Our short film will premiere at the Atlanta Film Festival, and we need your help to get there! Watch the trailer here!

In the summer of 2024, my co-producer Cait Rowe and I shot FALSE START, a short film made possible through the support of our local Dayton community, people willing to volunteer their time, lend their equipment and locations, and donate their money to the production. We crowdfunded and came up with a budget of less than $3,000, a crew of virtually all Wright State, Ohio University and University of Cincinnati students and alumni, and a four-day shooting schedule (ultimately three days and three half-days, due to weather!). It was a scrappy production that moved fast and relied on favors, quick thinking and a lot of luck and sweat to make it through. We asked for the bare minimum we thought it would take, and we made something we're very proud of.

In April, FALSE START will have its world premiere at the Atlanta Film Festival, an Academy Award-qualifying festival, where it will screen in competition for Best Narrative Short. We are so excited and so grateful for the opportunity to represent where we come from and to show that filmmakers don't need to leave home behind to follow their dreams. But we need your help to get there! Being an incredibly small production, we don't have the budget built in for an opportunity like this. Help us cover film passes and travel expenses for the team, so we can represent Dayton on the red carpet!

Written, directed, produced and edited by Ella Price

Produced and shot by Cait Rowe

Starring Julia Daigh, Magdalen Silver, Shannon Lane, Lucy Rocchio, John Cuozzo, Desmond Kingston, and Olivia Milligan

Costume design by Victoria "Ori" Rancor

Music by Adam Clark