Naomi, a headstrong but fragile expectant mother, leaves her small town in Japan for New York City with the firm intention of making her highflying boyfriend her husband.

Upon her arrival she heartbreakingly discovers his lack of commitment to her and his unborn child. Embarrassed and disappointed by her own naivete, despite her parents' stern warnings, she makes a quick exit only to find herself stranded in the elevator.

Emotionally drained by her mistakes and seriously doubting her ability to raise a child on her own, Naomi breaks down to the dismay of Vito, a fast-talking New Yorker with no tolerance for tears who is also stuck in the elevator adjacent to her.

Like Naomi, the loner Vito is running away from his past mistakes, the most recent being a botched drug deal that left him wounded with two cops hot on his tail. Both are having the worst day of their lives and have no tolerance for one another.

Despite getting off to a rocky start, Naomi and Vito begrudgingly interact and slowly discover in each other what they desperately want: strength and will in Naomi and love and the stability of a family in Vito.

WHY ARE WE MAKING ELEVATOR?

Elevator will be Nine Finger Productions’ second feature length film. In making this film, we plan on raising the bar and creating something bigger and better than anything we’ve ever done before while telling a compelling story.

Elevator is a story about two individuals who are struggling with their own identity and the circumstances surrounding them, largely due to their family.

The value and importance of family is a major theme to Elevator and will be thoroughly explored throughout the film. Our goal is to have everyone that watches our film walk out of the theater with an appreciation of their family and consider how different their lives would have been without them. Of course, we also hope they will feel satisfied and entertained =).

WHY DOES ELEVATOR NEED MORE FUNDING?

Our initial round of funding was focused on getting Elevator filmed in America. Now that we've completed that portion, we have one last stop in Japan to wrap up principal photography.

After viewing what we've filmed in America AND having witnessed what the team was able to bring on such a small budget, we are convinced that Elevator warrants a high quality post-production treatment. 

So we are reaching out to you to get this movie to the finish line.  Based on the money we had left over from principal photography, we need $10,000 to complete all of the stages of post.

But that is just the minimum to get our nose past the line.  The more we exceed our goal, the more we can avoid short-changing any step of the process and make Elevator as great as it can be.  This means having the resources to smooth out any edges that might otherwise take the audience out of the experience.

WHERE DOES THE MONEY GO?

If we reach our fundraising goal, your money will go directly towards finishing principal photography in Japan and the remaining post-production services. Your donations will go towards helping fund:

• JAPAN LOCATION FEES (for our final stop in Japan, our locations include: an old Japanese train, neighborhood streets, an old fashioned Japanese apartment and a Japanese airport terminal.)
• TRAVELING EXPENSES (we are flying out our lead actress along with a few selected members of our crew to save money.)
• POST PRODUCTION EQUIPMENT (all of our footage takes up a lot of space which needs to be backed up on multiple hard drives.)
• MUSIC (if possible we would like to bring a whole orchestra to create a truly amazing score to complement our composer Ryo Shiina and our film.)
• THE LITTLE THINGS (theres a myriad of small expenses that are needed to complete a full length feature film: insurance, sfx makeup, etc.)

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THE FILM IS FINISHED?

We plan on bringing Elevator to numerous film festivals across the country and possibly the world. Our goal is to have this film bring us to another level as filmmakers and also to a higher level within the industry. We want as many eyes as we can get to watch this film.

OKAY, THIS SOUNDS GREAT.  WHAT NOW?

Click the ‘Back This Project’ button and follow the cues... you won't regret it.  Prepare yourself for a wave of gratitude.  Then tell your friends about this movie.  'Like' Nine Finger Productions on Facebook.  Tweet.  Get involved.  Feel free to message us--We would love to discuss anything you like about the production or movies in general.  By donating to this production, you are helping something incredible happen by getting the talented and dedicated work of a few out into the world.

THE CAST
Kiyomi Fukazawa as Naomi
Anthony Ma as Vito
Shu Sakimoto as Naomi's Father
Peter D. Michael as Officer Pratt
Nathan Byler as Officer Jackson
Rae McIntosh as Vito's Mother
Grant Vee as Johnny
and Brian Yang as Jerry Wu

THE CREW
Directed by Ryo Shiina & Bassem Wahbi
Written by Anthony Ma
Produced by Anthony Ma, Jennifer Ng & Darin Darakananda
Executive Produced by Eric Yaras
Associate Produced by JC Chang
Original Music by Ryo Shiina
Cinematography by Ryo Shiina
Edited by Ryo Shiina
Art Direction by Prisma Alvarez
Costumes and Wardrobe by Amber Arden
Makeup by Tiffany Tan, Prisma Alvarez & Jennifer Ng
Special Effects Makeup by Casey Wong
Elevator Set Design by Eric Yaras & Nathan Byler
Gaffers - Stephen Thi, Eric Yaras & Nathan Byler
Grips - Eric Yaras, Nathan Byler, Shaun Roos....
Behind the Scenes Footage by Karen Shih & Eric Yaras

FOR MORE INFO:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NineFingerProductions
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/ninefingerfilms
Website: http://ninefingerproductions.com/
Thank you so much for supporting! - Nine Finger Productions

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