02/04/15: AN UPDATE FROM THE DIRECTOR:
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The Concept (Simple but Effective)
A genre-bending examination of the grieving process in its various forms, Show Yourself is about stripping down filmmaking to its most intimate. We’re taking a small cast, a guerrilla (but experienced and exceptional) crew, and the bare amount of locations to create something truly unique, unexpectedly moving and thoroughly entertaining. Show Yourself is part drama…part comedy…part horror…and all heart as it chronicles one character’s unusual journey that begins as a battle against the pangs of grief and ends up as a battle for his very sanity.
With Show Yourself we wanted to take stereotypical horror tropes and subvert them in every plausible way. You won’t find any non-working cell phones or investigating strange noises in this film. We’ve created real characters who react naturally in very unnatural situations.
The Synopsis (Let's Blend Some Genres)
The Inspiration (What Got Us Here)
It started out as a simple enough idea: wouldn't it be cool to turn The Big Chill into a horror film? Then we added to that: wouldn't it be cool to take all the stereotypical horror tropes we've come to know, love and bemoan and subvert every single one of them? We wanted to take rational people who behave in rational ways and insert them into a situation that horror films would treat irrationally.
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The Tone (Ain't Yer Momma's Horror Flick)
Show Yourself embraces multiple genres: drama, dark comedy and horror. The film starts out as a traditional independent drama (Mean Creek, Imaginary Heroes, George Washington) which transitions into more of a dark comedy (Great World of Sound, Cheap Thrills, True Adolescents) before concluding as a stark and tense horror film (The Blair Witch Project, Wendigo, The Hills Have Eyes). Throughout the genres, the constant through-line is the grieving process, its affect on a person and the many ways it presents itself.
Show Yourself is not your traditional horror film. It blends the technological elements that normally define something as 'found footage' but uses them sparingly and to greater effect. It blends both supernatural and psychological horror while never losing touch with its dramatic roots. So you won't see any ridiculous teenagers running around through the woods filming themselves on their shitty PalmPilots while they're being chased by some Sasquatch-looking backwoods biker. We just couldn't afford any of that.
In fact, here is a list of things you can expect not to see in this film:
- cell phones not working
- people investigating strange noises
- the fake scare
- the creepy dead-eyed kid
- the 'expert' that comes out of nowhere
- the magically inoperable car
- the inability to run without falling down
The Folks Making It Happen
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BILLY RAY BREWTON (Writer/Director)
Billy Ray is an award-winning playwright and filmmaker living in Los Angeles. His original musical comedy, "Skanks in a One Horse Town", was the subject of the documentary, Skanks, which premiered at the 2014 Slamdance Film Festival, enjoyed a successful festival run and was picked up for distribution by Film Buff. His previous short form work includes the dramas The Big Empty, Yeah and Waiting Room; the comedies The Whore That Wouldn't Die! and Goremet; and the horror films Darkness on the Edge of Town, ScatterBrain and Dead Ahead. As a playwright, Billy Ray has written, directed and produced the musicals Dragula, We Three Queens and Country Roses; the comedies The 13th Friday, After School Special and The Xmascist; the drama Must Come Down; and original adaptations of Romero's Night of the Living Dead and Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus.
ASH CHRISTIAN (Executive Producer)
Ash is an Emmy award-winning writer, director and producer living in New York. His debut feature film, Fat Girls, was sold to Regent Entertainment in 2007 and picked up by MTV Networks as a pilot for their network. His second feature, Mangus!, was acquired by Wolfe Releasing after a successful festival run. Petunia, co-written and directed by Ash, was released in 2012 and is currently available on VOD after a successful limited theatrical run. Ash produced the quirky independent comedy, Nate & Margaret, and was also an original producer on the hit Broadway musical, Next to Normal, which garnered 11 Tony nominations and 3 Tony wins. Recently, Ash directed and produced the indie comedy, Love on the Run, and the television series, Cleaners, for Sony's network, Crackle. Two films Ash produced - Dynamite: A Cautionary Tale and The Inherited - are both in post-production. Ash received his first Emmy award for his work on the web-series, mI Promise.
CAMERON WEST (Executive Producer)
Cameron is a professional stage/screen actor from Bremerton, WA, who is now residing in Los Angeles. He graduated from Washington State University with a BFA in Performance. Cameron has worked on projects as varied as True Blood and The Amazing Spider-Man to his current work on the hit Showtime series, Ray Donovan. He is a published author, accomplished musician and the recent founder of Ghost Road Productions. Show Yourself is his first feature as a producer.
JIMMY LEE PHELAN (Director of Photography)
Additional Crew:
Zack Walker - First Assistant Director
Shane Simmons - Editor
Ariel Vida - Production Designer
Alex Cameron - Assistant Camera
Matthew Freed - Sound
Erik Surwill - Technical Consultant
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Check Out Ben's Website
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Check Out Barak's Website
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Check Out David's Website
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Check Out Stephen's IMDB Page
Even though we're not asking for an insane amount of money, expenses add up fast and crowd-funding isn't as sure-fire as it once was (it actually never was). But, we love the idea of taking this project 'to the people' for funding!
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- crowd-funding is an exciting way to reach people/build an audience
- this film is special and we need your help to make it happen
- making an independent film is insanely difficult
- there just isn't financing for independent genre flicks anymore
All of these things are true. Each and every one of them. But we wouldn't make movies if we could imagine doing anything else. We can't.
- we don't want any more than what we're asking to shoot this film
- we are shooting a feature film in 10-days; you heard me
- there is at least a 1% chance we will all be eaten by bears
- Paying our crew (we have a guerrilla unit but they are pretty incredible guerrillas and are worth every penny -- our First A.D., our D.P., our sound guy, our camera folks, all the way down to some random Uber driver)
- Travel and location expenses (cabins ain't as cheap as they look)
- Equipment rentals (lenses, sound equipment, drones, etc.)
- Insurance (because if bears attack, we want to be compensate for limbs)
- Meals (feeding people to keep them alive)
- Props/Costumes (we don't have a huge need but it's still a thing)
Even if you can only donate $1, we'll take it. Every dollar helps! And if we get 15K people to donate $1, this campaign is as good as accomplished!
What Are We Even Gonna Do with This Thing?
Our plan is to shoot in late-February/early-March of this year (right around the corner, I tell ya) and have a locked cut by the end of June. We'll then submit to all sorts of awesome film festivals and do what every filmmaker on the planet does: search for distribution. We just want to get the film out to as many people as humanly possible and then work on the sequel (just kidding).
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If you're interested in becoming an equity investor on Show Yourself, please contact us at showyourselffilm@gmail.com for more information.
