Support Our Vision: Unseen Olympiad

Hello! My name is Casey Shaw, and I am a director and cinematographer based in New Orleans, LA.

Over the past two years, my team and I have been making a film titled "Unseen Olympiad" that explores the universal emotional journey of athletes competing in international sporting events.

International sporting events have been a part of my life since before I was born. My parent's first official date was at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Closing Ceremony, and I was raised in Atlanta because my family moved there for my dad to work for the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. I have attended twelve Olympic Games, four World University Games, and a FIFA Women's World Cup.

I began my film career by learning how to use a DSLR camera and shooting live music events after traveling to New Orleans for college to be a cross-country runner. Over the next seven years, I worked on over 100 sets in New Orleans, and a trend became clear. The artists in New Orleans were the most amazing talents I had ever met, yet when it came time for a big project, the key creatives were almost always flown in from big cities. I founded my company Shawscope to help correct that course, and we provide access to 35mm and 16mm resources and cameras to local Louisiana filmmakers to help them bridge that gap.

With my combined experience, I began to ask- what would an Olympics shot by folks from New Orleans and the South look like? What stories would be told differently?

Unseen Olympiad is the first step towards answering that question. We are working on building a pipeline to connect our artists to be able to shoot the Olympic Games. To do this, we need to create undeniable creative work that rivals the world's top artists; plus, we need to have Olympic-sports-style material on our reel to justify our access to the world's stage.

Even the best athletes must train at smaller events before they reach the Olympics, and we are following the same model. It helps that we have a close relationship with FISU (the international federation which owns the World University Games), and are able to access their events in an unprecedented manner.

This film is the beginning of this journey, and funding this film is the next step toward providing access to folks who deserve to travel around the world and tell beautiful stories just as much as those who live in big markets.

Our team has traveled to seven countries for this project so far, and we are planning on releasing this film in international festivals in the spring of 2025.

This film was shot on 16mm film, currently runs at 52 minutes, and is in six languages. We are very grateful for the work our team has done so far, yet we believe additional funding can make a massive difference in the final product.

Here is an estimate of how this additional funding will be allocated:

$7,000 for our Editor for a Fine Cut

$7,000 for our Sound Designer for a Studio Mix

$7,000 for our Composer for additional music

$3,000 for live instrumentalists for our Score

$5,000 for additional Color Grading and Supervision by our Cinematographer

$1,500 for a Mandarin-language Voice Over Session

$7,500 as discretionary funding towards another voice actor, a Cinevator film print, a trip for our team to China to screen for our contacts there, crew travel to festivals, publicist fees, or a stipend for our producers.

I am so grateful for your time and energy supporting our project, and I am ecstatic at the prospect of finishing this film as intended and seeing this unseen beauty unfold for many others.

Thank you.

-Casey