Video Updates:

Here are three new videos. The Blooper Reel contains some strong language.

Concept: What?

As our video explains we will produce 52 short films in 52 weeks during 2013. All of these films will be based on short stories in the public domain from writers such as Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, and James Joyce. They will be adapted to take place in a present day Arizona setting.

Motivation: Why?

We take on this challenge for many reason. First, we believe in the short film format, that it is equal in importance to longer movies and worth exploring and experimenting with. Second, we want to re-imagine some of our best known stories. These works of literature are timeless; they should be read and re-told (as we aim to do) in every generation. And last, we want to stretch ourselves as storytellers, experimenting with a vast array of genres and material. 

John Ford (the director of such great classics as The Grapes of Wrath and Stagecoach) learned to make movies in the old Studio System, directing one every week. We are in a sense creating our own system, for the express purpose of learning, challenging ourselves, and expanding the medium once again. 

The following video is our Kickstarter Blooper Reel. We hope you get a laugh out of our mistakes. Warning, the video does contain some strong language.

Action: How?

Sounds like quite a feat doesn't it? Yes, we know. The completion of this project will take a considerable amount of hard work, commitment and dedication and we are more than prepared to do it. 

To start, we have a reputation for producing quality movies with low budgets in a short amount of time. Most of our short films to date have been filmed in a day or two. Our first full length movie was made in fourteen days (and in the Arizona summer heat!). From conception to finished project, we have completed short films in 48 hours which have gone on to win awards. With a good plan, a week will be more than enough to film each story.

Preparation and organization is the key to producing movies along with building great casts and crews. We plan to use a variety of actors from the film  community in AZ, local and ethnic theatre companies, and so forth. Our crews will be rotated to keep them fresh and ready for the next movie.

With digital technology, the power of networking, ambition and good storytelling skills, this project will come to life in 2013. We appreciate your help and support. 

RELEASE INFORMATION

You might be wondering what will happen to the 52 short films when we are done? There will be a weekend showcase in Arizona where all 52 will be screened in a theater. Every short film will then be released to the public for digital stream/download through our website AFTER our backers ($10 or more) are sent private digital screeners. If you support our project, you will be the first to see our work!

P.S.

As we raise funds, we are already hard at work on these movies: revising the scripts, casting the actors, filling the crews, scouting and locking locations, etc. All the stories have been picked and to give you a sneak peak at what is to come, here is a complete list (in alphabetical order): 

*All of these can be found on http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/

Ambrose Bierce's A Watcher by the Dead

Bret Harte's Tennessee's Partner

D.H. Lawrence's The White Stocking

D.H. Lawrence's You Touched Me

Edgar Allan Poe's Berenice

Edgar Allan Poe's The Cask of Amontillado

Edgar Allan Poe's The Man of the Crowd

Edgar Allan Poe's The Masque of the Red Death

Frank Norris' Two Hearts That Beat as One

F. Scott Fitzgerald's Head and Shoulders

Fyodor Dostoyevsky's A Little Hero

Guy de Maupassant's The Thief

Guy de Maupassant's Useless Beauty

Herman Melville's Bartleby

Henry James' The Liar

H.G. Wells' The Country of the Blind

Jack London's A Piece of Steak

James Joyce (All of the collection Dubliners) which includes:
After the Race, A Little Cloud, A Mother, An Encounter, A Painful Case, Araby, Clay, Counterparts, Eveline, Grace, Ivy Day in a Committee Room, The Boarding House, The Dead, The Sisters, Two Gallants

Joseph Conrad's The Return

Kate Chopin's A Pair of Silk Stockings

Kate Chopin's A Respectable Woman

Kate Chopin's The Kiss

Kate Chopin's The Locket

Mark Twain's The Captain's Story

Nathaniel Hawthorne's Mr. Higginbotham's Catastrophe

Nathaniel Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

P.G. Wodehouse's The Test Case

Ring Lardner's Harmony

Ring Lardner's Horseshoes

Ring Lardner's My Roomy

Robert Louis Stevenson's A Lodging for the Night

Sherwood Anderson's I Want to Know Why

Sherwood Anderson's The Other Woman

Stephen Crane's A Desertion

Thomas Hardy's The Three Strangers

Washington Irving's The Devil and Tom Walker

Willa Cather's The Bookkeeper's Wife

W. Somerset Maugham's The Bum