Jessica Matthews

SYNOPSIS:
Paul, a young and immature man, lives a comfortable life in his family's old beach house. Having lived there for the last two years, he has formed a reality around his formed childhood experiences. Having created a home frozen in the past, away from his now estranged relationships with his family. Until one morning, when he receives a phone call from his mother, alerting him to his fathers deteriorating health, and the inevitability that he will soon die. Understanding this fate, he leaves the beach house, returning to his city home to face the present state of affairs. Ultimately confronting his father on the conflict that has separated their lives, Paul is left to decide whether or not their relationship is reconcilable, if he can forgive him, and eventually accept his death.



ZEITGEIST:
The main motivation of the piece is to create a film that doesn't fall to superficiality or sentimental notions. Rather to create an atmosphere that is unique yet familiar. Real. Characters that face problems which are believable, exploring the family dynamic through this broken one, and also emphasising the habits and conventions which befall most western family's. Seeing as it's content is based on my father's relationship with his father, and my own relationship with my own dad, it is almost an experiment in the cathartic. With our 'beach house' acting in a similar way.

Ultimately, we intend to release the film into the festival circuit and ideally garner some interest and some credibility for the piece and ourselves. We have a crew of people who desire a successful and fruitful career in the film industry. Thus the idea being that this is a stepping stone to that. A leg out from the safety net of university, and into the real world.

CREW:
PRODUCER | Jessica Matthews
WRITER & DIRECTOR | Benjamin Jarni
CINEMATOGRAPHER | Alice Stephens
PRODUCTION DESIGNERS | Gemma Baker & Isabelle Gander
SOUND DESIGN | Geoff Sima
EDITORS | Isabelle Gander & Benjamin Jarni

We are going to take a somewhat minimalist approach to the films aesthetic. That being; low-key lighting, minimal make up (except for the father), and a somewhat simple shooting style, maintaining of only key coverage. There really won’t be anything too complicated, as we intend to adopt a William Wyler approach, focusing more on the performances rather than the theatrics in which we capture them. Because of this inclination, we have decided to shoot on 16mm, as it should enhance this gritty and real quality that we desire. In terms of settings however, there will be a great deal of exposition granted. Each characters space reflecting their personality. Mise en Scene will be crucial in achieving this.
Therefore, some of the ways your contribution will be utilised are:
-16mm film stock purchases (we approximate will add up to over $650)
-Film processing (approx. $800) and HD scanning (approx. $800 too)
-Colour Grade (approx. $200)
-Production Design elements such as props, set dressing, costumes, makeup etc. ($1000)
-Location rentals (approx. $500)
-Lens outsourcing (approx. $750)
-And any other catering or transportation needs

Whilst the total budget for the film will not be entirely covered by this Pozible Campaign, the $2500 goal we have set will help us tremendously in covering the expenditure of the film.

Some of the challenges we expect to experience as a crew are:
-getting all the gear and crew up to Portsea, however, we have researched hiring a van which will be able to accommodate all of the equipment easily and affordably.
-film costs huge amounts of money, therefore, it is important that we don't waste film on doing a take more times than we can afford. To solve this problem, and any lighting or compositional problems we may run into, we have decided to schedule a week of rehearsals for our actors, and travel to our locations early in order to determine our lighting set-ups and camera angles in advance. This will save us both time and money.