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Get Your Popcorn Ready!

We are storytellers. We are filmmakers. The challenge, though, is that film is an art form that can require immense resources. We don't have immense resources. In other words, we know how much it's supposed to take to make a movie and... WE AIN'T GOT IT!

So, here's what we've decided to do.

We're coming together, combining our relationships, access to equipment and years of experience to create 2 films, our stories, told our way for a microbudget. For some Hollywood productions, $30,000 wouldn't cover hair and make-up. We've put our heads together, though, and come up with a plan that will allow us to get our films completed for $30,000 each.


YOU CAN HELP!


If you've come to this page, you're probably a friend, someone we've met along the way. Chances are you know the road has been long. Please give. If you've ever promised to buy a ticket when our movie hits or joked about getting tickets to the premiere, please give. If you are just as tired of reading articles about a lack of diversity in Hollywood as we are, please give. If you're just tired of us saying, "Please give," please give. (We promise we'll stop once we reach our goal.)


WHO ARE WE?

RASHIM CANNAD

Rashim was born and raised in inner-city Philadelphia, PA. A tough neighborhood and difficult family dynamics helped to strengthen his resolve, but it also gave him a steep hill to climb in order to reach a significant level of success. Thanks to a talent in math and science, however, Rashim had a way.

Rashim attended Purdue University where he studied electrical engineering. While there he joined a writing group which reignited an interest for storytelling that he's had since he was a child. Ultimately it was his passion for writing that guided his career choice.

In 2005 Rashim wrote and produced the short film, "Hit Me", which was nominated for a number of awards, and earned the right to play on Showtime in February 2007. The film continues to play on Showtime today.

In 2012 Rashim wrote and directed the short film, "Bored of the Rings". The film stars comedian Owen Smith alongside Sharaé Nikai and Tarina Pouncy. It played on the film festival circuit throughout 2013. In 2014 Rashim wrote and directed the short film "Half" starring Adenrele Ojo and Fred Thomas Jr. That film was the winner of the inaugural HBFF/Indi.com Mobile Film Competition and is scheduled to play in film festivals over the next year.

Rashim has written more than a dozen feature length screenplays. A number of his scripts have been optioned and one is in development for production in 2014. Rashim is also a member of Mensa, and he feels that it is his rare combination of experiences that helps him bring a new, thoughtful perspective to filmmaking.


ORLANDO BISHOP

"I'm a storyteller," Orlando Bishop explains through a smile. "It all comes down to one thing: A good story, well told."

Orlando's own story begins in Flatbush, Brooklyn where he was raised. In the summer of 1989, the Brooklyn boy walked into a Manhattan multiplex to see Do The Right Thing. A young man had found his calling. "My heart raced. Sweat trickled down the side of my face. I walked out of that theater knowing, "˜I want to do that!'" He chuckles at the memory. "The funny thing is I didn't even know what "˜that' was."

Though he did not know what "that" was at that moment, he set out to find out. His journey took him to Yale University, then to the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television's Peter Stark Producing Program.

Orlando went on to write for a variety of Hollywood companies including Fox Searchlight, MTV Networks, Nickelodeon and Wesley Snipes' Amen Ra Films. In the television world, he developed projects for Big Ticket Television and New Line Television. In the 2005-2006 season, he was hired as a staff writer on the WB's 7th Heaven, where he co-wrote Got MLK?, a special episode commemorating the King Holiday. And, in 2008, he wrote on the first season of The Secret Life of the American Teenager for ABC Family.

"A good story, well told." Whether writing and directing his short, Getting To No You, producing videos and writing essays for his blog, The Musings Of A New Millennium Nigga, or writing a love story, Orlando has always worked to share "A good story, well told." And as he prepares to direct his feature script, Dinner For Two, he expands on the point. "I want to tell stories that move people. That move them to laugh. That move them to cry. That move them to just plain think." Orlando knows well that stories have the power to do all that and more. After all, it was a story from a Brooklyn boy that moved this Brooklyn boy to tell stories in the first place.


THESE ARE OUR STORIES

Dinner For Two (Written & Directed by Orlando Bishop)

When Christopher lost his one true love, Angela, his life became a complicated mess. He has a simple solution. Tonight, he will prepare his Last Supper and then he will kill himself, "uncomplicating" things for good. Angela shows up to stop him. She has a simple message: "Live." He has a simple response: "I want you back." But as they both know, and as we will learn as they break bread over broken hearts, things between them are never as simple as they seem.

The Upper Room (Written & Directed by Rashim Cannad)

Today is Victoria's birthday, and she wants to celebrate it with a small gathering of the people she loves. The problem is at least one of them didn't love her back. Before Victoria can make it downstairs to her own party she's murdered by one of the attendees. Now Detective Wells, a quirky detective from the LAPD must help to solve the case before time runs out on her authority to keep everyone together in the house, because with this clever and well-to-do group, this may be her only chance.
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  • Anonymous
    • $50 
    • 9 yrs
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Organizer

Orlando Bishop
Organizer
Los Angeles, CA

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