Making a Short Film: "No Picnic"

Hi, my name is Duane Woods and I'm hoping to make my first short film this year. No Picnic is a dark comedy crime thriller in the style of Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad. We plan to film over two days on June 21 and 22, 2025.

To watch my pitch video, click below:

Title: No Picnic

Length: 10-12 minutes

Genre: Dark Comedy Crime Thriller

Key Crew:

Producers: Duane Woods and David Brigden

Writer and Director: Duane Woods

Cinematographer: Hans Goksoyr

Armourer: Jeannie and Dano Saworsky

Cast:

Ellen - Sarah Turner

Rick - Sanders Whiting

Montana - TBD

The Story:

No Picnic is a story that follows Ellen and Rick, a loving couple who share their love for nostalgia and 80's musicals. Dressed as churchy theatre geeks, they sing showtunes together as they ostensibly drive to have a delightful picnic in the woods. However, the cheery Rick and Ellen have a secret behind the facade of the picnic: they are illegal weapons dealers setting up a discreet meeting with a buyer.

This incongruous pair do not fit the template of illegal gun dealers, as they look more at home off-Broadway than in the criminal underworld, and that may alter their fate. Enter Montana, the gun buyer that they are set up to meet. What they discover is that Montana is a menacing monster of a man, defying their expectations and creating instant apprehension and tension. What happens next is perhaps what one might expect from this clash of disparate crime figures. Things go sideways between the congenial couple and the cruel customer. And it’s this short story that we’d like to tell.

The Cast:

I wrote No Picnic specifically for Sarah and Sanders because of their amazing likability and pleasant natures - you can't help but smile around them! After filming them together at an educational conference called Studio23, it felt natural to want to have them act together. Putting their effortlessly pleasant chemistry together in a criminal underworld seemed really intriguing to me to see how these singing theatre geek type of characters would react in a highly charged, illegal setting. Now, the challenge to is to cast someone as their menacing foil, one who can provide an overpowering, frightening threat to their genial natures.

The Crew:

We have secured much of the crew for the film, consisting of talented friends and present and former co-workers who are professionals in film, audio and video. This includes my co-producer, Dave Brigden, and our cinematographer, Hans Goksoyr.

In addition, we’ll have the amazing professional services of Dano and Jeannie at ProServ Tactical, who will be armourers handling the rubber firearms and the firearms using “simunition”, the safest way to achieve the look and feel of guns without using blanks, which can be dangerous. Blood effects will also be handled by an industry special effects specialist.

Funding and Budgeting:

Having big ideas and a great cast and crew is certainly essential, but making a film is also expensive, even a 10-12-minute short film like this one. While it's a dream of mine to finally make a film, offsetting that cost would help with the financial burden. Our budget and our fundraising goal is $5000, and every bit counts. Even with most people generously donating their time and their talents, many costs are unavoidable and key people also have to be hired for safety and for their particular expertise. Vehicles, gas, locations, fake blood, costumes, food for everyone and - yes - even portable washrooms are all needed to make the film happen.

We attempted to make this film in 2024. Unfortunately, we started running into roadblocks with four big pieces: a location, an 80s car, an old, mean truck and an actor for our would-be bad guy. What we realized is that that what would generally solve these problems is money. And so, our goal is to raise as much as the $5000 as possible, while I will cover the rest. But I not only want friends and family to be a part of this because they like me, but because they believe in what we can do with this project. That is, make a professional, tight, tense, intriguing and entertaining short film. (In the small event that we go over our funding goal, the extra funds will be put towards post-production, unforeseen costs, festival submissions and rewarding our volunteer crew).

The following list shows where we’re at with the progress of organizing the shoot and where the funding is going to. Green checkmarks show what we’ve secured, while the question marks show what we’re still working on. All question marks should be green checks by June 20.

✅ 1980s car and old truck

✅ Location (Maple Ridge)

✅ Actor to play Ellen (Sarah Turner)

✅ Actor to play Rick (Sanders Whiting)

✅ Actor to play Montana

✅ Armourer and Prop Firearms - Dano and Jeannie Saworski

❓ Blood FX Coordinator

✅ Sound Crew (Boom Op & Sound Recordist)

✅ 1st AD

✅ Production Assistants/Grips

❓ Makeup Artist

❓ On-Set Photographer

❓ Meals & Craft Services

❓ Costumes, Props & Set Dec

✅ Van rental for transport

✅ Cameras and Sound Gear

❓ Camera Car Mounts & Butterfly Flags

✅ Portable Washroom

Thank you!

Even if you cannot donate to the film, just sharing this story and link can be helpful. I will update everyone as the GoFundMe goes on, letting everyone know how the contributions are going since you are all a part of this. Each donor will also be listed in the credits (as long as you want to be) and any donations of $500 will be listed as an Executive Producer.

With your help, we'll be able to create a great short film! Thank you!!