About
$71,200
451
A film that breaks the silence about stillbirth.
RETURN TO ZERO
Based on a true story, RETURN TO ZERO tells the story of a couple who, just weeks before the delivery of their son, are devastated to learn that he has died in the womb and will be stillborn.
Grief and trauma nearly destroys their marriage, until they learn they are again pregnant, and must navigate their way through a terrifying and turbulent pregnancy with the help of an empathetic doctor. With warmth, humor, and exploration of the human spirit RETURN TO ZERO casts a light on an all-too-often overlooked subject.
The Cast
Minnie Driver (Good Will Hunting), Paul Adelstein (Private Practice), Alfred Molina (Spider-Man 2), Connie Nielsen (Gladiator), Kathy Baker (Edward Scissorhands), Andrea Anders (Better off Ted) and Sarah Jones (Vegas) star in this compelling story.
The Crew
Written/Directed by multi-award-winning film and commercial director Sean Hanish, and based on his own experience, RETURN TO ZERO attracted an amazing crew of talented craftspeople (including Producer Paul Jaconi-Biery, Emmy Award-winning Production Designer Ed Rubin, award-winning Director of Photography Harris Charalambous, and award-winning Casting Directors Ronnie Yeskel and Sharon Howard-Field) who helped bring this emotional story to life over 19 days of shooting in Los Angeles.
In addition, volunteers came in from all over the country to participate, bringing their time, energy and skill to bear on a story that needed to be told.
Our Story/Your Story
In the U.S. alone, there are 26,000 stillbirths a year, the same as the number of people killed in car accidents. And yet, no movie has yet tackled this difficult, and sadly silent subject.
Through the blog on our website, www.returntozerothemovie.com we've created a forum in which people from all over the world have come to share their stories of stillbirth. We've tapped into an amazing community of people who have been touched by stillbirth, and have been in awe of their response to the project.
You can connect to the community at:
https://www.facebook.com/returntozerofilm
https://www.twitter.com/Return2ZeroFilm
What Happens Next
Once all post work has been completed on RETURN TO ZERO, it will be ready to be seen by millions. And that's where you come in...
We're Almost There!
RETURN TO ZERO is in the can! Our amazing editor is putting the film together, and now all we need is funds for music, post-production sound, and color correction.
And that's why we've come to Kickstarter. This film has been a community project from the beginning, and we believe that it's only through the community that we can get it pushed over the final hurdle and in front of an audience.
Why $50,000?
$50,000 is the minimum amount we need to complete the edit of the film, do a basic sound mix, and a minimal music package to get the film in shape to submit to film festivals. Once at a festival, distributors will see the film alongside an audience, the way it was meant to be seen. And we know that once they do, RETURN TO ZERO will be on its way to theaters.
But what if we do better than that? Here's what we do with the money:
$75,000 upgrades our sound and picture: allowing us a full professional mix, full color correction & upgrades our VFX shots for screening at festivals.
$125,000 upgrades our music exponentially allowing us to record a live orchestra for our score! We'd also be able to get a final professional Dolby mix on the sound track for distribution.
Anything above $125,000 upgrades us to have a marketing & promotional budget at the film festival we premiere at, to give us the very best chance for theatrical distribution.
Risks and challenges
The biggest challenge is to make the most of the footage we have -- color correction, post sound, music, ADR, these all take time and money. We're shooting for film festivals that have hard deadlines, and it's going to be a challenge to make those. And there will be stumbles along the way -- color correction that takes an extra few days, post sound that goes over budget.
We're all-in with this project, which can be scary, but we keep moving forward now matter what. We'll need time to identify the right post people to work with -- people who share our passion and have the creative vision to execute. This can take time, and can lead you down dead-ends now and then, which is frustrating, but part of the process.
On rewards: we will keep everyone updated as the project moves forward and we get closer to reward time. We take our obligations seriously, but there's always the chance of delays -- we will do our best to notify everyone in a timely manner. This model of filmmaking is new, and a real challenge, but we do appreciate all the assistance we've received so far, and will be diligent with rewards.
What are we up against?
Hollywood doesn't make movies like this anymore. Movies for grown-ups that tackle difficult subject matter with grace and humor.
And so, from the beginning it's been up to us to figure out how to get this project made. There's no studio involved, there are no big-money guys who will bail us out.
What we do have is an immensely talented group of people willing to work for a fraction of what they're worth to bring this story to life.
We know there's a huge audience for this movie, but if we can't finish the film, nobody will see it.
That's the challenge we've faced from Day 1. And we've gotten this far. Now we just have to finish the job.
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Funding period
- (30 days)