POOLSIDE Film Fund

POOLSIDE is a short film written and directed by Michelle Smith, produced by Katie Schaller, and lensed by Matthew Hayes.

STORY OVERVIEW

When a severed arm shows up on a country club’s pool deck, the club’s pool director tries his best to do the right thing, while club members and local law enforcement try their best to forget it ever happened.

TEAM

Michelle Smith, Writer/Director

Michelle has written and directed commercials for brands like Vitaminwater, Nike, Air Jordan, Duracell, and Manscaped. Most notably, she was once an (assistant) pool director herself, and borrowed heavily from the experience while developing her debut film, Poolside.

Michelle loves movies and the art of filmmaking more than anything, and has spent the past several years learning everything she can in an effort to turn her dream of directing into a reality. She is incredibly proud of this film and the immensely talented collaborators who helped bring it to life. Her goal is for Poolside to be her first film of many, and to look something like this as its director:

Katie Schaller, Executive Producer

Katie is a senior producer of ads at Wieden+Kennedy in Portland, OR. She’s produced plenty of commercials her parents like to tell their friends about, for brands including Nike, Old Spice, and DoorDash. She and Michelle made a foolish pact four years ago that they would make a film together, and now that Michelle wrote a script Katie has no choice but to help produce it.

Matthew Hayes, Director of Photography

Matthew Hayes is a cinematographer living in Brooklyn, New York. Originally an editor, while working at Portland-based ad agency Wieden+Kennedy, he learned the intricacies of client/artist relationships while making work for brands such as Powerade, Coca-Cola, and P&G.

Working across digital and analog film cinematography, his work focuses on intimate portraiture, favoring shoots that experiment with lighting and texture to create an emotional connection with the audience

Claire Graybeal, Title Designer/Concept Artist

PRODUCTION PLAN

Poolside is currently in pre-production, and in the process of securing locations, cast, and crew. The plan is to launch production Fall 2024 or early Spring 2025 and complete the film by Summer 2025. Proceeds from this fundraiser will contribute to our overall budget to ensure a successful production for everyone involved.

These funds will be allocated toward: equipment, compensation for cast and crew, insurance, production design, location fees, and among other resources needed to make Poolside everything we hope it can be.

THANK YOU!

Words cannot express our gratitude for your support in the creation of this film. Instead, we've decided to show our thanks with a tradition as old as movie-making itself:

Promotional Movie Merchandise.

Every contributor will be gifted a Poolside promotional whistle, in hopes that where words fail, merch speaks.

We’ll continue sharing updates throughout the production process, so stay tuned!

Best,

The Poolside Production Team