Fire Mary ONE SCREEN PROJECT PITCH JOSHUA ROLLINS // WRITER MATT MILLER // DIRECTOR

Transcription

1 Fire Mary ONE SCREEN PROJECT PITCH JOSHUA ROLLINS // WRITER MATT MILLER // DIRECTOR

2 THE CONCEPT IT FOLLOWS meets IT FIRE MARY follows a group of four kids from Suburban Chicago as they play the hottest new Pokemon Go! like app- Demon Quest. But when a malevolent Spirit infiltrates the game, only visible on their screens, the kids must band together to defeat threats both inhuman, and all too human. We see FIRE MARY hunting the children before each of them are taken including terrifying moments like: the opening shot with the spirit, where it approaches them and they freak out- thinking it is part of the game, until the spirit lifts one of the kids into the air and throws him twenty feet awaythey then have to run from the spirit with their injured friend battery running low as the creature approaches them - moments when they are effectively blind at one point, they decide to leave their friend there and run to get help- they have no reception in the yard. We think the kid is about to be killed by the spirit when- the kid is saved by a security guard! Who brings him inside in the nick of time. And this is when things get really terrifying. As the child starts to lose consciousness, he begins to suspect that the Security Guard isn t the hero and Fire Mary may not be the terrifying spirit the children fear. Parents have found an ingenious way to track their kids, with an on-line app called DEMON QUEST. The kids can move about their town, catching demons and ghouls a la Pokemon go! while the parents can access the always-recording camera and location functions. But when our group of kids learns of a coveted MORPHDRAGON near the local GRAVEL YARD, they sneak out at night to investigate. The kids are rightly terrified. Fifteen years ago, FIRE MARY, a local TEENAGER was brought to the GRAVEL YARD, raped, and set on fire. The murderer was never found. But the Morphdragon is rare and the kids are excited. As they get lost in the maze of the GRAVEL YARD, phones out, secretly recording their every move as they hunt the mythical creature, FIRE MARY appears on their screens. And she s angry.

3 THE THEME The TWO MAIN TENETS of our story revolve around: 1. Real threat vs. Myths- every town in America has a FIRE MARY- a story about a child who disappeared or a haunted home. Our penchant for making the other/ different into something sinister is well-documented- as is our preoccupation with an Afterlife, for better or worse. What is the underlying ugliness/ danger that these myths hide? Parenting- monitoring our children vs. having a relationship- viewing our children through technologymanufactured complacency- dangers of adulthood vs. childhood, authority figures being dangerous

4 FORMAT: OUR CAMERAS A WORKSTATION COMPUTER SCREEN in the Security Shack of the SECURITY GUARD. We open on THE GUARD bringing one of the terrified children, DANNY MCGOWAN into his shack, sitting him on the couch, and trying to calm his nerves with hot chocolate- all captured on the webcam and broadcast on the security screen. As Danny is incoherent, the Guard takes his phone and plugs it into the computer, watching the playback of what the children saw and the ordeal they just faced. The entire film unfolds on the SECURITY COMPUTER in the security shack of a GRAVEL YARD. We use: the webcam of the computer, showing the interior of the shack the external video security cameras in the GRAVEL YARD the connected phone of Danny McGowan the connected lost phone of Zora Miller- Danny s friend and one of the children the body cam of the Security Guard internet searches including YouTube

5 FORMAT: FORCED PERSPECTIVE Like the movie TIMECODE, or UNFRIENDED, we will have moments a particular view or device is MAXIMIZED as full screen, and other moments when our screen is divided into two, four, or six different camera angles/ perspectives. Utilizing this method, we will be able to affect jump cuts, found footage looks, focus pulling, and even primary/ secondary focus swaps where the character is watching the action on one screen only to have FIRE MARY appear on a minimized screen in the background. We feel it is imperative to include both split screens to keep the audience tense and guessing which screen to look at, and full-screen to give them moments of forced focus to experience the story and make it that much more terrifying.

6 APPROXIMATE BUDGET We plan to shoot in Chicago to take advantage of tax incentives, authentic Midwestern landscapes, and our pre-existing relationships with casting and crews. Additionally, the limited shooting hours allotted with child actors translates to a few more shoot days. As a result, we anticipate the production budget will likely be in the 750k to 1 million range. This is also a post heavy project. We estimate a post budget in the neighborhood of k. The total estimated budget range for the film is million.

7 THE FILMMAKERS MATT MILLER // DIRECTOR Matt Miller is a Chicago based director. He is the co-creator and director of the hit web series Teachers which was picked up by TV Land in 2014 and is now entering its third season. Matt serves as an executive producer on the show. As a commercial director, Matt specializes in comedy and performance driven narrative. Recent work includes spots for Lowe s, The Hartford, Trulia, America s Best Eyeglasses, Waste Management, Crest, Intel, and Hyundai. His online banner campaign Office Dance for The Hartford was the winner of a 2015 Gold ADDY Award. An accomplished theatre director as well, Matt s credits include work with Steppenwolf, Lifeline Theatre, Mary Arrchie and The Irish Theatre of Chicago where his 2014 production of The Seafarer won the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Ensemble and also garnered him a Best Director nomination. Matt began his career as a casting director in Chicago; notable film and TV casting credits include work on The Weatherman, The Amityville Horror, The Ice Harvest, Stranger Than Fiction, The Wise Kids, The Break Up, Dig Two Graves and Public Enemies. Stalk him appropriately at JOSHUA ROLLINS // WRITER Joshua Rollins' script WORLDBREAKER was a finalist for the 2015 Hitlist and optioned by Amasia Entertainment. They also optioned his pilot script DOPPEL which was featured on the BLACKLIST for a number of months. He has done rewrites for multiple film scripts including, most recently, a project for Marco Kalantari (The Shaman) and Brad Anderson (The Call). Josh wrote for the Ubisoft game series: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon for NTropic. He just did a page one rewrite of Jon Bassoff's crime thriller novel Corrosion for director Craig Viverios (The Liability, Rillington Place). Joshua Rollins' play, Amateur Pornography, was a finalist for the 2017 O Neill Playwrights Conference and Seven Devil s Playwrights Conference. His play Hot Sauce Jesus, was a 2015 finalist for the O Neill Playwrights Conference. His play Concealed Carry was selected for the 2013 Seven Devils Playwrights Conference with ID Theatre and was a semi-finalist with the O Neill. His play, A Girl with Sun in Her Eyes, debuted in Chicago in 2011 with Pine Box Theater Company. It had subsequent productions in New Orleans and Sydney, Australia. 25 Saints completed a run at Victory Garden s Greenhouse Theatre in Chicago and a sold-out run with Azeotrope Theatre in Seattle the following year.

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10 Thank You.