Kickstarter

SYNOPSIS

Druther’s is the story of two men who have spent their entire lives on opposite sides of the law -- CARL, a convicted small time thief, and FAUSTO, a corrections officer at the prison where Carl is serving his sentence. Both men have recently received urgent letters -- one from a trusted friend, the other from an estranged father. One day on a routine work detail, the contents of these letters will test their tenuous friendship and ultimately drive both men to desperate acts.

WHY MAKE THIS FILM? WHAT MAKES DRUTHERS DIFFERENT?

Why do we the filmmakers feel we must make this little film? Hands down -- the script. The language used in the script is a mash up of Shakespeare and Chandler. It has the poetry of a theater piece fused with the hardboiled grit of a noir. And it’s the challenge. How do we make two guys talking on the side of a road interesting? Yeah, there’s some fisticuffs, a gun gets brandished around, but there are no explosions, no car chases, no hot babes. It is a test of our skills as filmmakers that will keep the audience engaged. That is our challenge and we have chosen to accept it.

WHY ARE WE ASKING FOR FINANCIAL SUPPORT?

It’s a simple project -- two guys on the side of the road talking. All we need is a road, a couple of good actors, a camera and some daylight. Simple enough, yeah? Unfortunately, filmmaking isn’t simple, no matter how small the project. And it ain’t free neither. Here’s where your generous donations will make all the difference. There’s a few things we need to purchase.

LOCATION

The desert road. There are plenty of roads in the San Clarita Valley north of Los Angeles. But there are fees involved in securing a location.

FILMING PERMIT

In order to secure the necessary location, we’ll need a filming permit. We can’t pull over to any old side of the road and unpack our gear and start filming. That won’t work. Pretty damn quick a police officer will stop by, ask us what the hell do we think we’re doing and promptly tells us to scram. The permit simply gives us permission from the city to shoot the film. But a permit isn’t enough.

PRODUCTION INSURANCE

In order to get the permit, we’ll need production insurance. This by far is our biggest expense and our most important need. No amount of moxie, pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps, pure passion and determination will get us production insurance. No favors to pull here. Production insurance costs money.

EQUIPMENT

We can borrow a professional quality camera from a trusted friend. And we’ve all heard about new digital technology and small, but professional grade cameras that make little films like ours a reality. A cool, cutting edge camera wil not enough. We’ll also need filters and lenses for the camera. These are rentals. And fairly inexpensive individually – lenses running between $20 to $50 per day. And filters running between $5 to $20 per day. But as in life, so it is in film production. It’s the little things that add up. And no quality camera is worth its weight in coolness without skillful lighting. Though our little film takes place during the day, light will still be needed. And though we won’t be using any electrical light, we will need to use big mirror reflectors and large framed diffusion. Very useful stuff.

BLOOD

Yes. There will be blood. Now I’m willing to give MY blood, sweat and tears to this project. But that’s not the same thing as movie blood. In the script, these two guys end up beating the hell out of each other. And in lieu of the guys ACTUALLY beating the hell out of each other (which Shane has dutifully volunteered to do!), we need a little movie magic. Yes, magic movie blood. Because the blood used in movies is magical…. Err…. Well, maybe not magical exactly, but skillful. We need a skilled makeup artist to create the cuts and bruises these two guys level upon each other. Now I know a great makeup artist. And she’s willing to donate her time. But the makeup and fake blood needed to make realistic injuries comes from her kit. She’s willing to give her time for free, but we will need to replenish her makeup supplies.

FOOD

The crew are friends and are willing to work for free. But we must feed them. After asking folks to work for two days on a desert road under a hot sun, we kinda owe them a free lunch. It’s the right thing to do.

GAS

Yeah. That, too. By the very nature of the film, we gotta shoot a healthy distance from Los Angeles. So it would be a good gesture to offer a few dollars to the cast and crew for gas.

Thank you for supporting our dreams and aspirations!

Ted Campbell
director/producer
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0132884/

Brett Shane Cooley
writer/actor

Sandra Valde-Hansen
director of photography
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2019413/