In 2012 we won the Live Pitch Competition at Cofilmic Festival with the original idea for Storydweller, which was judged by a leading industry panel. Last summer, supported by TV production company BonaFide Films, we managed to secure Alpha Funding from Channel 4 and as part of this process we got to work alongside leading script editor Andrew Ellard (IT Crowd, Red Dwarf, Cardinal Burns, Vic & Bob’s House of Fools) to help hammer out a great script. This is now our most fully developed project and the one we’re most passion about, so we really want to do it justice.
In our previous projects we have relied almost entirely on favours from amazing local film crew and our own abilities to create and edit all of our content, but Storydweller requires a level of expertise and effects that are way beyond the realm of favours. We need a full crew and particularly make up, costume, set design and FX work that will require a proper budget in place. Without this, it will not be possible to make.
That’s where you come in!
To make the pain of handing three comedians your hard-earned cash a little more bearable we have come up with loads of fantastic rewards, listed on the right of this page. If you want to know more about the project and how we’ll spend the money then read on…
(Just some of the rewards on offer – badges, t-shirts, bathing with Hot Gulp and a night with Hot Gulp).
After his father suffers a particularly deep and ultimately fatal paper cut from a pristine copy of Great Expectations, Brian Brisket inherits his treasured reading glasses. But these are no ordinary glasses. When wearing them, Brian is magically transported into the worlds of the books he reads. Join him on his adventures through the fertile imaginations and fantastical stories of history’s greatest authors.
With great power comes great responsibility, but Brian is not a great man. Will this bumbling clown inadvertantly sabotage the entire Western literary canon? Join him as he travels into such fictional classics as Miriam Quince’s Hells’ Gash, Terence Purge’s Back Bollocks, and many many more.
Hot Gulp have been described “a cross between Reeves and Mortimer and The League of Gentleman” and it’s these sensibilities, style, tone and humour that we’ll be bringing to Storydweller.
The books that Brian enters are our own creations, but will have nods to recognised literary classics and genres (there’s a few examples below). One of our greatest rewards is that you can invent a book yourself that will appear on the shelves of the library where Brian works. If you are super generous, we’ll even design the artwork and print a signed poster of your masterpiece.
We’re a Newcastle based comedy group who you might recognise from our Sainsbury’s Christmas advert parody which made the news last year and went slightly viral. Our recent debut live show in Newcastle sold out and received thisrave review.
“A tongue in cheek gem.” – The Hufington Post
“Hilarious…amazing parody” – The Metro
(Sainsbury’s Christmas Advert Parody)
All three of us have a TV/Film Production background and have worked with Channel 4, BBC and many independent production companies and have won a number of industry awards. As Hot Gulp we have had our work screened across the country at many different festivals and comedy nights. We are experienced at this sort of thing and your money will not be wasted.
Shortcom Best of Selection 2015 – Glasgow film Festival
Runner Up Cofilmic ‘Best Sitcom and web Pilot’ 2014 for ‘Seabastards’
Shortcom Official Selection 2013
Winner Cofilmic Best Live Pitch 2012 – Storydweller
Port of Tyne Runner up Best Sketch 2011 ‘Poisson’
The money will be used to fund a fully crewed 2-3 day shoot and edit. This will allow us to create some sample scenes and a title sequence to accompany the script and treatment to pitch the project to commissioning editors and production companies. We will be aiming to have the project completed by the end of October. All the money raised (including any overfunding) will be put straight back into the production, we will not be taking any money ourselves as we want this to be the best we can make it.
We’ve got a selection of great rewards depending on how much you can give. Rewards include signed photos, t-shirts and, at the higher end, credits on the finished product and a walk on part. Although our personal favourite is that some funders will have the chance to invent a book title and author which we will then include in the finished trailer (for £200 we’ll even do exclusive artwork for it and provide you with a signed poster of it). But whatever you can give will be immensely helpful, unless it’s £1 in which case you can sod off.
Thanks in advance for your generosity!