Kickstarter

WHAT I WANT TO DO
I want to make an 8-10 minute short film entitled WINDOWNPAIN: The Heartbreak of Brent Kelly

THE PITCH
In 2002, Brent Kelly was a sophomore in college. His girlfriend just dumped him, so Brent sat down at his desk with an 18 rack of domestic light beer and just let that Death Cab for Cutie howl like a wolf at the moon. He pulled out his notebook and began to write. Brent drained six frosty light beers. Then ten. Then he picked up his $139 left-handed guitar and began to piece together a few chords. Then a melody. And then: WINDOWPAIN. A song so overwhelmingly superlative, so suffuse with the ecstasy of raw human torment, he never wrote another.

The years passed, and Brent found notable success in the corporate world. But he has always clung to a secret hope that one day, WINDOWPAIN would blow up like he knew it should and his destiny as a wounded genius would be made manifest in front of God and Everybody. His girl would hear his hit single on the FM radio and come bounding back with damp eyes and heaving bosom. Things would be simple again, and good.

The film catches up with Brent nearly a decade after penning WINDOWPAIN. He has just quit a comfortable job and is moving to Los Angeles to drift through the purgatory of open mic nights like a man condemned. Just hoping for a miracle. Hoping She will hear his song. His magnum opus, his cursed diamond, the immaculate symbol of his pain: WINDOWPAIN.

Find her. Sing to her.

A BRIEF BACKSTORY
WINDOWPAIN is a real song that was actually recorded by my close friend and then-college roommate Trent. I would imagine it happens fairly often: you split up with your girlfriend, you write a few angst-riddled poems, and sometimes turn those poems into songs. Then you heal, and move on with your life.

The key difference here is, somehow Trent got his hands on a decent microphone and some recording software. He sat down at his desk in our dorm room and actually recorded his song. The song was soon forgotten and relegated to the dark dusty digital corners of a few computers.

Eight years later, something happened. WINDOWPAIN randomly emerged on a playlist at a friend's house a couple months ago. After not hearing the song for almost a decade, I was struck by a certain earnestness in the recording that was quite endearing. This got me thinking.

What if there was a guy that wrote one breakup song when he was twenty, and has been clinging to the one song for the better part of a decade. As something that connects him to his untroubled days of youth, but also as a delusional obsession with becoming a rockstar.

And so we arrive at WINDOWNPAIN: The Heartbreak of Brent Kelly. A film where I will explore the extremes to which you can push the idea of man with a $139 left-handed guitar, an unwavering conviction in the merits of a single flash of Genius, and most vitally, a Broken Heart.

HOW I PLAN TO DO IT
I have all cast and crew lined up and ready to go. We will be shooting on a Canon 7D with a professional-level Sennheiser sound-recording device. My old roommate Trent has agreed to take on the role of Brent Kelly, which promises to be a revelatory expedition into the outlandish alter-ego I have imagined for him.
All we need now is the funding to make it happen.

WHAT THE MONEY IS FOR
The money is to pay the cast and crew and to cover production expenses such as equipment rentals, food, transportation, and props.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for your support.

-Joe Callander