ABOUT OUR SHOW
THE GREEN ROOM is a scripted comedy series about the ins and outs of a medical marijuana dispensary in Hollywood, CA. Mostly focusing on the staff of the dispensary, their day to day shenanigans and inadvertently educating the audience through comedy ;) Our goal is to break the stigma of medical marijuana.
Raffi and Anoush Bagdahesian (pictured on the far right top and bottom), are brother and sister from Armenia who inherited family money and opened The Green Room in Los Angeles, CA with little history in business or how to succeed in it. Patrick Jason (center picture) is the newbie. From the Midwest and with the Green Room facing constant bankruptcy and raids, Patrick’s green thumb and sane perspective may be the Green Room’s last hope.
The Green Room is a 2 year passion project for our production company, Dancing Silly Productions, and we're finally ready to shoot! Dancing Silly Productions has always tackled taboo subjects, from our first award-winning feature 'Suicide is Easy' about ...suicide, to a feature entirely shot in subjective camera. So, it only makes sense that our next project would be about Cannabis.
THE CAST
Danielle Montezinos Sarah Newton Stew Harman-Mart
Andre Bello-Jones Nico Fragoso Polet LaMiroite
Kevin Michael Shiley (center picture)We've never worked with a more professional, passionate group of actors that generally like and enjoy spending time together. Absolute professionals with the biggest hearts. Their respect for each other and their craft shines through in everything they do. We are blessed to be working with them.
WHY WE NEED YOU
Medical marijuana is extremely relevant right
now / From procurement to production to purchasing and consumption, medical
marijuana is a global issue. We have already seen the slow legalization of
marijuana in the U.S. and the pop up of the medical marijuana dispensary industry.
Having lived in Los Angeles for many years now, we have seen the inception of
the dispensary here and how it’s changing the landscape. And we even wrote a
show about it! We want everyone, especially those who know nothing of this
world, to get an inside glimpse into it. We want to help de-stigmatize all
things marijuana. Listen, when you think weed and Los Angeles, you probably think
stoner kids on skateboards eating too much 7Eleven. And you’re right! But there
is so much more to it than that. We have seen friends and family struggle with
illness and use prescribed marijuana to help heal them (with results!). We have
seen the upsides and all the good it can do and what better way to show all of
that than through comedy? We want to
help bring positive awareness and by using comedy and good writing/actors we can educate through comedy.
We are indie filmmakers –
we’re not in this game for the money. We’re in it because we LOVE it. We love
every step and every moment. We love to create. We love to tell stories. We want to be the change in this world and
this is our portal - this is how we get
our voices heard. We have something unique, something special with The Green
Room. This is a story that in the entertainment industry we’ve heard rumblings
about for years – from top names threatening to come out with a similar story
to ours. This is why we need to make this show NOW and we can only do it with
your help. This is our baby. Our baby that we have nurtured for over 2 years. Our baby that keeps us up at night even though
we all have full time jobs, families and other obligations. Every spare moment,
every open day and almost every line of conversation is spent on making The
Green Room amazing. From building a dispensary in our garage to save money on
locations (in the middle of the night) to having people join our team because
they believe so much in the project they will do anything to be involved – this
idea can’t be shelved. It’s time. It’s time to shoot this show. It’s time to get
it our there. Please help us, please join us in this journey.
Another VERY important reason we need your help - these 7 actors that we mentioned above - have been working for us for FREE for 2 years. Do we work everyday? NO. Do we work every month? NO. But we have shot numerous promo videos, trailers, have done photo shoots, brainstorming sessions and fundraisers together and they have received nothing - because - well, we don't have anything to give them but love and pomegranates (we have 3 trees in our front yard!) but more importantly the cast has truly believed in this project and have stuck with us and in this industry -that is truly a special and rare thing.
Nobody should work for FREE and all we want more than anything in this world is to pay these actors for their time and generosity. We have scheduled the shoot for January 2016 and we don't want to see all of our hard work we've put into The Green Room be wasted because it doesn't have funding. Please help us make this show already!
PRODUCTION
We have 6 episodes to shoot - this will be approximately 6 days of shooting. Each day will cost roughly $1000 to pay all the actors and our crew and this is MINIMUM pay and it doesn't include the above the line crew (writers, director and producers).
Why should you donate? You ask. How does it benefit you? What would you get out of this show being made? We have answers for you!
First - we all like to be entertained - right? Well, we have some hilarious entertainment for you about a Medical Marijuana Dispensary. How much do you know about dispensaries? Unless you live in a state that has them and you have your card - probably not a whole lot. Aren't you curious?
Second - Medical Marijuana is a stigma in this country - although it helps millions of people cure and relief such ailments as:
Asthma, Alzheimers, Glaucoma, Tumors, Nausea Relief (e.g., Aids, Cancer Therapy, Sea Sickness) Epilepsy, Aspergers, Autism, Bell's Palsy, Multiple Sclerosis, Back Pain, Muscle Spasms, Arthritis, Herpes, Cystic Fibrosis, Rheumatism, Sleep and Eating Disorders, Anxiety, Stress and Migraine Headache Relief, Depression and it has hundreds of other primary medical uses.
Were you aware of this? Probably not. But I bet if it came up while you were watching a comedy show you would remember. Right? That's what we're hoping for anyway ;)
Third reason - we have incentives! Like cool incentives. For any $ amount you contribute - big or small - you get something! For example if you donate as little as $25 you get a digital download of the Pilot Episode before anyone else! And the incentives get more enticing with the more money you contribute. Enticing incentives, enticing incentives - say that 3 times! So, please have a gander at all our fun perks because we would love your help. As indie filmmakers we believe strongly in crowd funding and we try to donate when we can to support and expand our independent community.
And remember once you contribute you will forever be apart of The Green Room family. So, come join us! We're all very nice and we give great hugs. Much Love.
THE CREATORS
LIZZ HENDERSON (Executive Producer, Writer)
RICH STURDEVANT (Writer, Director)
The creators of The Green Room, Rich and Lizz (that's us up there!) are high school sweethearts originally from upstate NY. We came out to California at 20 yrs old with only a grand and big dreams. We quickly learned that $1,000 wouldn't even cover 10 days of rent in Los Angeles and we have been broke ever since, but that has never hurt our ambitions! In 2006 we attended film school together and shortly after dropped out to make our first feature, SUICIDE IS EASY. The film went the festival route and won several awards for Guerrilla filmmaking and acting. With our dreams still in tact, and a dash of validation on top, in 2008 we created Dancing Silly Productions and have produced 2 more features and dozens of short films.
Dancing Silly Productions Website
Our newest passion/love child is THE GREEN ROOM. Have you ever had a project, a hobby, a job that consumes you? That's all you can think of/talk about/write about? Yeah, that's The Green Room for us. We're painting/sanding and building a dispensary in the middle of the night and during the day we're writing, producing, scheduling, owning our social media game and trying to make our dream become a reality. With YOUR help it can be possible!
ZAHIDA KAZAR (Associate Producer)
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A native Angeleno, Zahida was raised on dark comedies, arthouse films
and Tim Burton movies (you know, the good ones). She loves laughter, pizza, her
dogs and being a part of a group of passionate filmmakers who make great
content. She started her film career in college as a line producer for a PSA moved
on to three acclaimed shorts and is currently producing her first features (plural - yes). MORE
IMPORTANTLY, she is one part of the awesome The Green Room family and would
really love you as much as she loves pizza if you help get the show funded
because she wants nothing more than to pay the hard working cast and crew of the show and that is only possible with your
assistance.
MARILINDA BERNI (Associate Producer)![]()
Hello. My name is Marilinda and I am the newest addition to
the production team of The Green Room. My passion for art and films came from a
very early age. From watching Spaghetti Westerns with my grandmother and also
watching Charlie Chaplin, Cantinflas and Spanish soap operas with my mother and
father, I always felt filmmaking was what I wanted to aspire for. In college, I
majored in film and sociology. During my college years, I worked on a short film
called Meet the Mothers and it went on to debut at the LA Shorts Film Festival.
I also got the opportunity to work on commercial campaigns and become involved
in the production side of multiple projects. After graduating with a double
major, I worked four years as an Operations Manager for a media marketing
company. Shortly after, I met Lizz and Rich through Zahida and I helped them
during the film production of Envisage--their feature film. After graduating
college again with a Masters in Sociology, I am now, once again, part of this passionate and awesome crew of filmmakers. Our goal is to create a web-series that will not only
be comical, but also help educate the general public about medical marijuana. With
your help and contribution, we will be able to complete our project and produce
something never seen before.
Other Ways You Can Help
If you can't contribute, SHARE our campaign! Tell your friends, family and co-workers about TGR by sharing this indigogo page on your facebook, twitter, instagram and other social media sites. Thank you for supporting indie filmmaking!!