A Film and Theatre project Bristol, United Kingdom
A short film about a man’s internal world, about being perceived as ‘different’, and how creativity can help us overcome any adversity.
The Sea and Sky is a short film directed by indie filmmakers Andrew Dennis and Catarina Oliveira, and written by Andrew Dennis and Rory Potts. Everyone involved in this project is excited and commited to telling this story, but we need your support to help produce it!
The Sea and Sky tells the story of a music lover and musician called Wolfgang, who struggles with mental health and anxiety issues. He routinely goes to an open mic night as a means of expressing himself.
The film follows Wolfgang through a particularly stressful period in his life. Changes to the social care system mean that he is being evicted from his flat. His friend and social worker, Paul, is helping him transition to a new home. All the while, Wolfgang obsesses over music to avoid facing his problems. He is working on a new song called The Sea and Sky.
The look and style of the film will accentuate the contrast between Wolfgang’s private life and social life. Some moments will be told from a detached, observational perspective, and others will represent his innermost thoughts and feelings. We’ll also shoot each location in a way that we think reflects his relationship with that place.
Wolfgang’s daily routine suggests that time is subjective to him. Because he has a tendency to completely give in to the passing of time, the film will occasionally feel floaty, almost hypnagogic.
It’s a drama, but there will be some humour – in the same way life can be funny even when it’s being hard on us.
Rory and Andrew had been frequenting open mic nights around Bristol, mostly as audience members, and occasionally as performers. The seed of the story came from observing people in this environment – initially just the performers, but also members of the audience. Some people stood out more than others, and over time through discussing our experiences with each other, the character of Wolfgang began to form.
We wanted to write about someone who cannot be read easily. A person that raises eyebrows and behaves in a way that seems different to the status quo. The story was also inspired by current events and social issues we’ve either experienced or were told about by friends. We wanted to include topics that are current with what is happening today in UK society, and ones that we care about.
So, this story is a culmination of people we’ve met, issues that alerted us, and experiences we’ve shared.
We want to make a great film. We firmly believe that a lot of the work behind what will make the film great will come from our ambition, creativity and collaboration. We want to achieve a professional product, and some parts of the production process need a budget behind them to ensure they can be achieved.
We’re at the beginning of our careers as film directors, which makes receiving external funding extremely difficult. Until we make a great film like The Sea and Sky to prove our worth, we must rely on crowdfunding, people’s kindness, and a bit of our own cash.
CAST AND CREW PAY – It’s important to us that we treat people professionally, and paying our main cast and crew is a big part of that. We’ve budgeted low, but fair wages. The more money we raise, the more chance we have of increasing this wage as a way of saying thanks to everyone’s hard work. We’re also not including ourselves in the pay budget. Instead, if we’re able to raise enough money we will put some of this into the production company for future projects.
PRODUCTION INSURANCE – In order to ensure people, places and equipment are protected, production insurance will be invaluable. The cost of insurance can vary depending on the level of cover; at the very least, we want everyone to feel safe in the knowledge that if an accident occured then we have insurance to help recooperate the damage.
TRAVEL EXPENSES – Some folks, like some of the main cast, will be travelling to Bristol from further afield. It’s only fair that we pay for their petrol, bus or train.
FOOD – People gotta eat. We’ll have to buy food and drink for everyone on each shooting day.
ART DEPARTMENT – We’ll be trying to borrow as much as we can, but we will inevitably need to buy some props for usage in scenes, or to decorate locations. We may also need to buy parts of, or whole, character costumes.
EXTRA KIT RENTAL – Our crew have most of the things they need, which is saving us a lot of money. But there are still a few small things we will have to rent to ensure we aren’t compromising quality.
PERMITS & LOCATION FEES – Some of our locations are public spaces, others are places of business. It’s great that they’re happy for us to film there, but they do need to charge us for that privilege.
DISTRIBUTION – We will need to get DVDs copied and we want to submit this film to a number of festivals. Some festivals are more expensive than others, but with a budget for this we can submit to some well-known festivals as well as many smaller ones, which will help expose the film to a wider audience.
We’ve come up with reward tiers that we think people will enjoy and feel are an appropriate ‘thank you’ for their support.
Extra info about some of the rewards:
Thank You & Early Access (£5+ Pledges) – Anyone with early access will be sent a password-protected Vimeo link to watch the film. It will not be available to download, and we will ask anyone with access not to share the link as the film will be going through festival submission. We’ll also thank you publicly on social media so that everyone knows how amazing you are!
DVD (£18+ Pledges) – It will be a single DVD in a standard black case, with a printed front cover and DVD face. You will also receive all the rewards for lower pledges.
Poster (£30+ Pledges) – A high quality, gloss finish A3 print. Poster design is yet to be decided, but we promise it’ll be good. You will also receive all the rewards for lower pledges.
Premier (£50+ Pledges) – This is an invitation to the event only, it doesn’t include travel expenses, sorry! You’ll get to meet and mingle with the cast and crew, and watch the film before anyone else! You will also receive all the rewards for lower pledges.
Join Us On Set (£100+ Pledges) – You’ll be invited to join us on set. You can choose to be an extra in a scene, or stay behind the camera and shadow us or get involved more proactively – this would be discussed with you. You will also receive all the rewards for lower pledges.
Printed Storyboard (£250+ Pledges) – This will be a high quality collectible art print hand-signed by the artist, Dan Chernett (www.danchernett.com). You will also receive all the rewards for lower pledges.
Andrew is an actor, voice over artist and writer whose work has spanned devised theatre, puppetry, film, video games and animation. His voice over and writing clients include Channel4, CBBC, Armor Games, and CHUNK Media. He also co-runs an online studio called Edible Castle, which has released a number of games and cartoons. This will be Andrew’s first time as director.
Catarina is a professional film editor working across a variety of sectors. She has edited content for the BBC, Microsoft, Fairtrade, amongst others. Through her work she has also tackled topics related to international issues like gender violence in the UK, rural access to information in Africa, human rights in Palestine, and post-conflict reconciliation in Bosnia. Catarina regularly collaborates with local filmmakers on independent projects and has written and directed short film ‘Escalation’ (2013), produced and edited short film ‘One Shot’ (2014), and co-directed and edited feature film ‘One’.
Silent Season Films is an indie studio set up by Andrew and Catarina for the purposes of creating this film and to continue to produce work.
Barry is a full time cameraman and motion graphics designer. He has worked on everything from small promotional videos for local companies, to large event openers, documentaries and films, creating content for clients such as Microsoft, PayPal, Lloyds Banking Group and many others. He has written and directed numerous short films which have been well received at international festivals, with several being purchased for distribution overseas. More recently he has co-written and directed feature film ‘One’, and lends his skills to local film-makers and charities whenever possible.
http://www.barry-wilkinson.com
Eduardo is a professional theatre director, sound designer and sound recordist. He has worked as an actor, director and sound designer in countless theatre productions in the UK and Portugal. Since coming to Bristol in 2012, he has also worked in numerous short films, documentaries, web series, music events, corporate videos and promotional videos for charities.