What's The Matter? follows a classical setup, such as meeting your significant other's family, and turns it into a 60s and 70s-infused farce with laugh-out-loud comedy, twists, turns, and unrest that builds into one giant expression of violence, leaving most of its characters in a state of disarray. 

Jane Summers, college student, and daddy's girl is responsible for bringing home her 30-year-old boyfriend O. Harry Lee, philosopher, and ex-military man, to meet her less-than-normal family. The family consists of the classical patriarch Howard Summers, an illustrious car salesman and political conspiracist, Carol Summers, disgruntled housewife and former playboy playmate of the year, and Uncle Stevie, a perverted 12-year-old in the body of a 40-year-old. But if their quirks aren't enough to make any sane person take a few steps back, then their disdain and accusations toward their perfectly generous neighbors (whom they believe to be domestic terrorists) might be right up your alley. 

When I was younger I remember I would always run around telling everyone who would and wouldn't listen that I wanted to be a movie director. I had absolutely no idea what that meant, and honestly even as my taste evolved and expanded to foreign films and films of past decades I still had no clue what that was until I went to college.

Since going to college I discovered my love for screenwriting and my true talent in comedy and everything weird filmmaking. Here my taste exploded into a deep obsession with the films of the 1970s, exploitation films, absurdism, and surrealism. Ever since then it's become more and more clear the stories I desire to tell, and now over these four years of college, I've honed my craft to prepare myself to make a thesis film which I plan to use to start a career feature filmmaking. Satires are what have become my natural home as they give me the ability to use my strength in comedy and absurdism while attaching true thematic meaning to my stories. 

We plan to use this film and take it to as many festivals as we can as a proof of concept, networking, and establishing connections to finance a feature version of this film.

Link to my last project: Piggies - While on assignment gathering dirt for his tabloid boss, a pervert paparazzo witnesses a heinous act between the mayor of Los Angeles and his young actress girlfriend. https://youtu.be/UE7ncR_sSDI

Our film tackles our relationship to violence and violence in the media with a modern lens, through the look and feel of the 1960s and 70s.

As stated, the film draws heavily from The New Hollywood movement which took place in the American film industry from the late 60s through the late 70s. Key filmmakers from this movement that helped inspire the film include Elaine May, Mike Nichols, Brian De Palma, and Peter Bogdanovich, along with filmmakers such as John Waters, Luis Bunuel, Jean Luc Godard, and writer Jules Feiffer.

Below are some comparable films for our film:

The co-brain trust behind this film is made up of actress/producer/casting director Georgia T. Willow and writer/director/producer Ryan Vance. Both Georgia and Ryan met during their freshman year of film school and formed a creative partnership over the four years of their schooling. The classical old Hollywood and European director/muse partnership is not dead when Ryan and Georgia are brainstorming a film!

Georgia T. Willow

Professionally trained under Joseph Pearlman Academy and Lori Lively, Georgia is a Skilled Actress, Producer, Intimacy Coordinator, and Casting director with 15 years of experience in the industry. Just in 2022, she guest-starred in an episode of FBI:International. She is also currently the spokesperson on four Bank of America commercials. Most recently she booked a top-of-show guest star on Grey’s Anatomy. Georgia has great emotional depth and experience with both drama and comedy, appearing in major networks such as NBC, ABC, Comedy Central, MTV, CBS, and more! 

Ryan Vance

Ryan Vance is a Los Angeles-based independent writer-director, working towards his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Cinema at Columbia College Hollywood. Hailing from Sacramento, California, Ryan's love for film history is prevalent in his work and daily life. Ryan has always been infatuated with the New Hollywood and specializes in satirical comedies.

The wonderful pledges we receive for this project will go towards the pre-production, production, and post-production stages of the film. All the contributions will ensure we are able to secure the necessary items needed to support the film through each essential stage. Our plan with the film is to submit it to festivals all around the country, specifically comedy festivals and hopefully a few big ones whether that be South by Southwest, the New York Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, Sundance, or any other ones of particular note. Then we plan to use whichever festivals we get into to network and help create an even bigger community with the hopes of adapting this film eventually into a feature. The festival run will determine the distribution of the film with it then either being available to the public for free on a service like Youtube or Vimeo, or we will look to make a deal with a streaming service that tailors towards short films.

Along with our creative and financial plans, an important matter we will be planning for is COVID. We plan to stay up to date with the recommended CDC guidelines and use those to create the best and safest environment on set for our cast and crew. 

Help spread the word about our project and crowdfunding campaign with everyone you know! Some ways you can help spread the word could include tweeting, Instagramming, emailing, calling your grandma who misses you, or even digging up your dead uncle's grave and looking for the valuables he was buried with, pawning those items and donating that money directly to our campaign! 

We really need your help to spread the word to help grow our audience and reach our ultimate goal to make our film the way it is intended.

Here are some examples of posts that you can even copy-paste!

My favorite actress @georgiatwillow and favorite writer/director @ryanvance13 need your help to make a hilarious thesis film! Please check it out and donate! @ www.seedandspark.com/fund/whatsthematter

Does the Zapruder film scare you? Does the Zapruder film make you laugh? If you answered yes to either of those questions you need to visit this site now. www.seedandspark.com/fund/whatsthematter

Are you as excited about the upcoming comedy film, What's The Matter? as I am!? Check it out! www.seedandspark.com/fund/whatsthematter

You can @ our film on Instagram @ whatsthematterfilm 

And on Twitter @ Zapruderloving

Thank you

We're incredibly excited to bring our vision to life and share the entire process along the way, so one more huge thank you again from our team as we look to bring this project to life. We're beyond grateful for any of the time, energy, and funds supported towards our project as we try to make a thesis film that plays at some of the top festivals!