Indiegogo

347374

Be Good

Paul & Mary are young idealists and new parents to 6-month old, Pearl. When Mary returns to work, Paul takes over & becomes the jerk he thought he'd never be.

  • Created by:

    958660

  • Location:Chicago, Illinois, United States

  • Category:Film

Our Story

Film Synopsis:
Paul is 35 year-old independent filmmaker who has achieved moderate success enough to convince a New York Times Bestselling author to adapt his latest book, but not enough to earn income from his craft.  Paul married a fellow idealist in Mary, who has just ended her 6-month maternity leave and returns to work leaving Paul alone with their spirited baby, Pearl.  As the clock ticks on his book option agreement, Paul cant get a free minute to work.  Meanwhile, Mary misses Pearl terribly, but her salary and health insurance are the only security the family has.  Paul and Mary are terribly frustrated and their long-held idealism starts to crack.  As Pauls disinterest in work begins to grow, money becomes tighter and his attachment to Pearl intensifies, Mary is left out in the cold.  It all comes to a head one day when Paul thinks he got conned and he may become the asshole he swore hed never be.


From Writer / Director, Todd Looby:

The story for Be Good was born out of the challenges and grace-like beauty of new parenthood and my personal curiosity with how our identities seems to be inextricably linked to the occupations we have or pursue.  It is also an exploration on the shifting roles of the mother and father in todays families and how we do anything to survive in todays struggling economy.  I extrapolated all of the laughter, drama and hardship from my own life into a story that is funny, engaging, moving and most important of all something to which we all can relate.


So Far, So Great...

This entire project seemed to fall in my lap.  From the initial idea, to various scenes, to the people involved -- it all came together very quickly.  I wrote the initial treatment in early April and sat on it for about a month.  As I told the story to a few people, it became evident that this story took an angle on parenthood that many people my age seemed to identify with.  While I worked on other projects, people slowly started to come on board and recommend other cast and crew members.  I approached Joe Swanberg (Uncle Kent) to be in the film early on.  Joe's baby and my baby were born at the same hospital about 1 month apart.  So, it was natural to get Joe's take on being an artist / parent.  Joe agreed to be in the film and he connected me with Amy Seimetz of the 2011 Sundance favorite, Off Hours.  After a lively, but rather short phone conversation, I knew Amy was perfect for the part and she agreed to be the lead.  I met Frank V. Ross (Audrey the Trainwreck) at Joe's screening of Uncle Kent in Chicago.  Frank recommended Mike Gibisser (Finally, Lillian and Dan) to shoot the film and Mike, strangely enough, return-recommended Frank to do sound.  I was always set to play the lead and our baby, Tessa, was going to be the baby.  But, just in the past week, I approached Thomas Madden, the lead in my previous film, LEFTY, to see if he was interested.  He agreed on the spot.  After a little chemistry test with Tessa, it was a done deal.  This was the last piece of the puzzle and we saw a window to get everyone together in late June and said, "Let's do it!".  We quickly got the funds together to get the film off the ground, but will need this campaign to finish it.  It is an exciting project.  A project that is "...catching on a  trend of immediacy in autobiographical filmmaking," as DP Mike Gibisser put it.  We have such a great and laid back set of people involved and an interesting concept to play with.  We are certain to tell an original story in an original way.  Your help is much needed and much appreciated to make that happen.

 

The Impact

This Indiegogo.com campaign gives everyone a chance to participate in the making of this film and to feel like they have some stake in the success we hope it to have.  


What We Need & What You Get

We are using our own money to fund the production by paying key people, but that will only get the film in the can.  Once it is complete, there will be no way of putting the film out into the world without your help.  We need all of the $10,000 for post-production and to start marketing the film to festivals in September.  Thus, we are looking for 1,000 people out there who may have $10 burning a hole in the pockets.  We would love to have that many people involved in the project in one way or the other.


Other Ways You Can Help

We would absolutely love it if you could recommend this project to your friends on Facebook, etc.  Again, we're looking for a critical mass of people to give $10.  With the web of people involved and the talent they bring to the table, we think that is do-able, but we NEED your help!

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