will not limit our imagination; instead, I’d like to say “go further.” By contributing to this campaign, you are sending the loud and clear signal showing you believe that even the smallest people can make a big difference.

What We Need & What You Get

Where is your money going?

With our goal of $5000:

We are going to be paying for the rental of additional equipment: lights, lav mics, an easyrig, a stabilizer, a focus, and building a dolly to better capture the movement Quinn Churchill (cinematographer) hopes to achieve with his camera work.

We will also be putting money into set and prop design filling out Lily’s hyper-stylized world within our modern-day context. In addition to real flowers that we will be purchasing for the short,  our production design team (Jack Bumbala and Emerenne Saefkow) will make Lily  several hand-made paper flowers and unique props that will fill out her spaces and shop. Furthermore, we aim to rent out locations that more accurately reflect Lily’s sense of style (better than my college bedroom!).

Los Angeles based filmscorer, Ben Knorr, has agreed to write an original score for the short film. He requires funds to pay additional musicians to lay tracks on his compositions. We will also need to pay to have the music and sound mixed, mastered and balanced.

Of course, we are also paying for cast and crew lunches and snacks over our 3 day shoot.

Health and Safety on Set:

This brings me to my most crucial point: health and safety is priority while filming Lily. We are educating ourselves to create a sanitary set during this pandemic. This means the purchase of masks and shields, gloves, cleaning products, hand sanitizers, and of course individually packaged meals and snacks. We are looking to our local public health guidelines to produce this short film on a set where everybody feels safe. The integration of these measures are an added cost that pre-Covid times would not have to consider.

Left Over Funds:

Beyond production costs, our team hopes to submit our work for film festivals. We will re-evaluate any left-over funds for this purpose as well as giving well-deserved honorariums to the currently completely volunteer creative team.

Perks!

In support of our effort, we have a number of fun perks you can choose to receive! Some of them include a credit, hand-made props from set, hand-sewn masks, and even early viewing links to our short film! All the rewards are buildable, so the more you donate, the more you will receive!

The Impact

Your contribution supports the burgeoning careers of a number of Canada’s most ambitious emerging creatives. We all want put to the test what we already know and further our skillset to make an impact in the Canadian arts landscape with our careers.

Who is on the Creative Team?

Sierra Haynes has had her playwriting and radio drama work previously produced (I’m Right Here—NTS #ArtApart) and before the Coronavirus pandemic hit, a play she had co-written was being mounted through the festival FourPlay: New Works by Excited Writers (The Radium Girls). This play had also received interest by TED Talks in consideration for a NYC Residency in 2018. She has worked on other indie sets as an actress or a script supervisor. She is originally from Regina, SK. She is currently working at Globe Theatre Regina as an Artistic Associate in Residence.

Jack Bumbala and Emerenne Saefkow have most recently designed costume and set & props respectively for the world premiere of Theatre: The Play. They are both recent graduates of the Studio 58 Professional Theatre Training Program in Production and have a number of other theatre and film credits to their names.

Quinn Churchill is a graduate of the Powell River Digital Film School. He has since been training at Studio 58 as an acting student, but is taking a term out to pursue more cinematography work. In collaboration with producing partner Vetito Media Collective and Charlie Desgagne, we have a great team behind our camera.

Ben Knorr is a composer, arranger, multi-instrumentalist, and producer originally from Regina, SK. In 2018, he graduated summa cum laude from Berklee College of Music with a Bachelors of Music in Film Scoring. Now he lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.

Risks & Challenges

In this time of a global pandemic, we are taking precautions very seriously. As previously mentioned, we will have several health and safety protocols in place on our sets. We are working with local public health guidelines to ensure the safety of our workspaces. This includes temperature checks, self-reporting/monitoring procedures before entering set, ample access to masks, face shields, hand-sanitizers, and extra cleaning procedures. We are not shying away from the task of keeping each other safe and healthy.

Our pre-production meetings have been taking place through Zoom and when we do have to meet in person, we take care to mask up, sanitize, and socially distance as much as possible.

Other Ways You Can Help

Some people just can't contribute, but that doesn't mean they can't help:

If you don't have funds to donate to our campaign, word of mouth or a simple share does wonders! Spread our message far and wide like a dandelion puff to help grow our campaign :)

Use Indiegogo's share tools to help you get the word out.