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Missing
Something attracted 169 backers with £7,615 pledged of £7,500 goal
during 2 weeks in April 2013. Leila Sykes (pictured above) is also a
member of the SFG.
MISSING SOMETHING is a cross-platform web sitcom: a spotlight into a world of pretentious media agencies, self-absorbed artists, oversexed-flatmates and
petty crooks. This crazy world is called “London”.
The series is a good old-fashioned British sitcom - interwoven plots, larger-than-life
characters and a solid story that we all grudgingly relate to. This
production with a difference packs each episode into just three minutes.
The story centres on a twenty-something Londoner coming to terms with a quarter-life crisis, and discovering she's as bonkers as everyone
else.
MISSING
SOMETHING - CAST
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Leila
Sykes - Rachel |
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Ashlea
Kaye |
Fran
Binefa |
THREE'S
COMPANY, Yaz Al-Shaater and Tom Crawshaw Three’s
Company is an award-winning three-man theatre company founded in 2000,
with work to date including appearances in London,
Manchester and the Buxton
and Edinburgh Fringes.
CO-PRODUCERS
- DIRECTORS - WRITERS
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Tom
Crawshaw - Writer |
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Yaz
Al-Shaater - Co director |
Rachel
is a self-aware bundle of neuroses and fumbled decisions, the only people
more loony than her are everyone else she ever meets ever. A self-aggrandising
boss, two self-absorbed flatmates, a self-obsessed ex-boyfriend - and
that’s not to mention the masked vigilantess at war with the
blisteringly inept criminal underworld on their doorstep. Everything’s
connected, if only she could just stop thinking about it long enough to
figure out how.
Each episode is an individual story, forming part of a spiralling plot
towards a riotous season finale (and beyond). A moment of surreal insanity
in one episode becomes key as the stories unravel.
Missing
Something is set in a world of missed links, of interconnectivity and the
internet. That’s how it’s delivered, that’s how it’s funded
(please help), and it’s hard-wired into the story itself.
What does that mean?
The stories and subplots spread across the episodes, and branch out into
the internet, linking to dozens of other microsites, videos, and social
media accounts. Follow the cross-platform stories and you'll stumble
across* certain twists before they appear onscreen, see the secret cogs*
underneath the plot, and even get to influence certain elements of plot
through your actions. Hints to find these extra stories are in the
episodes themselves, and on the website… but to find them all, you'll
have to hunt hard.
To
make this happen the producers have put together an awesome team:-
•Haroun "Haz" Al-Shaater, director and DoP
•Yacein "Yaz" Al-Shaater, co-director, co-creator, and
co-actor.
•Leila "La" Sykes, creator, lead writer, and lead actor
•Christopher "Vince" Vincent, production designer
•Tom "Tom" Crawshaw, writer and story editor
•Melissa Johnson-Peters, producer
•Sophie Larn, 1st AD
•Jemima Yong, camera
•Matt Price, sound recordist and mixer
•Verity Pitt, hair and makeup
Cast includes Scott Wilson-Besgrove, Francesca Binefa, Lee Drage, Amr
Elbayoumi, Michael Grady-Hall, Omar Ibrahim, and Ashlea Kaye.
RISKS
& CHALLENGES
There are two potential obstacles we're likely to be faced on this shoot.
1. The first is getting everything done in time and without any production delays. This is the case with any shoot, but we're trying to fit 12 high-energy episodes into 16 shoot days.
The producers are aware that this is a huge undertaking, and have planned accordingly.
They've built some contingency into the scheduling, and a good lead time.
They have an experienced and dedicated team on their side.
2. The second is that this project is a new and ambitious idea. Like any experimental undertaking,
they're likely to find that not everything works like they expect. Perhaps a webisode must be at least 3m5s to work? But
they have a dexterous and cunning streak, and are used to reworking things at a moment's notice.
The risk of experimentation is what crowd-funding allows. No conventional funding streams are geared towards this kind of work - how could they be? Innovation depends on a group of people having faith in a new idea.
They just want to make it bigger. With your help.
They are madly excited about the idea, and one way or another they are
going to see it happen. They've already invested a significant amount of time, money, and other peoples' good will so far, and
they're not about to let that go to waste.
FAQs
Will I be able to get Missing Something on DVD?
Whatever happens, our top level backers will get signed, bespoke, hand-made copies of the whole series. SILVER backers will get it on a bespoke USB flash drive instead.But, we have calculated the cost of getting DVDs with jewel cases professionally produced, so we know what we need to reach to make it feasible.
Why Three minutes?
We chose that length, it's because we wanted to distil a story into the shortest helping we could. A morsel of entertainment you can watch and absorb during a cigarette
break (which you should give up), or as a distraction from your procrastination on
facebook.
Each episode has a beginning, middle and an end, and more jokes than you can shake a funny bone at.
If you want more, you can always watch it twice.
Can you really make a 12-episode series on such a small budget?
Absolutely. Sure, it'll be tough, but we're used to working with no money, and we're all investing from our own pockets too.
That's not to say we couldn't make it even cooler a larger budget. We've cut a lot of locations and set-pieces to get it to this level, and we do have alternative budgets (and some awesome rewards) in place if we raise more.
But one thing at a time.
What are your influences?
Funny you should ask. We're influenced by all the great British sitcoms, as well as a few awesome US shows. If we had to pick two, I'd say Spaced - for its zany characters, occasional surrealism, and sense of fun in its film-making - and Arrested Development - for its interwoven plots, genius writing, and the way that every moment and joke is reincorporated later in the series (or several seasons later).
Also hugely influenced by Coupling (if you've not seen the last episode of Series 2, watch it now and die happy), The Office (who isn't?), Only Fools & Horses, and the plays of Tom
Stoppard.
How do I audition for Missing Something?
We've cast the leads for season 1, but several rewards give you the chance to appear on screen. And we like the idea that an extra could develop into a character in season two But either way, send us a CV or Spotlight link and we'll take a look in the future.
How
much do you need to make this happen?
They
need to find around £7,500. You are probably thinking that £7,500 is very low for a
webseries, especially for one as complex as this - and it is. It's barely £600 per episode.
They are able to do it so cheaply because they own a lot of equipment, and
have a great team of professionals willing to invest their time for peanuts*
They
did the pilot for nothing. £7,500 is based on the cheapest, simplest, most reigned-in version of
their plans. That may not make good business sense, but they have more ambitious budgets for
their ideal version of the series. The whole point of a pilot is to see
what kind of public reaction you get, before seeking more.
You'll have to donate to find out what the ambitions are.
*A tasty high protein snack from
America.
LINKS:
Missing
Something
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/yacein/missing-something-a-wacky-british-web-sitcom
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