Hey all. John here. We're in the final stretch of postproduction for my short film He Brings the News, a project several friends and I have been working on since last summer from a script I wrote in 2024. This weird little movie is a big deal to me because, even though I've written or co-written about a dozen screenplays over about as many years, this is my first time to direct. It's been an amazing experience, and I've learned a ton from the process and all my incredible friends and collaborators who worked with me on it.
HELP US CLOSE THE DEAL
I’m asking for your help so we can finish this movie. Right now, we have a good-looking edit that runs 20 minutes, our composer is finishing up the music, and we’ve just started laying in some digital visual effects. We also have some real pros lined up to do our sound design/mix and color correction, but we need to raise $3,500 to pay for these last expenses. My friend and producer Storme Wood and I have put our own money into this film, we’re fortunate to have several generous producers who contributed a total of around $20K, and then we raised $4,000 for it at a private fundraising event in February.
So we're almost there! The friends I’ve talked with about closing this last gap have convinced me that this public crowdfunder can raise that $3,500 over these next few weeks so we can finish this film in May before our first festival screening in June (more on that later). We’ve got fun (and ridiculous) perks that you’ll get for contributing, and of course you’ll get bragging rights about helping make an original independent film actually happen. I’m beyond excited to share this film with you as we share it with the world, so please give at whatever level you’re comfortable with.
QUE ES HE BRINGS THE NEWS?
We’ve basically got a dark comedy, spiked with horror (but no blood & guts), about an isolated, stoner couple who develop a strange obsession with their mailman. Chaos, violence, and absurdity ensue, and there are these eccentric accents of witchcraft and phantasmagoria that I believe make it unique. All local, Oklahoma folks worked on this film with one exception: our headliner Zandy Hartig—probably most known for her work on Adult Swim’s Children’s Hospital, but she’s done a bunch of cool stuff including a couple Steven Soderbergh movies where she acts opposite heavy-hitters like Meryl Streep and Beau Bridges. She contributed to a super-fun dynamic with co-stars Peter Anthony Seay and Mason Giles, who each brought their own singularly hilarious stamp to their characters. A lot of other fantastic people behind the camera worked on this, too. Scroll on down to the end if you'd like see more of our personnel, and we've got some BTS shots in crowdfundr's media gallery.
We shot the film last October in Seminole, Oklahoma (about an hour’s drive southeast of OKC). With six full shooting days, a single location, three actors, and a total crew of 18 people led by cinematographer Jacob Leighton Burns, I thought we might be making it easy for ourselves, but like most shoots, this one turned out to be some hard work. Kind of a baptism by fire for a writer like me, and I was impressed as hell with our team’s work ethic. For many of us, five hours of sleep a night felt like a luxury when we could get it, but at the end of the day I’m happy to say everything went reasonably well.
POSTPRODUCTION, SO FAR
Once home, after letting it sit for a while, reviewing all the footage was an incredible experience. The intoxicating sense of synergy so many of us felt on set—with a cast and crew gelling in incredible ways that reflected their talent, hard work, and (so gratifying to me) their dedication to the material—I was ecstatic to see that it all found its way onto the screen. All the departments, from camera and electrical to the art dept. to hair, makeup and wardrobe, they all made this thing look amazing.
Editing took some time, but I was fortunate to have Mickey Reece on board as a producer—effectively our postproduction supervisor—and working with him and his longtime editor Lucille Gable taught me more than I knew I had coming. These last several months, listening to our original music take shape at the hands of sonic luminary Nick Poss has been inspiring as well.
MAKE MY DAY
So, here we are. Want to help us cross the finish line and make this thing real? We’d love your help, and I’ll never forget that you supported this film, my baby, and helped get it onto the big screen at film festivals near and far. We’ve only submitted a work-in-progress to a few festivals at this point, but we’ve already had some luck and are eager to concentrate more on our long-term festival strategy to get He Brings the News in front of as many audiences as possible.
We can’t do that without your support, so I hope you’ll consider contributing whatever you can. Check out our campaign perks you get for contributing (there to your right), and please just DM me on the socials if you have any questions. I’ll get back to you pronto.
Thank you for joining us on our journey at this crucial moment. Long live the independent arts!
PERSONNEL
written and directed by JOHN SELVIDGE
produced by STORME WOOD
produced by MICKEY REECE
produced by ALEX PALMER & LEAH N.H. PHILPOTT
director of photography - JACOB LEIGHTON BURNS
production design - CAIT BRASEL
art director - BEN MURDAUGH
wardrobe, hair & makeup - KADI UHACK
editor - LUCILLE GABLE
music & sound design - NICK POSS
Executive Producer - BETH M. ALONSO & BLAKE JOHNSON
Producers - SAM FULKERSON, DEBRA METZGER, VALERIE GARDNER & DAVE LAW
Associate Producers - CHRIS BERUMEN, LAURIE CUMMINGS, JACQI DILL & LIA FIORONI
location sound - NICK MCDONALD
assistant camera - ABBY CAMARGO
gaffer - JAKE KELLEY
key grip - CHRIS OZ MCINTOSH
set decorator - NICK REICHERT
prop master - EMILY HOEBING
assistant production coordinator - ELLEN SELVIDGE
fight/stunt coordinators - LEAH N.H. PHILPOTT & KATE BUSSELLE
intimacy coordinator s - KATE BUSSELLE
digital imaging technicians - JONATHAN SHAHAN & MIA ANGELO
set photographer - MIA ANGELO
production accountant - JOSH GOLDBERG
ADDITIONAL CREW
assistant camera - JACOB LIAO
gaffer - CHRIS OZ MCINTOSH
key grip - ZACHARY BURNS
best boy electric - EMILY BERTELS
location sound - TRENT SCHLESINGER
hair & makeup - REANON CASILLO
Perks
For your $25 contribution, you will receive a personalized thank-you movie postcard with He Brings the News' poster image & a link to watch the film online when it goes public.
For $50, we will name-check you in the thank-you section of the movie's end credits & on IMDB. You'll also receive the above thank-you postcard & link to the finished film once it's public..
For your $100 contribution, you will receive everything listed above (postcard & credited thank-you) along with an 11 x 17" He Brings the News movie poster & a private link to see the film right after we've finished it. Skip the lines. ;)
Did you know that John was a published poet in another life? Well, if you contribute $200, you'll get everything listed above & John will write you a poem on the topic of your choice (it can be as sincere or smart-assed as you want, just tell us).
We can mail you a printed version of the poem with the other stuff, and/or John will read it aloud for you in an audio file or for the entire world to hear on Instagram.
I know you want to know what the cards say. For your $300 contribution, you'll receive everything above plus a personal three-card Tarot card video reading from John. Don't laugh: he's actually been studying this stuff for a while.
For $500, you'll receive everything above, but John will dig deeper for your video Tarot card reading via the classic, ten-card Celtic Cross spread. Oh snap, is this guy some kind of warlock? No one really knows.
Congratulations! At $1,000, you'll join the illustrious team of producers without whom He Brings the News could not exist. You'll receive everything above as well as a prominent Associate Producer credit in the film's end credits and on IMDB. You'll also receive an invitation to an exclusive, in-person screening of the film in Seminole, Oklahoma, and you'll have bragging rights for life that you're a film producer.
Even louder congratulations! At $2,500, you'll be a straight-up producer and like a god to people who care about He Brings the News. For your vital contribution to making this film, you will receive everything above along with an even-more-prominent Producer credit in the finished film and on IMDB.
You will also receive an invitation to an exclusive, in-person screening of the film in Seminole, and John's going to find other creative ways of thanking you for a good, long time.
"Congratulations" doesn't even cover it! At $5,000, you're basically a superhero-for-life as an Executive Producer. You have life-changing power to end this crowdfunding campaign right now, in fact, and pay a bunch of our festival submission fees to boot. Obviously, you'll receive everything above. But you'll also join, like, two other people at the top of the film's money-producer end credits and on IMDB because you are truly a patron of the independent filmic arts.
You'll also receive an invitation to that exclusive, in-person screening of He Brings the News in Seminole and can likely call in favors from John for the rest of your life.
Highlights
See all activity6Activity
For your $25 contribution, you will receive a personalized thank-you movie postcard with He Brings the News' poster image & a link to watch the film online when it goes public.
For $50, we will name-check you in the thank-you section of the movie's end credits & on IMDB. You'll also receive the above thank-you postcard & link to the finished film once it's public..
For your $100 contribution, you will receive everything listed above (postcard & credited thank-you) along with an 11 x 17" He Brings the News movie poster & a private link to see the film right after we've finished it. Skip the lines. ;)
Did you know that John was a published poet in another life? Well, if you contribute $200, you'll get everything listed above & John will write you a poem on the topic of your choice (it can be as sincere or smart-assed as you want, just tell us).
We can mail you a printed version of the poem with the other stuff, and/or John will read it aloud for you in an audio file or for the entire world to hear on Instagram.
I know you want to know what the cards say. For your $300 contribution, you'll receive everything above plus a personal three-card Tarot card video reading from John. Don't laugh: he's actually been studying this stuff for a while.
For $500, you'll receive everything above, but John will dig deeper for your video Tarot card reading via the classic, ten-card Celtic Cross spread. Oh snap, is this guy some kind of warlock? No one really knows.
Congratulations! At $1,000, you'll join the illustrious team of producers without whom He Brings the News could not exist. You'll receive everything above as well as a prominent Associate Producer credit in the film's end credits and on IMDB. You'll also receive an invitation to an exclusive, in-person screening of the film in Seminole, Oklahoma, and you'll have bragging rights for life that you're a film producer.
Even louder congratulations! At $2,500, you'll be a straight-up producer and like a god to people who care about He Brings the News. For your vital contribution to making this film, you will receive everything above along with an even-more-prominent Producer credit in the finished film and on IMDB.
You will also receive an invitation to an exclusive, in-person screening of the film in Seminole, and John's going to find other creative ways of thanking you for a good, long time.
"Congratulations" doesn't even cover it! At $5,000, you're basically a superhero-for-life as an Executive Producer. You have life-changing power to end this crowdfunding campaign right now, in fact, and pay a bunch of our festival submission fees to boot. Obviously, you'll receive everything above. But you'll also join, like, two other people at the top of the film's money-producer end credits and on IMDB because you are truly a patron of the independent filmic arts.
You'll also receive an invitation to that exclusive, in-person screening of He Brings the News in Seminole and can likely call in favors from John for the rest of your life.
