Colette Phair
author & activist
Let's Make A Scary Movie!
The IndieGogo campaign for As One is live at https://igg.me/at/as1 now!
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Based On A True Story:
It was March 15th of 2020. I'd been living in Mexico but had taken a 1-week trip to the U.S. that was supposed to end in Vancouver, Canada, but of course that didn't happen. Instead I ended up unwittingly moving to a small (and at first creepy) town in New England. I'd been a novelist for decades, but as the pandemic sapped my will to write for the first time, I thought of my new home, "This is a great place to film a horror movie." And that's what I did. After filming our first short with friends, I got the idea for a longer script. The idea came from a friend I'd made in the area (the only one, in fact, as we were quite isolated). She said she began to see demons after practicing a healing ritual that accidentally opened her energy to the dark side. |
As One was born.
Now, nearly 4 years later, I'm finally planning to shoot this film as a proof-of-concept short. That's the film I'm fundraising for with this campaign. I hope that this short can attract future attention from production companies that will want to make the full feature version of As One to be shown to a large audience.
The Story:
Based on true events, As One tells the story of Hope, an out-of-work social worker who escapes with her boyfriend from the city to a remote area during the early pandemic, only to find that there is nowhere safe to hide. Plagued by guilt over abandoning the kids she once served, she prays for forgiveness while still worrying about any human contact between her boyfriend and her with the outside world. That contact becomes a necessity when she does fall ill will a serious case of what's presumed to be Covid, and a cultlike group heals her. But there is a side effect to their medicine, which is the shadow demons - one who rides a horse, and an accompanying child - who visit Hope in her bedroom at night. After consulting an expert in demons via a Zoom call, she learns the cultural narrative of Ruohtta, the Sami demon of illness and death, who has been plaguing her nights. Hope ultimately must decide if she wants to go towards or away from the darkness, and if she is willing to reconnect with society in spite of its risks, or keep running to safety but further isolating herself from the world she'd always tried so hard to save. This is a story about moving past the trauma of the pandemic that I’m hoping with help us to do just that.
Inspirations: The Shining, The Ring, The Nightmare, The Endless, Hold The Dark
The Actors:
You can view each of their awesome reels on their respective profiles below to help get excited about the film!
Hope: Tirion Healy
Hope's boyfriend: Brody Rokstad
Cult leader: G. John Turnbull
Production:
Ironically, the wilderness just outside of Vancouver is where I ended up organizing the film, not realizing it was bringing my pandemic story full-circle as I may finally get to make the trek there for the first time, years later. With such a bleak and natural beauty and a strong pool of film talent, the Vancouver area is perfect for As One, and I've already cast the major characters of Hope, her boyfriend, and the cult leader. I'm so super excited to work with these extremely talented rising stars who I know will each bring something perfectly dark and twisted to their roles. I'm also happy to have connected with a talented cinematographer with some great genre experience and an impressive reel. I've also found a colorist whose mind-blowing work has appeared in major horror and other genre films.
Previous Work:
You can see my last horror short, Way Out, as a sample of my work below. Way Out was made as part of the Collaboration Filmmakers Challenge, where filmmakers make a short film in 2 weeks. My goal is for As One to be my best film work yet.
Funding Info:
I've set the goal for this pilot/proof of concept production at $10,000, though I know that it's possible that with the costs of travel, promotion, and more, it could in fact exceed that number. But it's enough to make a major feature production level quality film in short form, and I would be thrilled to have this amount to put towards this project.
Here is an approximate cost breakdown:
Production (on-set) costs: $5,000 (including paying for location rental of a cabin in the woods, paying 2 talented camera people for their work over a few days (so as not to miss important shots and waste time with extra takes when only 1 camera person is on set), designing a custom demon costume and purchasing wardrobe pieces and props, plus food and drinks for crew, and being able to pay the actors as well. They're arguably the most important success factor in films, but indie actors on shorts often go unpaid, which doesn't feel ideal.)
Post-production costs: $2,500 (including high-quality color grading of the 10-20-minute film to give it a professional-grade look, as well as a mind-blowing and perfectly unsettling musical score)
Travel costs: $2,000 (approximation of cost for me to travel to Vancouver and stay for the shoot as well as carbon offset of travel)
Promotional costs: $500 (for entry fees into film festivals)
Help Get The Word Out:
Please share this project with anyone you think would be interested.
And please check back soon and find out more about donor perks and how you can help us make this spooky movie happen!
Now, nearly 4 years later, I'm finally planning to shoot this film as a proof-of-concept short. That's the film I'm fundraising for with this campaign. I hope that this short can attract future attention from production companies that will want to make the full feature version of As One to be shown to a large audience.
The Story:
Based on true events, As One tells the story of Hope, an out-of-work social worker who escapes with her boyfriend from the city to a remote area during the early pandemic, only to find that there is nowhere safe to hide. Plagued by guilt over abandoning the kids she once served, she prays for forgiveness while still worrying about any human contact between her boyfriend and her with the outside world. That contact becomes a necessity when she does fall ill will a serious case of what's presumed to be Covid, and a cultlike group heals her. But there is a side effect to their medicine, which is the shadow demons - one who rides a horse, and an accompanying child - who visit Hope in her bedroom at night. After consulting an expert in demons via a Zoom call, she learns the cultural narrative of Ruohtta, the Sami demon of illness and death, who has been plaguing her nights. Hope ultimately must decide if she wants to go towards or away from the darkness, and if she is willing to reconnect with society in spite of its risks, or keep running to safety but further isolating herself from the world she'd always tried so hard to save. This is a story about moving past the trauma of the pandemic that I’m hoping with help us to do just that.
Inspirations: The Shining, The Ring, The Nightmare, The Endless, Hold The Dark
The Actors:
You can view each of their awesome reels on their respective profiles below to help get excited about the film!
Hope: Tirion Healy
Hope's boyfriend: Brody Rokstad
Cult leader: G. John Turnbull
Production:
Ironically, the wilderness just outside of Vancouver is where I ended up organizing the film, not realizing it was bringing my pandemic story full-circle as I may finally get to make the trek there for the first time, years later. With such a bleak and natural beauty and a strong pool of film talent, the Vancouver area is perfect for As One, and I've already cast the major characters of Hope, her boyfriend, and the cult leader. I'm so super excited to work with these extremely talented rising stars who I know will each bring something perfectly dark and twisted to their roles. I'm also happy to have connected with a talented cinematographer with some great genre experience and an impressive reel. I've also found a colorist whose mind-blowing work has appeared in major horror and other genre films.
Previous Work:
You can see my last horror short, Way Out, as a sample of my work below. Way Out was made as part of the Collaboration Filmmakers Challenge, where filmmakers make a short film in 2 weeks. My goal is for As One to be my best film work yet.
Funding Info:
I've set the goal for this pilot/proof of concept production at $10,000, though I know that it's possible that with the costs of travel, promotion, and more, it could in fact exceed that number. But it's enough to make a major feature production level quality film in short form, and I would be thrilled to have this amount to put towards this project.
Here is an approximate cost breakdown:
Production (on-set) costs: $5,000 (including paying for location rental of a cabin in the woods, paying 2 talented camera people for their work over a few days (so as not to miss important shots and waste time with extra takes when only 1 camera person is on set), designing a custom demon costume and purchasing wardrobe pieces and props, plus food and drinks for crew, and being able to pay the actors as well. They're arguably the most important success factor in films, but indie actors on shorts often go unpaid, which doesn't feel ideal.)
Post-production costs: $2,500 (including high-quality color grading of the 10-20-minute film to give it a professional-grade look, as well as a mind-blowing and perfectly unsettling musical score)
Travel costs: $2,000 (approximation of cost for me to travel to Vancouver and stay for the shoot as well as carbon offset of travel)
Promotional costs: $500 (for entry fees into film festivals)
Help Get The Word Out:
Please share this project with anyone you think would be interested.
And please check back soon and find out more about donor perks and how you can help us make this spooky movie happen!
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'Way Out' - Short Horror Film:
'In Your Shadow' - A Novel:
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Out now on Kindle.
Your life is not yours. You've inherited history. A child in Paris sees visions caused by a mysterious disease. A Midwestern school teacher hunts down her church-burning student. And a San Francisco suicide leads to a revolution. Three characters, connected only by an unnamable dissatisfaction, forge new paths when they discover a family connection to unspeakable political crimes. Inspired by the new science of epigenetics, which suggests traumatic experiences may be imprinted on our genes and affect our children (and their children too), In Your Shadow envisions how the Rwandan Genocide, the Native American Genocide, and the Holocaust still haunt three courageous individuals determined to live out their own lives, even when those lives have been defined by the mistakes of their ancestors. In stories that span continents and generations, this book—part novel, part collection—weaves themes of family, belonging, exile, and redemption into a vision for the future where the past is never far behind. |
Essays:
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