Would You Love Me If I Were a Worm?

Is Love Unconditional?

Would You Love Me if I Were a Worm is all about that question. This is a film that explores how strained relationships hold onto the past as a way to navigate the present and future –– but, it is only in confronting this trauma together that we can overcome our own perceived limits of love.

Hi there! My name is Aaron Alter and I’m an independent filmmaker working in Toronto for the last 12 years. Over the last year me and some of my closest friends have been working on a self funded passion project called Would You Love Me if I Were a Worm?

Has your girlfriend ever asked you, gently and earnestly “Would you love me if I were a worm?”. Mine has! And so I decided to make a film that reflected some of my experiences with being in love. Boris celebrates his 3 year anniversary with his girlfriend Katie but there's a problem, she's somehow transformed herself into an earthworm 3 months ago. Boris tries to carry on as normal, but when Katie's situation goes from bad to worse, Boris is forced to go through a transformation himself to rise to the occasion.

In 2022 my ex-girlfriend at the time was battling cancer, and we reconnected as a way to navigate that really uncertain time. It was during that difficult experience I was inspired to make this film. I feel my understanding of love was really transformed by that event and since then it's been something I’ve wanted to share. In April of last year I wrote the script with Tom Keat in mind and sent it to him, and in November we brought on Darius Rathe and began pre-production.

This project has been a total labour of love. Self funded on a shoe-string budget, ACTRA co-op, volunteer crew with many months of pre production and 3 days of shooting.

It's been a challenging, rewarding and therapeutic experience making this film and I hope it helps couples reconnect to their love for eachother and people everywhere find hope in the ideal that love exists, and it might even be unconditional. Thank you to everyone who has donated their time, skills and heart to this project.

We are going into post-production now, and we really need your help! Our goal is to raise $5000 for post production, marketing and festival submissions.

Those involved:

Director/DOP/Writer/Producer: Aaron Alter

Producer: Tom Keat

Producer: Darius Rathe

Production Manager: Jediah Currie

1st AC: Adam Cummerford

2nd AC: Brandon Winkson

Gaffer: Ricky Christie

Gaffer: Robert James Barnett

Key Grip: Izaak Poier

Production Design: Gary McDonald

Production Design Assistant: Taylor Mann

Production Design Assistant: Lucas Minardi

Sound: Clay Barr (Cheese)

BTS: Dave N. Morgado

BTS: Nate Colitto

Intimacy Coordinator: Rebecca Lashmar

Cast:

Tom Keat

Karen Knox

Trevor Hayes

Shaun Bishop

Mark Ricci

Annie Lujan

Patricia Wright Dominque

Jazlyn Wong-Lee

How we will use the money:

This budget would allow us to submit to over 15 different film festivals including: Raindance, Fantasia, TIFF, VIFF, Sundance and Edmonton Film Fest.

Color Grading: $1500

VFX: $500

Sound Design / Mixing: $1000

Festival Submission: $1000

Online Marketing: $1000

Total: $5000

In conjunction with the festival run for this film, we really want to build awareness around the project through short form content like trailers, BTS featurettes and deleted scenes. This is a story that exists within the online zeitgeist so it's really important that it is shared online! As filmmakers we want to broadcast our messages to as many people as possible and make the answers of this film as popular as the question: Would you love me if I were a worm?

What will we do if we don't get all the money?

We will be forced to find cheaper options for post production and have a limit to the number of festivals we would like to submit too. We will also have to limit our digital marketing campaign. Everything is the same but we will just have to find cheaper solutions.

Next steps for Would You Love Me If I Were a Worm:

Currently we are 75% of the way to picture lock, with some small second unit material also to be filmed. Once the picture is locked we can move on to Colour Grading, Sound Mixing and Finalizing VFX. As well we will be cutting the film for short form social media, creating online buzz through active accounts dedicated to the project.