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Taking your bra off in 49 days

When you're not one thing or another, you don't exist.

  • Created by:

    20120209144608-n583963938_77272_8458

  • Location:Los Angeles, California, United States

  • Category:Film

Our Little Story 


Hi. Thanks for scrolling past the video to read about us! That's cool of you. 

Here's a little bit about what we're about. 


Last year, we (Gene and Christina) started an LLC called The Neboya Collective, www.neboyacollective.com, a place where we hope to collaborate on work with collaborative member artists, and we hired sales reps to help us get our ALREADY completed films out there. We had two formal readings of this script, received multiple critiques from established screenwriters and readers, and are now facing the daunting task of holding this project in our arms and letting it go...er, GROW. 


We started working on this project about five years ago. It's gone through multiple phases since, originating as poetry written over one summer and even transitioning into a short concept for a Film school application (wait-list: bummer), and we're proud to say that the final feature script is ready and willing to be made. It is so willing. Er...maybe not quite ready...which is why we're here. Our decision to put time, energy, and money into a short teaser of this film is our way to solidify our vision, our momentum, and our support to make the feature as good as it can be. And we really think it's good. 


We plan to shoot in May 2012 in and around New York City. The short will be 5-7 pages, so about 5-7 minutes, and will introduce the characters, what they might look like, and how they sound and behave. The concrete purpose for this strategy is to give a visual look-book or example of what we'd like the feature film to look like, feel like, and sound like. It's a proven way to pitch a feature film script and business plan to private equity investors, producers, and actors as we move forward to solidify the feature. Without a visual story for this film (as it's so visual and specific tonally and because it focuses on sensitive subjects like sexuality and gender) we will have a very difficult time bringing the feature together as we need to. This is our next step and it's hugely important. It's hard to raise a lot of money to make a movie about outcasts, and we want to change that by proving that enough of us CARE about outcasts to GET THIS PARTY STARTED and show off a killer teaser that makes us all look like rock stars and, more importantly, a demographic that WANTS TO BE REPRESENTED.  


Our Big Impact

This project really represents our belief that hard-working artists who have strong perspectives CAN get work made, seen, and appreciated, even when they're nobody and nothing in the scheme of production companies and studios...yet. We remember when teachers in Elementary school told us we would have to make our own rules and now, we finally understand that they were right. There is no ONE way to make art, to make careers, or to build a life. We have to make it up as we go. This project and our company is not only a personal testament to that, but is our attempt to build our way. 


Part of our way is to tell stories that are different. I bet everyone wants that (no one wants to make something that's already been done, right?) and all the power to each and every person who wants that. This project is about outcasts, and the format is original, dirty, difficult, and poetic. We developed it, partly, as a counter to the Mumble-core movement in Independent cinema. We like our soft-spoken non-actors in low-budget movies, they're great, and we appreciate the visual power of film to tell stories without words, but we think it's also important to maintain the power of dialogue, crafted acting, and heightened artistic vision that has nothing to do with...what looks 'real.' The characters in this film live in a slightly different world, perhaps the world of tomorrow, and, as some wise people said after a certain Soap opera was cancelled, 'What's wrong with fantasy?' 


What We Need & What You Get

We know you're all trying to do your own work, and so offering help feels tricky. We get it. There have been a few fundraising campaigns I've passed up when I should have contributed. But I've regretted it, because I've learned since that we MUST help one another, that we are ALL collaborators, and that the support of our friends and families and fans can actually, really, truly, help us change, grow, and...er...well, GO. And we'll pay it forward. 


If we don't reach our goal, we'll be disappointed. The funds will not only allow us to shoot the teaser, PAY OUR ARTISTS INVOLVED, and produce a concrete pitch to make the feature, but it will provide us the ability to hire a Producer for pre-production and development (such as creating a budget, completing our business plan, connecting us to crew and funders, and allowing Gene and I to focus on the creative end). We're not afraid to ask for help, and we need it. However, if we don't make our goal, we're choosing to use what we have made (the Flexible plan) to adapt our plan with less if we MUST. That might mean we ask for free favors (something we feel kind of lame about, since ARTISTS DESERVE TO BE PAID JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE) or pull strings and make it for less. We won't let the project die, but we would have to re-think our strategy and our path ahead. We don't currently have alternative funding (that's sort of what this teaser is for) but  that's life, too. No matter what, we do want to make the best product we can, and that means using each and every penny to build the best teaser by supporting our artists, using the highest quality equipment to make it look like a million bucks, and cutting as few corners as we can to make the movie we envision and love. We think you'll love it too.

But you get something, too! OH YEA! Besides being INTEGRAL to the development of our dream, you will be an active part of this process, being filled in as we go, getting exclusive and personalized gifts from us, and counting yourself as a true collaborator on our website and in our company. Look at the incentives to the right of this page, you'll see. We'll thank you BIG TIME.


Other Ways You Can Help

Well, thanks. We have nothing but love for you for reading this far. 


Speaking about love, this project is a love story to ourselves. Yes, it's about four characters falling in love, falling down, and trying not to: yes it's about figuring out what sexuality, gender, even person these characters are and want to be. But it's really about coming to terms with who we are and all the possibilities of who we can BE if we really stand up and let ourselves be SEEN. By others? Yes. But mostly by ourselves. 


I guess it's kind of about what our Elementary school teachers said, after all. We love teachers.


Last but not least, SHARE THE LOVE. Spread this around to your friends, family, gender-questioning neighbors, gay and straight friends jumping up and down over the decision about Prop 'H8,' anyone. You can share the video anywhere and everywhere, we're loose and easy, and make sure you give them a link to this campaign! If you can't donate, encourage people who can, and be sure to let us know if you need any help in the future. We'd like to pay you back somehow.


Keep working. We're all gonna' be big. 


Pitch video shot by Christopher James Richter. 

www.cjrichter.tumblr.com

www.cjrichterpresents.tumblr.com

Music by Lou Tully and Sloppy Joe (Designer Jeans) and PROJECT Trio (Sweet Child O' Mine) 

We do NOT own the rights to any of the still images presented in this video. They are used merely as examples of what we like pulled from the public domain of the internet. 

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