"Amongst The Stars" Film

Hi folks!

My name is Ben Smlatic, a 25 year old filmmaker in LA who is trying to not keep his dreams as dreams. Fighting for exactly what I believe in and chasing the life of creating great cinema for everyone to see. It's my belief that hard work and grit are key to achieving your goals and I'll stop at nothing to pursue this path of life.

"Amongst The Stars" is a Hollywood cult thriller centered around Alice, a hardworking actress who gets the role of her life in world famous director, Simeone Damien's film. When he invites her out to a celebrity party, what Alice assumes is cocktails and conversations turns out to be the cult's way of using it's power to initiate Alice into a pathway that will no doubt lead her to fame, money, prestige and attention...but at what cost?

Based off murmurs and whispers we've heard in and around Hollywood for years now, I'll be using this film as proof of concept to pitch towards studios and investors so we can make this into a feature down the line. It'll be submitted to over 20 local LA festivals too! Our crew and cast are entirely LA based as well!

I've lived in LA for 2.5 years now and had the pleasure of working over 155+ days of production and made 4 of my own projects but no doubt, this is the largest project I've ever produced, written and directed. The budget is 10x what my other 4 projects cost me on average, the scale that I'm trying to grow this project is massive, but, that's just how much I trust this idea in terms of it's quality. More than anything, for myself, directing and making my own stuff IS what I want to do with my life and this is a gigantic step into showing folks that I can do that. I'm big on show not tell. Words are great, but back up what you say!

While I'm not being forced to pay anyone, and could certainly ask for less in the film's budget IF I didn't pay people, I truly believe you have to pay the men and women who come together to create your vision. Of course, crew and talent day rates are only a portion of what we need the funds for. Securing our two locations, making the gear rentals, buying the lunch and snacks and getting all of props and wardrobe are the other large portions of our budget. Location is of course the biggest expense followed by rentals. I'll link our website that has a full image of our financial breakdown too as it may be helpful to have something to look at.

We shoot April 13th/14th so that doesn't leave us much time but I am tirelessly working to market, pitch and get donations wherever I can. Like I said, I refuse to let my dreams stay dreams and if you help donate to this project, I can't wait to show you what me and my crew can do.

Be prepared for this project to be beyond expectations and be ready for more projects that only will ever raise the bar continually from my prior work.

As always, thank you. This isn't possible without donations from you folks. I can't thank you enough but, thank you once more.

(Please refer to our website for a TON more links, creative and financial breakdowns, and more about myself)

Our Website