My short film for my Cap Stone Project is called The Table Read. The beginning will consist of introducing the actors at the table read. David will direct and his first assistant director will read the opening scene to get the story moving. On camera we will be cutting to the actual scenes the actors are reading and cutting back to the table read to make corrections by the director.
The story is about a group of friends that are going hiking up in Mount Charleston. It will start out in the bedroom of our lead actress as she is packing for the trip with her best friend. The camera will slowly pan across her bookshelf where there is lots of trophies from her competing in Jiu Jitsu Tournaments.
(Middle) The rest of the group of friends arrive at her house and they end up driving up to Mount Charleston. They end up stopping in a small town to grab some beer and snacks. The lead actress and her best friend end up going into a book store. In the back of the store she finds an old book. She opens it up and an old treasure map falls out. Her friend picks it up and the lead actress grabs it and quickly puts it in her pocket. They head back to meet everyone who is standing outside. One of the male actors, who is an asshole asks them where they went. Her friend pulls out the map from the leads pocket and the guy grabs it. He tells them this hiking trip just turned into a gold expedition. The all get in their vehicles and drive to the other side of town to get mining supplies. The guys go in and grab all kinds of shovels, pick axes and other gear. The hillbilly working at the counter asks what they plan on doing. The slow guy of the group reveals their plan and he is quickly told to be quiet. The hillbilly responds we get people up here all the time looking for gold.
They arrive at the campsite and they begin to party around the camp fire. The slow guy is off to the right spray painting art on some rocks. The all go to sleep and when they wake up they notice someone spray painted "Your all Going To Die" on the camper in red paint. They all assume it was their friend and the guys start a scuffle with him and it's quickly broken up by the girls.
They start their hike following the map and once they get deep into the woods they start getting killed off one by one by a group of hillbillies wearing masks. During the hike the friends begin to argue because greed has set in amongst them and they end up splitting up because of one of the friends gets killed. They run off in different directions. Now they think its someone in their group that is doing the killing.
The lead actress and her friend notice a man with a knife in his chest pinned to the tree and he is wearing a mask. He is still moving and she does a round house kick sending the knife deeper into his body. His body become limp. She wants to see who this man is, so she pulls the mask off the deadman and they see its one of their friends. This goes on for a few more scenes until its just her versus the men that are remaining. She ends up killing them off and at the end she finds her best friend that severely injured and she ends up finding the gold.
Locations are going to be my friends house for the table read and Mount Charleston.
All actors will come set ready including hair and makeup. We will have a spx artist to assist with blood and wounds.
Male wardrobe.
Male cold weather gear.
Female wardrobe.
Map of Mount Charleston.
The shooting schedule will be mainly weekend and evenings. We will have about 13-15 actors. My crew will have 4 camera operators, gaffer, production manager, production assistant and a assistant director.
My demographics will be 13 years old and up. Thriller genre has always been enticing for viewers within my demographic. Who doesn't like a slasher film with a plot twist that you never saw coming.
The value of my concept has never been done and the finished product could attract studio executives to start thinking outside the box.
My selling points: This is an original film and its never been done in the history of film. The cinematic value will also add to the film because most of the filming will be don't in Mount Charleston.
Challenges: The only real challenge I see, is that we have 13-15 actors and scheduling could be an issue. It seems all the actors are free to film on the weekends and some evenings during the week. I do have some extras that will be able to cover for the actors wearing masks because you won't see their identity through out the film.
Investment: As the producer, I am fully funding this project and I am not looking for any partners. I already have the budget in place with extra money set aside if we need it.
My role as the producer: I packaged the deal. I have the script, funding, director, locations and actors all onboard. I also brought in a production manager to help with the paperwork so I can focus more on directing. We have a full crew with 4-5 camera operators, sound mixer, gaffer and a special effects artist. We are ready for production!