Vermillion - a trans-led experimental film
Donation protected
How can love feel so lonely?
What do we hold onto when friends drift apart?
To love someone completely, how important is it to know them completely?
What if the person who understands you best understands someone else better?
Vi, Vermillion and Ryan know each other well, love each other as best they can, and have no idea where the boundaries fall between them.
Vermillion is an experimental art film about frustrations, confusion and communication; their fragmentary conversations are refracted through surreal movement sequences, blurring the lines between present, memory and fantasy.
Above all, this is a gentle film - a loving, patient, nuanced charting of the changes in dynamic between three people. In a media landscape quite so hungry for good, evil, scandal, intrigue, guilt and vindication, we want to slow it down and tell a story about the ordinary heartbreak of everyday life.
As a majority trans-led creative team working with a majority queer and trans cast and crew, it’s particularly close to our hearts to have the chance to tell a story like this about trans characters. Vermillion presents minority characters for whom the central drama in their lives is just…ordinary. Love, friendship, where to go next: the profound banalities of living.
Find out more about our team here:
The chronology is ambiguous, the relationships are shifting and uncertain, and the locations - mostly forgotten, run-down spaces dotted around North London - are liminal, strange and only incidentally, surprisingly beautiful.
Your support will make our film possible. We hail from theatre and from film, bringing different specialities and experiences to the table.
We have lots of very cool people helping us with not spending money, but in the end even a no-budget film with a two week shoot length still needs multiple thousands of pounds.
So here is our budget overview:
Crew - goodwill
Actors - goodwill and compliments
Insurance - unfortunately not goodwill, actually quite expensive
Catering - to ensure goodwill. (feeding 15+ people for 8 days is not a small feat
Hard-drives - no, the cloud doesn’t work)
Equipment - some goodwill, actually a lot of goodwill. And some renting probably…
Costumes - necessary because this is not THAT kind of arthouse film
Props & Sets - weirdly expensive, and we need plants to make it look like a house full of people in their twenties
Film festival application fees - god willing
Join us on Instagram for updates at https://www.instagram.com/vermillion_short/
Organizer
Merlin Stevens
Organizer
Oswego, IL