Death Is No Bad Friend
A Short Film
PREPRODUCTION: SUMMER 2014
PRODUCTION: SPRING 2015
California, 1880 -- Robert Louis Stevenson strives to escape his guilty conscience, but illness forces him to face his demons.
Cast
Robert Louis Stevenson ......... Kyle Duke Adamiec
Fanny Stevenson ......... Kari Wishingrad
The Doctor ......... Larry Laverty
The Landlord .........
The Landlady ......... Katy Tiemann
The Sick Child .........
Crew
Director ......... Mary Lachapelle
Cinematographer ......... Jacqueline Lehr
Screenwriter ......... G. E. Gallas
Costume Designer ......... Rachel Dagdagan
Sound Designer ......... Brandon Kaplan
Featured Musicians ......... Rich & Lou's Loudhailer
Produced by James Steel, Mimi Zweig, G. E. Gallas and Mary Lachapelle
Summary
Based on the life and works of Robert Louis Stevenson (Treasure Island, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde).
San Francisco, California, 1880 -- Robert Louis Stevenson is distraught by the illness of his landlord's young child. Louis finds himself unable to put pen to paper and drowns his sorrows in laudanum.
He turns to the child's doctor for hope, but finds none.
Louis's thoughts turn to his ordeal of traveling across America to San Francisco in pursuit of Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne. He remembers feverishly writing his friend Edmund Gosse and is troubled by visions of a brutal fire.
Reunited, Louis proposes to Fanny that they marry as soon as possible and honeymoon on Mount Saint Helena. But Louis is plagued with unbridled guilt and a sudden episode of illness forces him to face his demons.
Screenplay
- Quater finalist in the 2013 Creative World Awards.
- 2nd round qualifier in the Kaos Films British Short Screenplay Competition 2012.
- "Death Is No Bad Friend is a poetic script that relies on imagery to evoke a morose feeling. The language is very well-crafted, with the characters' style of speech accurate for the time period. Because the descriptions are succinct but also written in a similar style, the script reads easily and quickly while creating clear images of the locations." --Feedback from the 2014 BlueCat Screenplay Competition
Press
- “Conversations: Screenwriter, Graphic Novelist, Illustrator — G. E. Gallas,” interview by Jenny Bhatt for Storyacious.com.
- Interview about Death Is No Bad Friend by Simon Ball (shipscooksstuff.wordpress.com) for The Spooky Isles.
Funding
- Our goal is to raise around $25,000 for the production of the film.
- March 2014: We raised about $3,000 through crowdfunding on Indiegogo.
- July 2014: We are working on a proposal for a number of filmmaking-related grants.
- You can also help out by donating to us via PayPal to [email protected].