Imogen Thistle

MOTEL | THE SYNOPSIS

Adventurous in its subject matter, MOTEL explores the possibilities of time travel, chance encounters and the dark truths we all strive to conceal. The story takes place over one night and involves a set of four characters; four characters who have never met. In fact, having never met is the least of their problems considering that they can barely agree on what day it is let alone who checked into the room first.

The thing about this particular motel room is that the toilet acts as a kind of time machine. A toilet time machine if you will – and just when things couldn’t get more awkward or more insane, out pops another unsuspecting traveller through time. Events escalate. Fists fly through the air. Allegiances are forged and broken. Damage is done to the room. The mini bar is drunk.

Together these characters must overcome the physics of time travel, dispose of unwanted dead bodies and convince a role playing escort that not all is as it seems.

The Rio Grande team is extremely excited to bring our absurd and dark comedy to the screen, but we need your help to create this film at the standard of quality it truly deserves. 

RIO GRANDE PICTURES | WHO WE ARE

Great ideas can come from all number of different places. 

Combining RMIT Cinema Studies alumni and lecturers with free gin will most likely result in either a stroke of brilliant creative synergy or a collective of slightly insane people who make crass jokes and still search for free gin. 

We are both. 

Rio Grande Pictures is a Melbourne-based production collective. Our mission is to embrace the bizarre wanderings the mind can take. We believe the best ideas exist in the strangest of places, unexpected but excellent. That is how we formed and that is what we want to offer to the Australian film industry.

We are passionate about cinema and our influences stretch from Blake Edwards to Wes Anderson; from Brian Trenchard-Smith to Quentin Tarantino; and - in a nutshell - all of cinema history from the silents through the classics; the New Waves, undergrounds, Avant Gardes', Easy Riders and Raging Bulls.

After finishing our most recent short fiction film earlier this year - The Audition - we have moved straight into pre-production of MOTEL. 

We not only welcome anyone who wants to throw a crazy idea on the table, we also seek to collaborate with creatives who are not necessarily from a film background. By thinking outside the industry square we believe this can turn up some of the best ideas that no well-seasoned heavyweight could ever dream up. Fresh eyes and so on - that is the idea.

Above all, we are hell-bent on discovering an original vision for the Australian screen. 


RIO GRANDE | THE TEAM

James Thompson 
Director


RMIT Media. First Class Honours. Graduate Diploma of Arts in Philosophy. Cinema Studies Lecturer. Academia. Writing. 


Imogen Thomas
Producer


RMIT Media. Marketing. Music Festival Management. Fringe Festival production. Arts management. Public relations. Web-series. Collaboration. Ukulele. 


Jasmine Roth
Writer


RMIT Media. Honours. Screenwriting. Black comedy. Narrative. Film and television production. Academia. Screenwriting Lecturer. Nonlinear hyper-textual video works. Online interactive documentary. 


Michael Wahr
Writer/Actor


VCA Acting. Australian Shakespeare Company. Warhorse. Short Films. International and national TVC's. Puppetry. 


Ben Ridgwell
Writer/Actor


Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA). Writing. Web-series. Skits. Short Films. 


Karin Christensen
Camera Lady


RMIT Media. London. Director's Assistant. Advertising production. Panavision. Camera Assistant. Feature films. Television. Music video. Short films. Photography. 


Michael Durey
Art Designer


CPIT University Visual Communications. New Zealand. Typography. Illustration. Reddit. Twin Peaks. Ice cream. 

The Test Shoot

More action than humour - but there's only so much one can achieve in a one night photo shoot!

We see each dollar as a vital crew member. Because each and every single one has a job!

THE ART DEPARTMENT | $600

THE LOCATION | $1500

BUDGET ACCOMMODATION
20 PEOPLE / 2 NIGHTS
$650

CATERING 
20 PEOPLE / 2 DAYS
$750

THE EQUIPMENT | $6000

Red EPIC Camera & Accessories
Prime Lenses
Tripod Legs
Dolly and Track 
Grip and Lighting Van
10k and 20k Fresnel Lights
Kino Flo Lights

THE WAGES | $0

That would be super nice...but maybe next time. 

As with all fundraising campaigns - our biggest obstacle is acquiring funds. 

If we are not successful with our crowd-funding campaign - we will probably turn our efforts to the BBQ-loving population of Australia by hosting forty sausage sizzles outside various Officeworks locations every Saturday morning for a year.  There has been some resistance to this idea by the vegetarian contingent of Rio Grande - so please show your support by pledging today!