Donate to short film about gig workers

WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT WAS THAT?

My name is DeAndre Weaver. I’m an actor, filmmaker, and resident young person. That was the teaser trailer for my next short film Leave it at my door and with your donation today we can help bring this movie to life. If you would have asked me back in 2019 what I was going to do after graduation I would have never said become a delivery driver. But when I came out of school and covid came into our world it was my only option. And at first, it was great. Go through the drive-through, drop at the door, ding dong get paid. But as the pandemic got further away so did the sense of community that I saw blossom during this time. In just a year it went from high tips and thank-you notes to being screamed at for missing soy sauce. And with dreams of making it in the film industry, I felt like I was stuck behind the delivery wheel. For the past 3 years, I've grown a lot doing this job. It's allowed me the flexibility to create my own films and get my footing in the industry. But more importantly, it's open my eyes to the rich community of food service workers and to the many people and places I never knew existed in the town where I grew up. I want to make a film celebrating that time. For the good and bad what it was like finding my place in a world turned upside down. And with your donation, we can make this dream possible

OK COOL BUT WHAT IS THE MOVIE IT ABOUT?

Well... Leave it at my door is a 22-minute dramedy that centers on a day in the life of a struggling actor turned delivery driver. D "invests" the last of his money into a pyramid scheme and now must earn his money back to buy a plane ticket to his next gig. Think Cha Cha Real Smooth meets Waves

SO HOW MUCH AND WHEN IS IT GONNA BE DONE?

This project will be shot June 5th-7th of 2023 in Waldorf MD and is currently in pre-production with a 3,000-dollar budget. After our shoot in June, I anticipate having a 3-month post-production cycle with the film being finished in Sept 2023. It will be distributed to film festivals and if all goes according to plan will find a home on a streaming service.

SO WHERE IS THIS MONEY GOING

The majority of the funding of this campaign will go towards paying our wonderful cast and crew.

BUT WHAT'S YOUR TRACK RECORD

Leave it at my door will be my 5th produced short since the beginning of the pandemic. My last short MASKS was the winner of the microbudget Film podcast Halloween film challenge and was accepted into various festivals including the north carolina black film festival. Here is a link to our portfolio of films: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYxZPL-QOQ94AEk7wxMzNXg

SO WHO ALL IS INVOLVED

The creative team from Masks will be rejoining on this project. And you can meet them down below

SO WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS

Right now, there is a real gap in stories centering around the messiness of the later stages of adolescence. Your early twenties are an experimental period where almost every attempt feels like a failure. It’s the tragedy of almost endless possibility but with no real discernment of where to go. After college, I had no idea what to do. With the entertainment industry shut down, it felt like the degree I had worked so hard to earn was worthless. I started driving Doordash to try to save up enough to move out and for 3 years it was the only consistent job I could find. Between the low pay, lack of any type of help from the company, and the self-employed status I quickly learned that the world of gig working was as dark as the world I now lived in. It’s an unseen industry and despite being the backbone of multiple billion-dollar companies the workers are often treated like second-class citizens. With over 15 percent of Americans being gig workers and 30 percent of young people having worked in this field: it’s time for this story to be told. The harsh reality is that the pandemic has forever altered this world. In some cases, for the worst, but for me it opened my eyes to how vulnerable we truly are and how our friends and family are the most important things in our lives. This is a story about finding the light in the darkness. This day in the life of a door dasher will take the audience through the unseen lives of essential workers. With this project, I hope the audience walks away with hope for the future and can be kinder to themselves and others.

MEET THE TEAM