What is Paradox?

Paradox is a fifteen minute short film that acts a contemporary musical, combining rock, classical, and electronic music.

It tells the story of Adam, a young man at war within his own subconscious, and acts as a modern day Christmas Carol where he encounters three spirits that act as moderators for the self reflection of his life. The only difference is that these spirits are trying to destroy him, make him fail, and remain in his miserable state.

Who am I?

My name is Matthew Laughlin. I have been working in film and audio production for the past few years as a freelance television editor and live sound engineer which has allowed me to gain experience as a creative professional and network with some amazing and unique people. You can view my website at MatthewLaughlin.com.

You can also view my previous film production work on my highlight reel.

I am also a musical composer and pianist. You can listen to my first recorded piece here.

What do we need money for?

On this project, we have been able to gather a lot of resources for no charge, such as a Producer, Director of Photography, audio and grip team, and wardrobe and makeup, but we would like to give them some compensation to show our thanks for giving their time. We also have some fees that we could not avoid:

Music Studio: Our first step in this project is to write the lyrics and songs for the film so that we can film our actors singing and performing the music. We need a $500 deposit to begin working on this, and another $500 before the end of the project. This will give us access to a full studio with instruments, gear, and a very talented producer to moderate the entire creation of the score.

Film Studio: We plan on filming completely on a white background, to personify that we are in Adam's subconscious. This conveniently allows us to merely need one set for a one day shoot, costing us $850.

Catering: It may not seem like a big deal, but for a one day shoot we need to ensure that our entire cast and crew can work the entire day, with no interruptions, such as a growling stomach. We will provide quality food to ensure that everyone is not only fed, but happy as well, allowing us to ensure a flawless shoot.

Set Design/Wardrobe: The rest of the money will go towards decorating our set with a lot of visually stimulating contributions such as strobing lights, rain and thunder, a lot of blood, and a giant plexi screen covered with graffiti. This film is very much a visual medium with a lot of elegant, involved costumes, and having enough money to obtain adequate resources will ensure no compromise.

What is our timeline?

We hope on being able to obtain the $500 deposit for the music studio by the first week of April so that we can spend all of April writing the music.

We then will spend the beginning of May preparing for our shoot and will set a one day shoot for the middle-end of May, before a lot of our student cast and crew return home for the summer.

The film will then go through Post-Production in June and July, with an anticipated completion date of somewhere towards the end of July.

Be sure to check out our production blog to view our progress, we'll post visual art, production stills, and video updates for you to view. 

Production Blog

It's completed, what's next?

The short film of Paradox is merely the beginning of it's journey, while I want Paradox to be able to stand by itself as a great work of art and storytelling, I have bigger aspirations for it.

I will be moving to Los Angeles in August, and plan on taking this short film with me to also act as a teaser for what could be if we were to take this concept and develop it into a much larger scale feature-length film. 

I also have aspiration for it to be turned into a live concert/theater production, where the score is performed live and the actors perform live as well, with a large projection screen overhead showing what would be the film, creating a very stimulating live event. It would combine the concert, film, and theater experiences all in one.

How far this project will go? I can not say, but I know one thing for sure. If this short film is not created, we will never know. With your help, we can all witness what will become of this experiment.

Conclusion

Thank you so much for your time and consideration. If you can't help us out financially, consider throwing a link up on your Facebook or Twitter, we need as many eyes on this fundraiser as possible.

Thank you for helping us making Adam's dream a reality!