What's this?
This Is Hell.
Okay, great, but what's it about?
Sally & Mel have been best friends since school and have wasted the better part of their youth coasting along doing Sweet FA. Just when things seem to be on the up, a sudden bereavement throws their lives into chaos and tests the limits of their friendship to breaking point.
This Is Hell is a darkly comic drama about female friendship, isolation and the brutal reality of grief and how we deal with it.
Why have you written it?
A few reasons ...
- To show what grief is really like
We can be really bad at dealing with grief, whether our own or other people's, and this is especially true of any death which is unusual or stigmatised. We wanted to tell an uncompromising story that shows the real, ugly side of grief - the rage, the bitterness, the cruelty - but also the funny, ridiculous side.
- To show what female friendship is really like
Too often we see female friendships on screen either idealised as sisterly altruism or plagued by competitiveness and catty jealousy. Our aim is to represent a female friendship that feels fully complex and real, through all its highs and lows.
What's the plan?
In a few weeks time we will be filming the first two episodes (six parts in total) and we need a little help to get them done. We plan to use these first two episodes to secure funding to complete the web series early next year.
Our ultimate goal is to get This Is Hell in front of TV production companies with the aim of securing enough funding to expand and develop the show into a fully budgeted series.
Who's the team?
Writers - Laura Waldren & Sarah Livingstone
We are real life best friends who trained together as actors at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. This Is Hell is our debut web series.
Director & Editor - Hunter Allen
Hunter is a co-founder of videography company Neuron Hub, and has directed and edited for the BBC, Comic Relief, Comedy Central and the Beano.
Producer - Max Park
Max is a Development Editor for Film 4 and holds a diploma in Script Development from the National Film and Television School.
Co-producer - Euan Shanahan
Euan is a graduate of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
What do you need the money for?
Production design - as the first two episodes are set primarily in flats we've managed to find free filming locations, but we need some extra money for props and set dressing to make it look fantastic.
Sound design - part of our budget will be spent on securing high quality equipment and sound recordists.
Camera hire - we will be hiring a professional TV quality camera for shooting week to make the series look as brilliant as possible.
Soundtrack - music is a big part of the series, so some of the budget will go on securing song rights.
Travel and food - we're fortunate enough to have lots of talented and generous friends who have agreed to work on the series for free as they believe in the script, and at the very least we'd love to be able to reimburse people's travel to and from set and feed them proper meals on shooting days.
Contingency - we have factored a contingency into the budget in case of any last minute extra costs.
Is there any other way I can help?
Absolutely! If you aren't able to contribute financially but like the sound of the show, please do share our IndieGoGo page on social media and give us a follow on Twitter and Instagram at @thisishell.series
