ABOUT THE FILM
She Stoops To Conquer
is the short film you want to see. Written by Kayla Lorette and Zack
Russell, with Zack directing and Kayla acting—it's our wildest,
most ambitious project to date. Huge crowd scenes. Live birds. Famous actors. Prosthetic faces. It's a big short— you've never seen anything like it.
THE STORY
At a bizarro talent show, a drag king (Kayla) tries out a new character: a lonely old man. The act bombs. Feeling dejected, she goes to a bar.
There she sees him: the real life
version of the man she's been playing. What follows is a surreal romantic comedy in an off-kilter world.
WHY YOU SHOULD CARE
1. Julian Richings is in it!
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While writing the script our dream actor was Julian Richings. We knew it was a long shot. He's one of the most experienced, sought-after actors in Canada. But we decided to chase after him anyway. No matter what the medium (Hollywood blockbusters, television, theatre) his work is brilliant. Also - we love his face.
2. We're a little crazy (and very committed)
To get his attention, we decided to go big. We worked with make-up artist
Trason Fernandes to create a prosthetic approximation of Julian's
face. Trason found a cast of Julian's real head (don't
ask) and sculpted his face onto Kayla's. We
shot the teaser and sent it to Julian. And he loved it! He wasn't even that creeped out.
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3. We've already raised half the budget!
Both
of us (Kayla and Zack) have committed $12,000 of our own money. And
we've already raised $8,000 through private donations. But this film is ambitious: a large cast, epic crowd
scenes, several locations, live animals, prosthetics... We've created a realistic budget of $42,500. Help us raise the second half of our budget and make this film in September 2014!
WHAT'S IN IT FOR YOU:
(Beyond the satisfaction of making this film happen)
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THE TEAM
ZACK
RUSSELL - Writer, Director
Zack
Russell is a playwright & director in Toronto. His most
recent plays include Fixed at
VideoFag in Toronto (starring Kayla!), and Just Cause at the Flea Theater in New York. In 2013 he directed the Dora-award winning production of rihannaboi95 —a live-stream digital play by Jordan Tannahill. Zack and Kayla have collaborated on numerous projects, including the punk-rock opera Feint of Hart.
KAYLA LORETTE - Writer, Actor
Kayla Lorette is a comedian living in Toronto. She has toured extensively through Europe and North America with her comedy duo, The Sufferettes. She has been nominated for several Canadian Comedy Awards, the Tim Sims Encouragement Fund and a Gemini for her performance in YTV’s That’s So Weird. Other television credits include The Ron James Show and The Kids in the Hall series Death Comes to Town. She recently starred in two IPF selected web series: Everyone’s Famous and Space Riders: Division Earth.
JULIAN RICHINGS - Actor
Julian Richings is a Toronto-based actor equally at home in theatre, film and television. His theatre work has included the development of new plays by Judith Thompson, David Fennario and Michael Ondaatje. He has been nominated for 5 Dora Awards. His film and television work includes
Man of Steel,
X-Men 3,
Supernatural, Orphan Black and
The Colony. He is a passionate supporter of Canadian independent film, and has worked with many emerging artists.
BRUCE DOW - Actor
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Bruce Dow is our most recent addition to the cast! He'll be playing the role of Emcee. Bruce is an American film, stage and television actor. Recent stage credits include King Herod in the Broadway/Stratford production of Jesus Christ Superstar. Other roles include Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Mirvish, Stratford) and his Dora-award winning performance in PIG at Buddies in Bad Times in 2014. This November he'll be starring in Morris Panych's Sextet at the Tarragon Theatre.
LARUE ENTERTAINMENT - Production Company
LaRue Entertainment (“LaRue”) is a Film, TV & Digital Media production company and studio headed by producers Matt King & Andrew Ferguson. Recent projects include the web series The Amazing Gayle Pile (JASH), the documentary short A Lesson To You All (BravoFactual) and Kevin Drew's music video You In Your Were.
HENRY SANSOM - Director of Photography
Henry Sansom is a 15 year veteran of the Toronto film industry. He is currently shooting Look Again —a feature with Emmy-award winning actor Brittany Allen. Other projects include a documentary on mountaineering shot in Chile, and a Prague-based spy adventure series 'Asset" for JTS.tv. Watch his demo reel here.
TRASON FERNANDES - Make-up & Prosthetics
Trason Fernandes has been a makeup artist for the past 9 years in Toronto. Select film credits include: assisting Tony Gardener and Stephen Prouty with the prosthetics on the feature film Hairspray as part of Team Travolta in 2006, working as the prosthetics assistant on Deepa Mehta's Midnights Children in 2011, and creating the prosthetics for Brandon Cronenberg's Antiviral —for which he was nominated for a Best Achievement in Make-up at the Canadian Screen Awards (2012).
Don't have the money but still want to support? You can! Tell your friends. Share us on Facebook. Tweet the video. Let's get the word out.
Have a service you'd like to donate / want to discuss the project further? Get in touch: shestoops@gmail.com
