BITTERSWEET: A queer web series by queer people.

Help us shoot the first two episodes of Bittersweet, a queer web series made for queer people by queer people!

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What began as a thesis project for Lara, our director, has since grown into a passion project for the entire crew due to its unique look and exciting characters. All we need now is a budget to fund a two-part pilot, and that's where you come in. By donating even as little as two euros, you can help us produce Bittersweet. Want to know more? Read on to learn about the synopsis, the director's statement, the creative inspirations, the cast, the crew, timeline, and cost breakdown.

 

Synopsis

Bittersweet follows three queer art students exploring their internal bittersweet relationships with love.

 

Protagonist Zaya has never been friends with Livie, who seems to be her opposite in every way imaginable. Where Zaya is quiet and somewhat lonely, Livie is popular and outgoing. They seem to have nothing in common, but when they start a tentative collaboration on a poetry film project at their international art academy where they portray a pair of lovers, they find themselves irrevocably drawn to each other—both on and off camera.

 

On the other side of the wall, Quinn, Zaya’s housemate and best friend, undergoes a gender journey as they explore their relationship to masculinity while unraveling what it means to be non-binary.

 

Through a five-episode arc, the three of them are forced to face their personal struggles with love, whether it be platonic, romantic, parental, self—or the lack thereof.

 

Director’s statement

As a lesbian filmmaker, I am responsible for representing and entertaining the queer community and doing this so through this web series. The production of Bittersweet brings together a collective of passionate queer artists: from directors to writers, producers, make-up artists, production designers, to composers and actors. It’s a web series made BY queer people, FOR queer people. Representation both on and off-screen is extremely important for the queer community. In this way, we’re able to create authentic and relatable narratives for the characters and their experiences.

 

Bittersweet explores relevant themes like gender identity and expression, queer love and mental health (issues). Visually the series is a beautifully composed and aesthetic experience to watch. The combination of beautiful imagery, expressively coloured lights, and music usage makes the confronting storylines watchable. Since it’s set at an art academy and the characters are aspiring artists, the make-up and outfits of the characters will be an art form with a narrative journey on its own.

 

Creative inspirations/visual references

Below are some visual references the creatives on Bittersweet used to get on the same page before creating the look and feel of the web series. Extreme colors, heavy makeup, and special filming techniques will contribute to the unique vibe we're creating here.

 

 

 

Cost breakdown

The following image shows our cost breakdown and how much we expect to be spending on each department. With this budget, we can adequately provide for our cast and crew and make everything on screen look as pretty as we want it to. We aim to make the most of our small budget by focusing on high-quality and sustainable props, gear, and food. By donating even as little as two euros, you’ll be a tremendous help in achieving this goal.

 

Plan & timeline

 

 

Meet the cast

As of right now, we have been fortunate enough to cast two of our three main characters: Zaya and Livie. We are still in the process of casting Quinn, as well as all the minor characters.

 

Alisa Bloemendaal as Zaya

My name is Alisa and I am an actor and filmmaker. I hope to contribute to better representation in the film industry and tell stories that haven’t been given a platform for a long time. That’s why I’m super proud and grateful to have been given the opportunity to play Zaya in Bittersweet, a story for, by and about women and queer people (of colour). I think this story about love and identity will break our hearts and melt them back together again. Looking forward to it!

 

Zaya Sabrina as Livie

My name is Zaya and I am currently a student at the Film Actors Academy in Amsterdam. In the past, I have played in two semi-professional musical productions, and have also studied at the MusicalAllFactory in Tilburg. What I love about Bittersweet is that it represents a queer story: young adults exploring their identity and sexuality, which I can relate to personally as a bisexual/queer myself. Being part of such a story and passing it on to others has got me most excited.

 

Meet the crew

Lara Sluyter (she/her) – Director, Writer, Editor

As a lesbian director I explore current social themes, emphasizing creating queer projects. There’s simply not enough accurate queer representation, so I feel responsible for creating an atmosphere where queer audiovisual creators and actors can come together to create a film by queer people, for queer people. I’m highly inspired by the aesthetics of film - creating beautifully composed visuals in contrast to the rawness of the stories, which is what we’re doing for Bittersweet.

 

Emilia Lantink (she/her) – Producer, Writer

As the producer on Bittersweet I’m responsible for the practical side of things, which basically means I make sure the right people are in the right place at the right time. Having befriended Lara a few years ago, we have always talked about collaborating on a project together, so when she approached me about producing, I didn’t hesitate. I aspire to make as much queer content in my life as humanly possible. In my free time, I like to play video games and D&D.

 

Sunny Duplan (they/them) – Writer, Production Assistant

As a co-writer, I feel a strong and personal connection to the characters, particularly Quinn, and I can't wait for you to experience their life through Bittersweet. Lara and I met through a web series seven years ago, so I jumped at the opportunity to work with her on Bittersweet. My life-long hobby seems to be collecting Pokémon memorabilia (apparently queer people always pick the water starter, my first one was Piplup).

 

Lotte Veldhoen (she/her) – Executive Producer

My name is Lotte Veldhoen. I’m 20 years old, born and raised in Rotterdam. These past few years I’ve been working as a production assistant/assistant set dresser for several projects, including Zenith and Het Herriehofje. For Bittersweet I’ll be the executive producer. I like doing finance and I have experience managing budgets. I want to be part of this project because of the passion and the important message it sends.

 

Dyana Dommershuijsen (she/her) – 1st AD

As the 1st AD, I'll be in charge of making the production schedules; I'll also be on set to assist wherever I can. I first heard about Bittersweet through my friend Emilia. Upon reading the script, I immediately knew I wanted to participate in this production due to storytelling and aesthetics. As for my hobbies? Most of the time you'll find me playing an mmorpg, Genshin Impact or Pokémon.

 

Max Timmers (he/him) – Director of Photography

I’m the Director of Photography for Bittersweet. I have 9+ years of experience in film and video, specializing in cinematography. I wanted to be involved with Bittersweet for the challenge to create something cinematic and expressive within an intensely personal narrative about identity and sexuality. I’m very excited to contribute to this profound story, ultimately about acceptance.

 

Elfie van de Mosselaer (she/her) – Production Designer

As the Production Designer for Bittersweet, I am responsible for creating the atmosphere of the set.

I aim to create a personal and honest picture by using the state of the characters as a motivation for the design. This is because I firmly believe that you can tell a lot from how we express ourselves in clothing, make-up and hair and the state of our environment. Bittersweet is about finding your identity and understanding your sexuality, and I am excited to visualize this in the production design.

 

Jasmin Kulik (they/she) – Head Makeup Zaya

Hi, I’m Jasmin! I’m 22 and a certified Makeup Artist, who’s inspired by anything “weird”, non-conventional, but also just things that are simply cool and pretty. I’m one of the two Head MUAs for Bittersweet, and will be focusing mainly on Zaya’s looks, using my skills to compliment the main story with her makeup! As a queer and creative person I couldn’t be more excited to work on this project with so many talented people. Creating a piece of queer media for queer people is something super important to me, and having the opportunity to be a part of this couldn’t be more rewarding

 

Fae van Venetiën (she/her) – Head Makeup Livie

My name is Fae, I am a 21-year-old professional freelancing makeup artist with a passion for creativity, drag & anything outside of the box. I will be one of the two Head MUAs working on Bittersweet, and I will specifically provide Livie's looks! I'm really excited to get an opportunity like this to put my skills to use and really explore the characters and their look aesthetics. Excited to be working with amazingly talented young people who all share the same passion; creating a piece of (queer) art.

 

Marketing & Distribution

We are currently using TikTok and Instagram as our leading social media platforms to reach our intended target audience. Two of our TikToks have reached over 15k views each so far, and we plan to continue growing this online platform and our social media presence as the production continues.

 

We aim to use our online platform to show our audience the behind-the-scenes of the entire production and keep everyone up to date on our latest shenanigans.

 

Distribution will happen through YouTube, on the channel Bittersweet Series. This way, we keep total creative control and can control the distribution of our content.

Risks & challenges

As with everything done after 2020, our biggest risk factor is the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to stick its head up. As of right now, our government allows us to continue working on projects like these, however if the numbers go up again and new restrictions will be placed, we cannot accurately predict how that will affect our production. It’s most likely we’ll have to reschedule our shooting days, in which case those will simply be moved to the soonest possible date. Based on our current circumstances around COVID-19, we don’t expect to have to cancel the production entirely.

 

Our biggest challenge is gathering enough funds to produce this show. If we cannot meet our budget minimum, we can’t provide our cast and crew with the promised payments and be unable to rent or buy the right gear, props, etc. We will allow everyone to withdraw from the project and otherwise continue to try our hardest to make the most of it with the limited resources we will have.