Outrageous Fortune Star Joins Wellington Anthology Film   4 Nov 2014

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Outrageous Fortune Star Joins Wellington Anthology Film

Short Film “The Tramp” To Star Siobhan Marshall In Feature Film “Encounters”

WELLINGTON, 4 NOVEMBER 2014 - Siobhan Marshall (Outrageous Fortune/The Blue Rose/Shortland Street) will star alongside Cohen Holloway (Top of the Lake/Boy/Good For Nothing) in short film The Tramp as part of collaborative feature film Encounters to begin shooting in Wellington this month.

In The Tramp, a woman goes tramping by herself and encounters a man with questionable intentions, but can she trust him? The filmmakers have launched a fundraising campaign on New Zealand crowdfunding platform PledgeMe to help get the thriller short made.

Once complete, the short film segment will join a number of others made by a select group of Wellington-based directors as part of The Oneshot Collective; a self-funded initiative to showcase filmmaking talent through a single feature-length film. The finished piece will contain a number of short stories unified by the common theme of chance meetings or encounters with the aim of promoting interest in the filmmakers and acting as a ‘calling card’ for the feature-length projects many of them are developing.

Constance Gervasi, the Writer, Director and Producer of The Tramp said “Like many others, I’ve experienced years of rejection and frustration due to the lack of available funding, so I couldn’t say no to the opportunity of being involved with other like-minded talented, creative people to make this project happen.” Speaking of why she was drawn to the brief, Gervasi says, “In life, chance meetings happen all the time, some of those encounters can have far reaching or life changing consequences and are stories that beg to be told.”

Oneshot co-founder Chaz Harris says of the initiative, “There are so many talented filmmakers here in New Zealand and with such limited access to funding and fierce competition for shorts to reach festivals, we felt this could be a smarter way to showcase what we’re all capable of by working together instead of endlessly competing.”

Speaking of the wider industry issues the initiative aims to address, Harris says, “We really need to encourage those writers and directors who have a desire to tell stories with more international reach to remain in New Zealand. If we are ever going to have a self-sustaining screen industry in this country, it requires more inward investment from offshore in locally made and owned intellectual property along with that content having the necessary international market appeal to attract it and generate viable co-production opportunities.”

If you would like to support this initiative you can contribute to The Tramp on PledgeMe at the following link: https://www.pledgeme.co.nz/projects/2782-the-tramp-a-oneshot-collective-film with further information available at www.oneshotcollective.co.nz.

ENDS

About Constance Gervasi

Constance has won prizes in two regional art awards, has had a short story published in the book Totally Devoted and holds a Directing & Writing Bachelor’s degree in Performing & Screen Arts from UNITEC along with a Masters in Scriptwriting from Victoria University’s esteemed IIML. Buoyed by her success in the inaugural 48 Hour Film Competition in 2003 where 100% Manmade was voted audience favourite, Constance undertook an apprenticeship with Onions, a film production company based in New Delhi. Her work then screened at the WTM in London & Spain and the World Economic Forum in India with a related print campaign IQ-India Quotient presented to the UN General Assembly by PM Manmohan Singh. She has freelanced on various projects including Creative NZ funded short Suburbanaut and Dale Corlett’s The Man on the Side of the Road.
About PledgeMe

PledgeMe is New Zealand’s homegrown crowdfunding platform allowing people to raise money to make things happen by reaching out to their crowd. For more information visit www.pledgeme.co.nz

About Oneshot Collective

The Oneshot Collective was co-founded by filmmakers Chaz Harris and Conan McKegg as a new way for emerging directors to be showcased outside the traditional film festival route. The initiative has so far attracted the support of Mojo Coffee, collaboration tool FilmHoncho and Wellington’s Emerging Artists Trust. The finished anthology feature has the working title of Encounters and will feature short film segments all unified by the common theme of chance meetings or encounters. For more information visit: www.oneshotcollective.co.nz

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