We're making a movie!

An M & K Creative Production

In association with Paper Crane Productions, LLC

A group of four professional dancers lean on their strong female friendship during a weak time in Hollywood’s evolving commercial dance industry.

This is a personal story for us. Dancers are one of the hardest working groups of artists and athletes in the commercial industry, yet one of the most underrated, and at times most underpaid. There are very high standards for size, shape, weight, height, style, and ethnicity. About 5 years ago social media elevated dancers and their skill sets’ on screens everywhere. Soon after Instagram and it’s influencers started changing not only the ‘day in the life’, but also how dancers are auditioned and seen overall. The Hip Hop commercial dance industry is evolving yet again. Now we are in a post social media hype point. During this transitional time the number of dancers is ample, but will the need for them stay down or go back up? It’s an industry full of passion and practice and this film highlights four characters that are experiencing just that. 

We, Madison McElwee and Kayla Janssen, are both professional dancers, choreographers, teachers, writers, performers, creative directors, storytellers and now filmmakers. That is why we started our own production company called M & K Creative Productions. We believe that any artist can pursue more than one passion in this industry and still be extremely successful. We encourage ourselves to do so everyday and even if one person in this field can relate to that message we have succeeded with our goal. Artists in this industry are a group of dreamers and that is never to be underestimated.

This project we are raising money for is a short film that will be filmed in Los Angeles, California based on real people and true events. We are both production partners and project owners on this short film. The script was written by our very own Madison McElwee. We have been working on this project since 2019 and our projected date for filming is late 2020 early 2021. We are ready and excited to share our story and our short film with you! 

We are thrilled to have a brilliant team of professional film creatives working on this project. To help tell our story we have producer Angelo Restaino and his production company Paper Cranes (www.papercranefilms.com). We also have a fearless female director of photography Robin Pabello. 

Through this evolving and very difficult time in the world that is full of uncertainty we just want to create art and create jobs for people in the industry. This project can do both. All of your donations will fund pre- and post-production costs, costumes, rehearsals, set locations, miscellaneous fees as well as entry costs into film festivals. Most importantly, we want to be able to afford fair rates for all of our cast and crew.  

We are extremely grateful for any and all support we may receive and for each and every donation that is given. A donation of any size will help us reach our goal of $30,000. With this goal, we can launch this project, start production, complete the short film, share our story and see it all the way through to the finish line submitting to film festivals. To all our family, friends, co-workers, fellow artists, industry creatives, and even generous strangers, from the bottom of our hearts we say THANK YOU.

Stay tuned with us on our GoFundMe page for filming updates and fundraising goals! If you are a local donor, we will also be posting updates once the film is finished about a potential screening somewhere in the greater Los Angeles area.


THANK YOU

Let's make a movie! 

-M&K Creative Productions 
Madison McElwee & Kayla Janssen