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By Kevin Boudreau
Lights! Camera! Almost action. The advanced video students involved in creating “Finding Cle” have recently finished accepting donations to fund their film.
“Finding Cle” is a short film written and produced by Fitchburg State University junior Christopher Hebert. The film is set in the not-too-distant future, when war has broken out. The film tells the story of Daniel, a teenager in search of his brother and only living relative, Cle. Daniel hopes that by finding Cle, he can save what little he has left in a world that has been torn apart by chaos.
Hebert says the inspiration for writing the film came from his observations of modern society. He says, “Our generation thinks that we won’t have to face any issues in the future; we think the older generation will solve our problems for us.” Hebert says that this is simply not true. “We are going to have to pick up the slack the older generation leaves us, when the time comes,” he says.
To take this film from pictures on storyboards to an actual production, the student crew members of “Finding Cle” worked hard to raise their goal of $4,100 to budget their film.
The only problem was that the current budget is still a little short of what the crew members are hoping for. They raised over $1,500 during production and were given a $500 grant from FSU’s president.
What will the film’s budget money be used for? Katie Bienvenue, the script supervisor and continuity editor of the film, says, “That budget money will be going towards the means of production,” including costumes, actors, and props.
And yes, certain actors appearing in this film are being paid for their services. Hebert confirmed this by saying that hiring actors for the film “has become a bigger expense than was expected, but the performance of the paid actors should be that much better because of it.”
Both Bienvenue and Hebert agreed that the overall quality of the film would be affected by whether or not the set budget of the film was reached. “All you need is a camera and some imagination, but [without the proper budget] the overall quality of the film wouldn’t be as professional as an advanced video student should shoot for,” Bienvenue says.
Hebert agreed, saying, “What we’re doing for this project is what we’re going to be doing in real life. We aren’t keeping your [donors’] money, it is all going towards our production in hopes of making it better.”
Hebert and the rest of the film’s crew wish to make it known that every dollar donated to their production is appreciated and that every donor has the utmost gratitude from the cast and crew of “Finding Cle.”
To find out more about the film, go online to www.indiegogo.com/Finding-Cle.