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You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory

You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory is Jack Kyser's Advanced Production senior thesis film at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

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You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory

You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory

You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory

You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory

You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory

You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory is Jack Kyser's Advanced Production senior thesis film at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory is Jack Kyser's Advanced Production senior thesis film at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory is Jack Kyser's Advanced Production senior thesis film at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory is Jack Kyser's Advanced Production senior thesis film at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

Jack Kyser
Jack Kyser
Jack Kyser
Jack Kyser
11 Campaigns |
New York City, United States
$4,685 USD 100 backers
93% of $5,000 Flexible Goal Flexible Goal
Highlights
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Short Summary

My name is Jack Kyser, and I am directing my senior thesis film this April, titled You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory, which received an Advanced Production allotment last fall from the Tisch School of the Arts. 

This is a film about Charlie, a socially inept twenty-six year-old who compulsively confesses every detail of his anti-social behavior to his mother, Hazel, with whom he still lives in Harlem. When his mother asks him to finally move out of her apartment, Charlie is forced to confront his greatest fears - losing his only life witness and living in a world without his only friend and confidante. The film directly addresses so many of my fears and anxieties - of dying without being remembered, the need to be liked or to impress in social situations, fear of abandonment, the necessity of archiving and preserving memory, and wanting to have someone by your side who knows your entire journey, from start to finish. Psychologically, I'm not sure I can say where all of these obsessions come from. Maybe it is from losing my father, or watching the size of my family dwindle down to just a few people. At the beginning of last semester, my mom's sister, my aunt passed away, and suddenly all of my worst fears embedded within this script were reconfirmed. If anything, that’s made me feel even closer to the project, and more certain that it expresses something that truly matters to me.

I feel that, along with the other three films I have made at NYU - With Love, Marty (2011), The Wheels (2012) and Jake the Cinephile (2013) - this new film represents part of a cinematic biography, with each of these movies dealing with a different aspect of my obsessions. These are all stories of alienated outsiders and social pariahs, of young men with strong, rigid moral codes, and the films concern their disenfranchisement with a world that doesn't share their values. You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory is the culmination of so many of these common concerns and themes. I'm incredibly lucky to get to work with so many people who have been on my creative team for the past three films, as well.

Our incredible crew includes producers Erica Rose and Harry Tarre, cinematographer Benjamin Dewey, sound mixer and sound designer Bobb Barito, and production designer David Jaffe – many of whom did outstanding work on my previous films.

The Impact

We truly believe that if you help us, you will be part of a great and powerful movie. Without the proper financing, however, the film cannot be made. The costs for film equipment, location fees, transportation, and meals for the cast and crew, among many other things, are overwhelming, and outside financial support is critical to the successful production of this film.
 
As I’ve been making more movies and working with slightly larger budgets, with each new film I think I’m getting closer to achieving what I want in terms of style. For one, I’m trying to incorporate more and more expressive uses of camera movement. Jake the Cinephile is really where I started dipping my toes into a more subjective, expressionistic kind of filmmaking, experimenting with a moving camera – and that’s what I’m hoping to really embrace and expand on with this new film.

My Intermediate Narrative film The Wheels won the Best Student Film award at the 2012 Metropolitan Film Festival of New York, and was an Official Selection of the 2012 Coney Island Film Festival. The film also received high praise from professors at the Tisch School of the Arts. My previous film, With Love, Marty, was an Official Selection of The 2011 Big Apple Film Festival, the 2012 World Music and Independent Film Festival in Washington, D.C., and the Emerging Filmmaker’s Series in Rochester, NY.

We already have an incredible ensemble of actors line up to star in the film, including Mike Wesolowski, who will play Charlie. Mike is a senior in the Atlantic Acting School at the Tisch School of the Arts, currently studying acting under Alec Baldwin. Mary Goggin, an extremely talented actress who has acted in films such as Little Children (2006), will be playing Hazel.

What We Need & What You Get


We need your help. As you can imagine, as a senior thesis film, the scope of the picture is far-reaching. We truly want this to be a film where New York City itself plays a key character in the story, and so we are shooting in many different locations around the city – including a three-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn, a bar in the East Village, a restaurant to double as the Times Square Olive Garden, another restaurant in the West Village, along with several night exteriors in midtown Manhattan and Harlem.

Our budget includes fees for these extraordinary locations, additional equipment rentals, transportation costs, anamorphic camera lenses, and meals for an entire week of shooting. The shoot begins in a little more than one month, and in that time, we need to raise as much money as possible.

As I head into rehearsals with the actors and continue pre-production with my longtime collaborators, I cannot tell you how much I would appreciate it if you would consider contributing to this campaign. We will not be able to make this film without your help. And if you are among those who were so generous to contribute to Jake the Cinephile last summer, I’m so excited to share that film with you in the very near future.

We are working as hard as we can to make this picture a reality by April. Any donation you can make – however small – would be absolutely incredible. Our deadline is quickly approaching, but with your help, we know that we can make this film. On the right, we have listed the perks for contributing to this production. 

Other Ways You Can Help


Please spread the word about this campaign to your family and friends - if we do not raise enough money in the next month, we risk not being able to shoot this film.

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Choose your Perk

Contributor

$10 USD
You will receive a digital copy of the finished film.
9 claimed

Benefactor

$15 USD
You will receive a DVD of the finished film, and you will receive a Special Thanks in the closing credits of the film.
16 claimed

Bronze Benefactor

$25 USD
You will receive a DVD and a digital copy of the finished film and a Special Thanks in the closing credits of the film.
38 claimed

Silver Benefactor

$50 USD
You will receive a DVD and a digital copy of the finished film, a signed poster and a Special Thanks in the closing credits of the film.
13 claimed

Silver Benefactor

$75 USD
You will receive a DVD and a digital copy of the finished film, a signed poster, a personal thank-you note from the director, and a Special Thanks in the closing credits of the film.
1 claimed

Gold Benefactor

$100 USD
You will receive a DVD and a digital copy of the finished film, a signed poster, a personal thank-you note from the director, and a Special Thanks in the closing credits of the film.
10 claimed

Associate Producer

$200 USD
You will receive an Associate Producer credit, a DVD and a digital copy of the finished film, a signed poster, a personal thank-you note from the director, DVD copies of Jack's previous films (The Wheels, With Love, Marty, Jake the Cinephile), and a Special Thanks in the closing credits of the film.
3 claimed

Executive Producer

$250 USD
You will receive an Executive Producer credit, a DVD and a digital copy of the finished film, a signed poster, a personal thank-you note from the director, DVD copies of Jack's previous films (The Wheels, With Love, Marty, Jake the Cinephile), and a Special Thanks in the closing credits of the film.
1 claimed

The Full Movie Experience

$500 USD
If you really believe in Jack, then this is the perk to beat! In addition to all of the Executive Producer perks, you will earn a free dinner and a movie with Jack, complete with his passionate thoughts about film. You pick the movie and the restaurant! Plus, you will receive tickets to all festival screenings of You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory!
0 claimed
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