About Night Surf:

As summer draws to a close, a small tribe of teenagers -- thrown together by the collapse of civilization -- begin another evening partying on the beach. When a stranger, dying of the disease that has ravaged humanity, staggers onto their beach, their complacency turns into a raw desire to live.

Night Surf is a story about teenagers who have long lost their innocence, instead, clinging to the remnants of their humanity.

Currently in pre-production, this 15-minute post-apocalyptic horror/drama, based upon a short story by Stephen King, deals with complex themes of responsibility, morality, loss, and acceptance. With an amazingly talented cast and crew, we hope to transform the original short story into something all-together breathtakingly new.

How You Can Help:

Now, we have set the minimum needed to make this project at $3,000. This is a tight budget for making a short film, but we have a great team on board who are ready to make it work! So, where will this money go?

• The Cast and Crew: We want to be able to feed and (comfortably) house our cast and crew during the shoot. Having worked on low/no budget films before, we understand how important decent meals can be!
• Rentals: Lights, camera rigs and lenses can cost a little bit, but they are sure to make the film look wonderful. Although we own some of the key equipment (and we can beg and borrow some other necessities), we are in dire need of proper lighting and lensing for a nighttime exterior shoot.
• Post-Production/Distribution: We want to see this movie finished right. In order to do this, we need some help purchasing editing hard drives, authoring DVDs and Blu-Rays, and, perhaps most importantly, festival fees.
• Anything above and beyond our $3000 goal will help us make the film better than we could imagine. Whether we can afford bigger and better lights or help make our cast and crew more comfortable over long nighttime shoots, we will be immensely thankful for any dollar over our goal.

About the Filmmakers:

David Humphreys (Director): There was a year, a golden year, one of fond memories and long summer nights — for convenience, we’ll say… 1991. During this time, the most used thing Dave owned was a VHS copy ofThe Wizard of Oz. Captivated by the story of a young woman whisked away from her everyday life into a technicolor dreamscape, he watched the film every day. For an entire year. In retrospect, it more than likely might have kept him quiet long enough for his parents to slip away and enjoy a quiet afternoon, or, perhaps equally as likely, he was just an odd child. In any case, The Wizard of Oz brought with it an appetite for movies, and eventually Cinema, that grew and expanded and redoubled and compounded until… BAM! Twenty-two years, a few scripts, and countless shorts later, he graduated from Emerson College’s Media Art MFA program. Now, he can usually be found in a dark room doing one of two things: editing or watching a film. Since creation and consumption go hand-in-hand, Dave regards this time as strictly “professional development” and not as “entertainment,” although, honestly, when you do what you love, is there any difference?

Ericka Nelson (Producer): Ericka Nelson is an MFA candidate at Emerson College. She received her bachelor’s degree in Communication and Film Studies in 2006 and intends on completing her master’s degree in Media Art from Emerson College in spring 2013. She has produced and directed multiple short-films, edited fiction features and freelanced in multiple crew positions for production and post-production. In addition to producing Night Surf, she’s working on her master’s thesis project, Weird Little Things, a short hybrid film about phobias, disorders and neuroses told though a series of narrative and documentary vignettes.

Shaun Clarke (Director of Photography): Shaun has worked as a cinematographer on numerous projects over the past 10 years. His work has ranged from short narrative films, to commercial spots, to feature-length documentaries. He’s known for his creative but disciplined approach to cinematography, and his professional approach to his work on productions and sets of all sizes. His previous work can be seen at his website.

Geoff Tarulli (Writer): Geoff Tarulli is a filmmaker, writer, and  musician (well… a drummer anyway). His films include the experimental black comedy Manage: Eye-Balling Any Eventualities Coming Up in the Buffer Zone  and the documentary Monsters of the Atomic Age  which explores nuclear fears of the 40s and  50s through the lens of the B sci-fi movies of the time. Currently, he is shooting and directing the up-coming documentary Movies of the Future With Lloyd Kaufman (an experimental-style documentary on filmmaker and independent movie icon Lloyd Kaufman (Troma), featuring interviews with Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee and godfather of independent film Roger Corman), as well as writing a full length script entitled You Guys Really Looked Like You Were Having Fun Up There in collaboration with and slated to be shot by director Frankie Frain (Sexually Frank, A-Bo the Humonkey).

Stay Connected:

Follow along with the progress of Night Surf through both our Blog and our Facebook Page.