The Story
Recovering from a recent break-up, Jessie is an anxious, 21-year-old college student who is also struggling to come to grips with his best friend Ryan’s recent announcement that he’s gay, something that was kept from Jessie specifically. Angered by this recent exclusion, Jessie is forced to hilariously and painfully confront Ryan at his 21st birthday party, which he attends with his other good friend, Harvey.
The Inspiration
For years, one of my favorite genres in storytelling has been the coming of age tale. It’s such a timeless and relatable framework for a story under nearly any circumstance, because it’s something we can all relate to: growing up. At times both embarrassing and hysterical, these transitions that we make in our lives are things we never forget, because they’re always so unmistakably human.
As a coming of age comedy, Strangers strives to always exist in that place of being human and relatable, by creating characters that feel genuine, honest, but always entertaining. These are qualities that exist in all of my favorite films from this genre: "Dazed and Confused", "The Kings of Summer", and "Stand by Me".
With this film in particular, I wanted to tell a story that felt relevant and honest to today’s generation of young people, and the inclusion of a character who is coming out for the first time just felt right to me. The exploration of this issue isn’t so much of a character coming out in the first place, but instead how the people around that person react, and the fact that they have to learn that things around them are changing, whether they like it or not.
The Plan
We are currently in the final stages of pre-production, with our film cast and crewed up to prepare for our two weekends of shooting, which will happen in the last two weeks of January, 2017.
After we wrap production, we plan to move into post-production immediately, with a plan of having picture locked by March 15th. From there, we will move into all sound, color, and scoring, with a finished date of May, 2017.
The Team
We are fortunate enough to have a tremendous creative team on board, many of whom have had great success already making various short films both inside and outside of the University of Arizona’s film program. Below, you can find examples of some of their past work, along with successful Indiegogo campaigns that they’ve launched in the past.
Cast:
Dylan Cotter - Jessie
Matthew Osvog - Ryan
Aubrey King - McGraw
Marissa Munter - Stephanie
Tyler Reaser - Tiffany
Crew:
Max Cunningham - Director/Writer/Producer/Editor
Evan Colten - Producer/Assistant Director
Jack Alexander - Director of Photography
Links to Previous Works:
https://vimeo.com/180124223
https://vimeo.com/157819109
https://vimeo.com/132611772
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/john-a-short...
https://www.instagram.com/maxscunningham/
What Your Money is Going Towards
With a budget of $3,000, we plan on allocating our funds towards a number of things, all essential to bringing this project to fruition. We’ve designed this budget in a way that keeps the costs as low as possible but still gives us the tools we need.
How You Can Help
The biggest way you can help contribute to this project is by donating any amount you can give. You can also select a number of the rewards listed here too, and in exchange for your financial generosity, you also receive a number of cool and fancy prizes related to the film.
If you can’t afford to donate but still want to help, you can share this page in a number of ways to bring exposure to this project. By posting about our film on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter or even emailing it to your friends and family, we have an even greater chance of reaching our goal.
Risks and Challenges
As mentioned in our video, we are lucky enough to receive some equipment from our school for making the film. However, there are still a number of items and services that we require to make this film the best it can be, that are only offered outside of our University. These include work that will be done on the film for scoring and sound work, specialized camera equipment for achieve the aesthetic we have designed for the film, or production design costs to create a rich and believable world that the film takes place in.
All of these services and items are hugely important to our film’s success, and any help that you can provide will help inch us closer to that reality. Now, if for whatever reason we do not reach out goal on this campaign, we will still move forward on making the film, but again, the money that you can donate here will make that process far more productive and fruitful if you can provide your help.