About this project

ALISON IN WONDERLAND is planned to be my next film and second feature. I attempted to make an earlier incarnation of this project as a half hour short earlier in 2008 but it didn't work out. Shortly thereafter, I retooled the concept giving it a larger scale, a more serious, politically satirical edge and feature length prospects. Lewis Carroll's story of ALICE IN WONDERLAND has been done to death in so many ways by so many people. Following in the footsteps of my popular and award winning short LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD, I intend to filter it through the zeitgeist of today for a nice mix of old and new ala STAR WARS.

The film revolves around Alison, a young girl of around 17 living in a depressingly stagnant suburban America whose entire "world" crumbles in the span of one very bad week. Her boyfriend leaves her for a cheerleader and the economy crashes with the corrupt president declaring himself "President for Life". As a result, Alison loses her college scholarship and falls into a crippling depression fueled with too many energy drinks. After staying awake for over two days and blacking out she winds up in another world, a place called Wonderland. This is a world just as fearsome as the one she left if not slightly more so. A place rife with hermetic low level sociopathic freaks like the Mad Hatter and ruled by the Red Queen, a ruthless lady despot.

With Carroll's iconic novel as only a catalyst, the plot is partially a metaphor for to me one of the most timeless pathos of the human condition, especially relevant in today's world. As everyone around you seems to be living their lives in blind, shallow, materialistic and sometimes decadent ways, what is the right thing to do in this kind of morally ambiguous environment? ALISON IN WONDERLAND begs the question "How do you stay sane in a world gone mad?". My film will explore this uneasy question in a way quite relevant to today's America.

The funds will help me make the movie in every respect. Everything in a film costs money but I intend to make ALISON IN WONDERLAND in a revolutionary and extraordinary way akin to such directors as George Romero with NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and Peter Jackson with BAD TASTE. The film will be made with minimal resource and maximum quality and attention paid to production values. I want to breed a new generation of film that takes full advantage of the abundant cheap resources available anywhere in this country from simple homemade yet good looking props to easy access yet high yield digital video techniques. I have a dream of challenging Hollywood from the obscure backdrop of New England and this film will be my first major step in that direction. Everything in this shoot, from the talent to the locations will be local. The majority of the artistic drive in the project will be mine: I have written the script, I will shoot it and direct the actors, supervise and work on the FX and edit the film. The money will go toward constructing, renting and procuring props as well as giving the film's small crew and cast some compensation and toward any other myriad expenses a guerrilla film shoot could rack up from food to equipment to locations. I will be mining the creativity of myself and others and using some homemade equipment or household devices for polished camera moves and some impressive in-camera tricks as well as a high standard of post-production polish for an impressive final product almost sure to grab attention and gain renown.

Post-production fees will include hiring a sound engineer, a music track from a professional film composer and the licensing of the song "Reality" by Richard Sanderson for a cover version, but those will likely be handled separately and that money will be raised at a later date.

-J.L. Carrozza of Gen-Y Films, producer/director.

My website- http://www.jlcarrozza.com
The film's page on my website- http://www.jlcarrozza.com/alisoninwonderland.html
Conceptual art- http://www.jlcarrozza.com/art/alisonart.html
My blog (with numerous images of prop construction): http://genyfilms.blogspot.com
My IMDb page- http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3490355