Help fund 'Stages' - Student Graduation Short Film

Premise:

Set in the boarders of reality and dreams, this musical follows musical Owen through the trials and tribulations of accepting the sudden passing of his fiancée Eve.

Synopsis:

Act 1

Set in Britain, 2024, we follow our protagonist Owen (21) a small-time musician who performs at a bar where his soon to be fiance Eve (20) works as a bartender. We start the film with Owen performing a duet with himself and Eve, where they share fond memories of time they spent together and the love they have for each other. During this the bar erupts into a dance number, with the crowd dancing and singing alongside the two of them. As the song nears the end, Owen prepares himself to propose to Eve, only for Eve to suddenly drop dead from a heart attack, causing Owen to wake up to reality in his apartment.

Act 2

We see the reality Owen lives in is one where life has passed him by. His room is as messy as his mind is, his piano has been left to collect dust, and we watch a montage of him refusing to play again and reliving dreams of being with Eve over and over again. The montage ends when we see him go to sleep, only for a different dream to occur with him meeting a mysterious figure in a dark void who refers to himself as Death. A dark number begins as Death shows anger and disappointment at Owen for letting his life slip away since the death of Eve, Owen has no good argument to retort and continues to wallow in self-pity. Death tries to remind him of how good of a musician he is and the dream of making it big with his songs, but Owen sees that it’s pointless to go after his dream if he doesn’t have someone to share it with. Realising that it’s pointless to convince him with words, Death then decides to give him an offer, to be able to spend eternity with Eve in his dream but he cannot look at her face to face.

Act 3

Owen and Eve have a back-to-back duet with each other, Eve pleading for Owen to let her go and move on, but Owen cannot let himself do that. After continuous arguing in song, Owen realises that he cannot do this and that he must try and live again, and so he turns to face Eve, looking at her with a smile we haven’t seen since the start of the film. They have one final emotional dance together, accompanied by a swelling orchestra, ending with an embrace of each other that cuts to Owen waking up and turning to play the piano again - the will to live finally restored.

Work we've done so far:

These are three stills from our character teasers we have posted on instagram.

Concept art by our amazing art department.

A handful of storyboarded shots made by our Director, Brandon Preece and DoP, James Bush.

Where are we filming?

We are filming all around Cardiff! With thanks to The North Star, we are filming our bar scenes here. The bedroom/kitchen scenes in a house in Maindy, Cardiff. The void scenes in the Universities top grade film studio.

What have we already raised?

Here is a look into the value, based on BECTU Rate cards, of what we and the university are contributing:

Here is where your money will go:

Please help where you can!

Your support with funding our short film is massively appreciated. If you can donate today, it will make our collective ambition a reality.

More Updates:

Find out more on our [email redacted]m, https://www.instagram.com/stages.film/

Thank you!