half-pint is a narrative short film about the space between the world as we would like it to be and the world as it really is. DARLA is a latchkey kid who is being mercilessly bullied by the kids on her street. It’s gotten so bad that she can’t leave the house, so she acts on an elaborate vampire fantasy to take back control of her life. She orders fangs from an online Halloween store and calls her best friend HENRY to assist her in a plan that backfires spectacularly.

THE PEOPLE

 

I, Tanya O’Debra, will direct and produce the film. My longtime partner and collaborator, Gregg Bellón, will be the Director of Photography and Editor. The two of us have a long track record of making it past the finish line with creative projects. We toured my one-woman show RADIO STAR for several years, and we produced a three-week run of my play SHUT UP, EMILY DICKINSON after I won a $25,000 grant from the Helen Gurly Brown Foundation and Smith College. Most recently, I won a $10,000 NYSCA commission for my play JUDITH, as well as a $4,000 production grant for my play HOCKEY WIVES, and both projects were successfully completed. Gregg has been Eddie/Suzie Izzard’s production manager for many years, so he’s used to working at a high professional level. We know how to get things done, and we will apply our years of experience to cranking out an incredible short indie film.

 

Spring: Pre-Production

·      Budgeting

·      Fundraising

·      Grant writing

·      Location scouting

·      Casting

·      Hiring crew

·      Scheduling

·      Renting equipment

 

Summer: Production

·      Location set-up

·      Hair/makeup/costumes for the actors

·      PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY

·      Feeding the cast and crew

·      Location breakdown

 

Fall: Post Production

·      Editing

·      Sound mixing

·      Color Correction

·      Rough cut/ Test screening

·      FINAL CUT

·      Film Festival Submissions (You should see my festival spreadsheet. It is cuckoo.)

·      Marketing

 

 

Here’s where you come in. We hope you’ll consider giving a tax-deductible donation to help pay for the costs of production. We’ve been applying for grants, and we’ll be asking for favors like crazy and taking advantage of discounts and loans. However, this still leaves an enormous amount of money to be raised, and we hope you will help bring this dream project to life. Because the cast is all children, we have a limited amount of time per day that we are able to shoot. This means what might have been a two-day shoot with adults is a four-day shoot with kids. So… We need money to pay for the cast, crew, equipment rental, transportation, permits, and meals for everyone, including the kids’ guardians.

 

The amount we’re trying to raise in this initial goal reflects all the costs that cannot be put on a credit card (plus the fees to my fiscal sponsor, Fractured Atlas). That’s creatives, cast, crew, permits and insurance. Gregg and I will be forgoing a fee, so your donation will go directly to all the other personnel involved. Any money raised above and beyond the initial goal will go toward food, equipment rental, as well as post-production costs and film festival fees.

 

I’ve spent my career in live performance and, while I’ve loved the ephemeral nature of theater, I’m ready to have a piece of work I can hold on to. I love the script I’ve written, and I think you’ll love it, too. half-pint is a love letter to all the weirdos. If nothing else, we have each other.