Support the production of horror short "Cat and Mouse"

Hello, my name is Brady Cates. I am a young filmmaker who was born and raised in Wisconsin, now living in the Twin Cities. Ever since I was a kid, I've had a love for film. I knew the only thing that would keep me satisfied in my adult life was being creative and being on set. Therefore, when it came time to decide what I wanted to do in college, film production was the only option. I moved to Minneapolis in 2020 and graduated from MCTC in 2022. After all my hard work, I've been fortunate enough to work in the industry as a local production assistant, and recently started working at Jackpine Scenic, a local scenic shop. The last couple of years have been filled with being a part of many different productions. It's been amazing getting to work in an industry younger me could only dream about being in. Now that I've entered the world of filmmaking, I'm always asked, "What do you want to do? Camera, art, gaffer, direct?" The list of departments goes on and on. When this question comes up, I always share my passion for the art department, but I also share how my end goal is to direct.

Not only do I have the desire to direct, I've decided to be a director in the horror genre. The horror genre has been bent and stretched in so many ways since the dawn of filmmaking. We've gotten a variety of great stories told by people such as John Carpenter, Tobe Hooper, Jordan Peele, Karyn Kusama, Ari Aster, Sam Raimi, James Wan, Alfred Hitchcock, Eli Roth, and Wes Craven. That's only a few horror legends out of the hundreds that exist. With all the horror directors and writers out there, you would think every story has been told. Well, that could not be any further from the truth. As a black man, there is nothing more infuriating than watching the one black character die first, or just be another victim for the killer. It's okay, we've all heard the trope. You watch a scary movie with a friend and they go, "Well, we know who's gonna die first." Time and time again, this has happened. Now it's time that we break that trope and get a different story! It's my goal to provide the horror community with strong black characters we've been dying to see. Also, offering black actors lead roles in horror movies, other than being victim number one. Jordan Peele has started and executed this with his brilliant creativity. It would be amazing to be able to add onto this.

The story I've been working on is titled Cat and Mouse. It follows a young African American woman who has been thrusted into the ultimate slasher situation. The story is a resemblance of The Cabin in the Woods, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon. With the script only being nine pages, I've managed to pack it full of twists, turns, and bloody good action!

The support that is received will be broken down for each department involved with production and equipment rentals. It is important to me that everyone gets fair and equal pay. To add, I want to make sure that the talent will receive a reasonable compensation for being involved with this project. Funds will also be used to submit the finished film to film festivals.