Crowdfunder Pick: "Harsh Reality"

Crowdfunding has become an invaluable tool for the indie filmmaker seeking funds for the start or completion of a project.

And here at MovieMaker, we applaud and champion workman-like campaign efforts. To raise awareness of great ideas and future talents, we will be highlighting a unique project every month during its funding campaign. If you have a project you’d like us to consider, drop us a line at: crowdfunder@moviemaker.com.

We hope you’ll share, support, and be inspired by their stories.

Crowdfunder Pick: “Harsh Reality”

Genre: Cyberpunk Thriller

Synopsis: “Harsh Reality” is a short cyberpunk thriller about a professional gamer who’s kidnapped and subjected to a mind-altering Virtual Reality program. It’s a story about the ways that technology separates us from the consequences of our actions, and the ways it connects us to others.

Cast: Jeff Seal, Shaina Feinberg, Chris Manley

Crew: Iain Marcks (Director, Writer, Producer), Joe Yanick (Producer), Eduardo Mayen (Cinematographer, From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series), Antoni Maiovvi (Composer)

About the Moviemaker: An industry professional with more than a decade of experience ranging from cinematography and postproduction to producing and directing, Iain has a deep-understanding of the complex world of filmmaking. His films have appeared on Fandor and ShortsTV and for the past 10 years, his articles and interviews have appeared in American Cinematographer magazine. 

Platform: IndieGoGo

Campaign End Date: June 2, 2017

Request: “With ‘Harsh Reality,’ we want to tell an interesting story, explore the promises and pitfalls of new technologies, and make a strong statement about empathy and taking responsibility for one’s actions and beliefs.

Our film takes place ‘five minutes into the future’ but its subject is the present and its real-world challenges: an increasingly computerized world struggling with the tangible dilemmas of migrant rights, unregulated capitalism, class inequality, police violence, and racism. 

‘Harsh Reality’ is also about resisting concretized myths and transcending prejudice, no matter what the cost. It’s the struggle for cyberculture’s utopian ideal: a world without concepts of race, religion, or gender… Where the only thing that matters is what you believe.

‘Harsh Reality’ is set in Central City, a teeming metropolis that was on the verge of bankruptcy until a cartel of banks and multinational conglomerates stepped in to take control of its sagging infrastructure. Known as the Central Provisional Authority Corporation, they’ve created a utilities monopoly, replaced the police with a private security force, shuttered the public University, and begun mass deportations. Meanwhile, the citizens of Central City have begun to organize and resist the hostile takeover.

This is not a future that will be, but one that might be.

Our influences range from RoboCop, The Twilight Zone, and Max Headroom, to the work of Philip K. Dick, Douglas Rushkoff, and Harlan Ellison—but ‘Harsh Reality’ is part of a larger original narrative that includes two feature films, one of which—Zero Sum—has  already been written and is in development, to be followed by The Transit of Venus.” 

Crowdfund by Visiting: “Harsh Reality” MM