The Pitch

After having such a positive experience working with the actors on ¨Dance of the Hanged Man,¨ we set out to continue to develop the characters and story arc with the script for ¨Paris In Winter.¨  After many workshops and improv sessions with the actors, we had a table read of the script with our producers, and are confident we´re ready to make this unique, compelling, story-driven film.  No longer just a script, ¨Paris In Winter¨ became a labor of love for all those involved.  The next step:  raising the funds to begin production.  Here´s a video we compiled to show donors what ¨Paris In Winter¨ is about and why it´s worth contributing to!  Meet some of the actors and production team here:

The Auditions

We had over 800 submissions for 2 leading roles in "Paris In Winter" when we cast last year.  Each audtioner was asked to respond to the verse, "Addicted to the loneliness/I envy your destructiveness, I wish that we could live together in this twisted world forever, your reality's my fantasy, but this fantasy's too real!"  Here's how some of the best auditioners responded:

The Story

Mary is an American expat living abroad in Cambodia, working for an NGO, on the brink of being jaded.  Marc is a British-South African financial advisor who has all but given up on the world, until he meets Mary, who, in his eyes, is the only remaining ¨Good¨ left in the world.  But when Mary observes Marc´s dark, mysterious and sometimes uncouth behavior, she starts to wonder if being ¨good and moral¨ is all it´s cracked up to be, as she realizes she is no more satisfied in her life than Marc is in his.  Marc and Mary struggle with their deepest vulnerabilities in an attempt to discover themselves in hopes of connecting with each other.

Prior to making ¨Paris In Winter,¨ Stephanie made the Ten To One Film Series, where she wrote and directed a film a month for ten months.  The tenth film, ¨Dance of the Hanged Man,¨ was created as a character study for ¨Paris In Winter.¨  ¨Dance of the Hang Man¨ actress, Gina Buck, returns to the screen as the character she began creating for the tenth film, along side with Malcolm Madera, who was featured in Film IV ("Very Bad Things") of the Ten To One films.

The Origins

The idea for ¨Paris In Winter¨ was conceived while traveling from New York to Singapore, and Stephanie took a brief hiatus in Paris.  The people and scenes she encountered were not what she expected.  It wasn´t all romance and flowers and springtime.  It was January; the dead of winter; cold, dark, lonely.  When she left, the words to this verse came to her and never left:

Addicted to the loneliness,
I envy your destructiveness,
I wish that we could live together
in this twisted world forever.
Your reality´s my fantasy,
but this fantasy´s too real.

¨Paris In Winter¨ is the antithesis of the typical Paris love story.  Like Stephanie´s experience with the city itself, the characters we encounter in the film are not what meets the eye.  This film is meant to capture the idea of two isolated, lonely people, who find each other in a moment in their lives when they most need to feel they are not alone; to feel a connection with another human being; to escape; to belong.  However, despite their immediate attraction to each other, finding the level of intimacy they both desire is more difficult to achieve.

Welcome!

Welcome to the "Paris In Winter" production blog!  For those of you who are new to "Paris In Winter" let's catch you up to speed!  "Paris In Winter" is a short, narrative film produced by Ren Humphrey & John Nelson, starring Gina Buck & Malcolm Madera, Written & Directed by Stephanie Gardner.  To  learn more about the filmmaker, visit www.thestephaniegardner.com.

This blog is meant to be a place for you to follow our production, view updates, stills from set, and keep track of the creative process from pre-production to post production.  Read on to learn how we got   here!