***I have secured a 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsorship through PIFVA which allows any donation to be written off if made directly to me. Please contact me for details if you are interested in making your contribution tax deductible.***

I want to be clear before I discuss the breakdown that my goal reflects only half of the total real budget. I have been working 18 hours a day across multiple jobs to pay for this film. I just need your support to get there.

UPDATE!!!!

I am thrilled to announce that we have signed Bill Klayer to shoot Will to Live. His last film "That's What She Said" was an official selection at Sundance and his past shooting credits include 30 Rock, Royal Pains, A Gifted Man, and Law & Order to start. And he worked on Friday the 13th. How cool is THAT!?

Will to Live is a supernatural dark comedy starring Brian Anthony Wilson and Adeline Thery. The film centers around a psychic medium named Charlie who uses her unique ability to clear stubborn ghosts out of houses. During her latest job she confronts an unusual spirit named Will who perished from less than graceful circumstances. A tragedy in Will's past is preventing him from moving on and Charlie hopes to reconcile it for him, whether he really likes it or not.

The supernatural is a genre that I feel is grossly underappreciated and underexplored. While writing the dialogue for Will To Live I wanted to hearken back to an era when there was a poetic, frenetic quality to comedies. By taking the subject of death head on the script explores the comedy inherent in being a human. With all of the seriousness that goes into avoiding death we don't often enough take the time to laugh at the absurdity of life.  

With plenty of smart references and homages paid to the movies I grew up on, this film is sure to entertain anyone who enjoys a bit of satire and a glance at the impossible. The supernatural qualities are reminiscent of films like Inception and The Craft with comedy straight out of Ghostbusters.

It is my ultimate hope that Will To Live goes on to be developed into a feature. I have written a rich and complex back story and have a lot of ideas that I'd like to develop if this film can get made. With your support at this phase I can create a piece that is of the quality needed to bring to life this rich world as a feature.

The Cinematography

It was a difficult choice to shoot on 35mm film due to the costs associated with post production. By choosing to shoot on 2-perf I've drastically cut those costs, but we're still in a tough spot with choosing to embrace film. For the more technical folks here is a link explaining why 2-perf saves money. The video you saw above is framed in a comparable aspect ratio to how we will be shooting. For non-technical folks that means that the film will have a wider composition that allows me to create space between the characters to enhance the emotions.

Update:

Since I got so much grief over Drive being shot on an Alexa (composition has nothing to do with that, thank you very much) I'm going to also display something from a classic Techniscope production. Neener neener.

So why did I ultimately choose to shoot on film with so many great digital options out there? Because it looks better. It makes the actors act better. There's an immeasurable variable of seriousness that digital glosses over. When you're out of film stock, you're out of stock. There is no hard drive to dump the footage to and do another take. It sounds risky, but those risks are mitigated by having committed, professional actors who do extensive rehearsing. I'm committed to making the best film that can be made to endure, not just to raise money to do my next one. The Academy Award winning cinematographer of Pan's Labyrinth, Guillermo Navaro, articulates it here. I skipped ahead for you.

Cast and Crew

I'm hiring a number of experienced professionals both in front of and behind the camera. Many of the crew members I know personally and have worked with in the past. This gives the crew an efficiency to streamline the production. Everyone has a lot of love for this project and wants to see it succeed. Their knowledge will go a long way towards making this project the best it can be.

Post Production

I'm saving a great amount of money on the film by editing it myself, however I still need to pay for processing, transfer, and color timing. That's just to get the film into the editing suite. After that I still need to get the music, mix, and sound design right. The sound of the film is really critical and I'll be working with the same great composer and mixer that gave Runaway its award winning soundtrack. 

There's also costs in converting the film to festival ready formats and having a substantial number of copies to get out to the fests. After all, you want to be producing an award winning movie, right?

Wish List

If we reach our goal I get to improve on the already ambitious project by including several production elements which are temporarily on hold. I would like to get a steadicam operator to perform a complex shot. I need a highly experienced and well-equipped operator to pull it off due to the weight and unwieldiness of film cameras in conjunction with the complexity of the very cool shot I have planned. Any extra money will be spent on other post production elements such as better sound design and orchestration. I will also try to pay the crew the remainder of their normal salary so they don't hate me as much. After that there's marketing costs for the film including a website to be launched and posters to be made.

• Adeline Thery - Charlie
• Brian Anthony Wilson - Will
• Amit Ashraf - Producer
• Mike Mastronardi - Co-Producer
• Amanda Logan - Associate Producer
• David Diperstein - Writer/Director
• Dan Sinisi - 1st Assistant Director

Philadelphia! The city of brotherly love! I considered shooting this film in New York, but Philadelphia is where my heart is. The film also gets to use the interesting architectural features and backdrop that our diverse landscape has to offer while saving a lot of money by shooting in familiar locales.

I was on the fence about doing a Kickstarter in the first place. I'm an extremely proud person and find it difficult to ask for help. I'm not kidding about moving in with my mom to make this happen (thanks mom). I really need your support to make this happen and I hope you see the potential in the project.