Over Dinner
New Haven, Connecticut | Film Short
Comedy, Drama
Over Dinner shows an evening in the relationship of a former single-mother and her daughter, how their dependence on each other took its toll. The film will explore what happens when a relationship is broken beyond traditional bounds, how it might never fully heal, and how history repeats itself.
Over Dinner
New Haven, Connecticut | Film Short
Comedy, Drama
1 Campaigns | California, United States
Green Light
This campaign raised $2,638 for production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
32 supporters | followers
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Over Dinner shows an evening in the relationship of a former single-mother and her daughter, how their dependence on each other took its toll. The film will explore what happens when a relationship is broken beyond traditional bounds, how it might never fully heal, and how history repeats itself.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
The Story
A Whistle in the Dark.
Over Dinner is a short drama/comedy focusing on the rocky relationship between a quirky grandmother, Eleanor, her grown up daughter, Anne, and her grandson James. Taking place almost entirely within the confines of Eleanor's tiny apartment over the course of one Thanksgiving dinner, the story centers on the tension between Anne's inability to let go of the past and Eleanor's willingness to forget. Anne is frustrated by her role as James's strict single-mother, while Eleanor has the freedom to shower her grandson in special attention, the kind Anne was denied growing up herself in a single-parent household. Eleanor sees this differently, and instead remembers the eccentric and humorous ways in which she tried to distract Anne from the harsher realities of her childhood.
This comes to a head when Eleanor presents James with an exorbitant present, ignoring Anne's wishes to return the gift, and pitting mother against son. Anne then sees it as her mission to get Eleanor to accept blame for Anne's unhappiness, and to lift up the mask of loving grandmother.
Her actions bring the both of them down to a child-like level and the curtains come down, all for James to see.
Origins
The film is inspired by the relationship of writer and director Travis Gonzalez's mother and grandmother. He would sit at the adult table and listen to them discuss family drama and arguments, prompted by what seemed, from the perspective of a child, something as simple as overcooked food.
His grandmother, a single parent of five sons and one daughter, depended on his mother to be the secondary voice of authority. That's a lot of responsibility for a child, and serves as the basis from which the short film was written.
Artistically, we want to place serious family issues (lies, verbal abuse, favoritism, poverty), within the frame of childlike exaggeration and immaturity. Unlike the tried-and-true image of a dysfunctional family unit, placed in their three bedroom, 2.5 bath house in the suburbs, the film's characters exist in the world of people struggling to stay above the poverty line, and remain loving while doing so. These econmic tensions become a factor in the small family's happiness, and is the root of Anne's frustrations from childhood into motherhood.
The love and bond of a grandmother and grandson also comes into contention with the love needed of a mother. Anne, the mother in this story, is placed in the outside circle of her own small remaining family of three. The person of authority within her household, she resents her own mother for her ability to evolve into a warm and loving grandmother, where she has taken over the role of pessimist. Anne and Eleanor, in their dependence on each other, extends beyond the trope of the feuding mother and daughter in their equitable relationship. The film highlights the dissappointment Anne feels in discovering her mother has always been less of a figure of authority and more like a sister.
Over Dinner pulls cinematic inspiration from the work of Pier Paolo Pasolini, especially Momma Roma and Bellissima, which played with the changing image and concept of mother and child in film and its connection to an increasingly materialistic world. It challenges the use of material objects as a balm for pain, and challenges the ways people mask tpain in order to move forward, and how that can lead to further damage.
Director's Statement
As a filmmaker and a senior Film & Media Studies major at Yale University, Over Dinner is both the most personal film I have worked on to-date, as well as the culmination of my work in film within university. I've always been inspired, and somewhat terrified, by my eccentric family and their past, and one of my goals has been to create a film based on their relationships.
By shooting this as a fiction film as opposed to a documentary, I will be able to specifically highlight the universality of family dysfunction, damaged childhoods, and repressed memories. My film takes eccentric and larger-than-life characters, and grounds them within a world of realism.
Cinema should be a space where you can enter a world completely different than your own, but still be guided by an uncanny sense of familiarity. While Over Dinner, is based around my experiences, it will pull on feelings of insecurity people feel in their own families. I want to walk the line between what is funny, what is serious, and how humor can be a way of coping with sadness.
**
We hope you will join our small family as we work to bring Anne, Eleanor, and James' story to life!
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Location Rental Fee
Costs $300
We were fortunate to find a great and low-cost space to shoot the film, and would like to compensate the owner for the use of his space!
Food Props
Costs $150
The film takes place over Thanksgiving Dinner, so having the food there for actors to interact with and be believable is crucial.
Cast Travel and Living Expenses
Costs $600
Our actors will not be from the New Haven area, and therefore need to be compensated for travel and potential lodging.
Craft Services
Costs $700
We want to be able to feed or cast and crew (who together total about 10) for five days, who are working on this project for free!
Data Management
Costs $300
We are shooting the film in 4k and want to make sure the footage is safe, secure, and backed up.
Transportation
Costs $300
We need to be able to move equipment and people to our shooting location.
Camera Rigs, Lenses, Stabilizers
Costs $400
Our grant from the University covers some, but not all of our camera needs. This would partially cover rigs, lenses, and stabilizers.
Lighting
Costs $250
While we have most of the major lighting equipment we will use, this would cover flags, china balls, and any other smaller fixtures.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
TRAVIS GONZALEZ (writer-director) is a senior in Film & Media Studies at Yale University and a filmmaker from Staten Island New York. He was the president of Bulldog Productions, Yale's only student-run film production company, and is the film festival director and a founding member of the Yale Film Alliance. In addition to an internship in talent management at Brookside Artist Management and a summer Teaching Assistant position for the 2015 Eye on Video filmmaking program, Travis has worked as a writer, producer, and later director for web series B-Roll, producer, editor, director of photography on various student films, and has worked as a filmmaker for clients including: The Yale Admissions Office, The Association of Yale Alumni, Paprika!, Sugar Hill Culture Club, Those People, First Things Foundation, City Atlas: New Haven. Two of his favorite projects were a documentary, Pa'Que Tu Lo Sepas (Don't You Forget it!), which explores the relationship between Puerto Rican Islanders and second-generation "mainlanders," and his work on the 2013 Yale Symphony Orchestra Halloween, a fifty-minute silent film that screens to two thousand students on Halloween.
JARED FELLOWS (producer) is a junior Film and Media Studies major at Yale University, a member of Yale’s WYBC radio station, and Publicist for Bulldog Productions. Jared started at Yale interested in radio broadcasting and music. In the spring of his sophomore year, Jared worked as boom operator/sound mixer for Bulldog Production’s Captain Invincible is Dead!, which Travis Gonzalez executive produced. This past fall, Jared produced Bulldog Production’s Something Else and was sound designer for a student production of Julia Cho’s The Language Archive. For the past three summers, Jared has interned as an HBO LA Intern in their series development, film development, and production departments as an Emma Bowen Foundation scholar (more information here).
LUKAS COX (director of photography) is a freshman in the Directed Studies Program at Yale University and a freelance cinematographer, composer, and editor from Amherst, MA. Past commercial clients include the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute, StartupGrind New Haven, Small Parade, OsteoNaturals, and the UMass iCons program. His narrative work has been showcased at the Northampton and Traverse City film festivals; recent projects include Bulldog Production’s SOMETHING ELSE (DP, editor) and BLACK EYE (DP) as well as the Yale College Class Day Video (AC). He is a recipient of the Joseph Maddy Summer Artist Award in Cinematic Arts from Interlochen Arts Academy.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
The Story
A Whistle in the Dark.
Over Dinner is a short drama/comedy focusing on the rocky relationship between a quirky grandmother, Eleanor, her grown up daughter, Anne, and her grandson James. Taking place almost entirely within the confines of Eleanor's tiny apartment over the course of one Thanksgiving dinner, the story centers on the tension between Anne's inability to let go of the past and Eleanor's willingness to forget. Anne is frustrated by her role as James's strict single-mother, while Eleanor has the freedom to shower her grandson in special attention, the kind Anne was denied growing up herself in a single-parent household. Eleanor sees this differently, and instead remembers the eccentric and humorous ways in which she tried to distract Anne from the harsher realities of her childhood.
This comes to a head when Eleanor presents James with an exorbitant present, ignoring Anne's wishes to return the gift, and pitting mother against son. Anne then sees it as her mission to get Eleanor to accept blame for Anne's unhappiness, and to lift up the mask of loving grandmother.
Her actions bring the both of them down to a child-like level and the curtains come down, all for James to see.
Origins
The film is inspired by the relationship of writer and director Travis Gonzalez's mother and grandmother. He would sit at the adult table and listen to them discuss family drama and arguments, prompted by what seemed, from the perspective of a child, something as simple as overcooked food.
His grandmother, a single parent of five sons and one daughter, depended on his mother to be the secondary voice of authority. That's a lot of responsibility for a child, and serves as the basis from which the short film was written.
Artistically, we want to place serious family issues (lies, verbal abuse, favoritism, poverty), within the frame of childlike exaggeration and immaturity. Unlike the tried-and-true image of a dysfunctional family unit, placed in their three bedroom, 2.5 bath house in the suburbs, the film's characters exist in the world of people struggling to stay above the poverty line, and remain loving while doing so. These econmic tensions become a factor in the small family's happiness, and is the root of Anne's frustrations from childhood into motherhood.
The love and bond of a grandmother and grandson also comes into contention with the love needed of a mother. Anne, the mother in this story, is placed in the outside circle of her own small remaining family of three. The person of authority within her household, she resents her own mother for her ability to evolve into a warm and loving grandmother, where she has taken over the role of pessimist. Anne and Eleanor, in their dependence on each other, extends beyond the trope of the feuding mother and daughter in their equitable relationship. The film highlights the dissappointment Anne feels in discovering her mother has always been less of a figure of authority and more like a sister.
Over Dinner pulls cinematic inspiration from the work of Pier Paolo Pasolini, especially Momma Roma and Bellissima, which played with the changing image and concept of mother and child in film and its connection to an increasingly materialistic world. It challenges the use of material objects as a balm for pain, and challenges the ways people mask tpain in order to move forward, and how that can lead to further damage.
Director's Statement
As a filmmaker and a senior Film & Media Studies major at Yale University, Over Dinner is both the most personal film I have worked on to-date, as well as the culmination of my work in film within university. I've always been inspired, and somewhat terrified, by my eccentric family and their past, and one of my goals has been to create a film based on their relationships.
By shooting this as a fiction film as opposed to a documentary, I will be able to specifically highlight the universality of family dysfunction, damaged childhoods, and repressed memories. My film takes eccentric and larger-than-life characters, and grounds them within a world of realism.
Cinema should be a space where you can enter a world completely different than your own, but still be guided by an uncanny sense of familiarity. While Over Dinner, is based around my experiences, it will pull on feelings of insecurity people feel in their own families. I want to walk the line between what is funny, what is serious, and how humor can be a way of coping with sadness.
**
We hope you will join our small family as we work to bring Anne, Eleanor, and James' story to life!
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Location Rental Fee
Costs $300
We were fortunate to find a great and low-cost space to shoot the film, and would like to compensate the owner for the use of his space!
Food Props
Costs $150
The film takes place over Thanksgiving Dinner, so having the food there for actors to interact with and be believable is crucial.
Cast Travel and Living Expenses
Costs $600
Our actors will not be from the New Haven area, and therefore need to be compensated for travel and potential lodging.
Craft Services
Costs $700
We want to be able to feed or cast and crew (who together total about 10) for five days, who are working on this project for free!
Data Management
Costs $300
We are shooting the film in 4k and want to make sure the footage is safe, secure, and backed up.
Transportation
Costs $300
We need to be able to move equipment and people to our shooting location.
Camera Rigs, Lenses, Stabilizers
Costs $400
Our grant from the University covers some, but not all of our camera needs. This would partially cover rigs, lenses, and stabilizers.
Lighting
Costs $250
While we have most of the major lighting equipment we will use, this would cover flags, china balls, and any other smaller fixtures.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
TRAVIS GONZALEZ (writer-director) is a senior in Film & Media Studies at Yale University and a filmmaker from Staten Island New York. He was the president of Bulldog Productions, Yale's only student-run film production company, and is the film festival director and a founding member of the Yale Film Alliance. In addition to an internship in talent management at Brookside Artist Management and a summer Teaching Assistant position for the 2015 Eye on Video filmmaking program, Travis has worked as a writer, producer, and later director for web series B-Roll, producer, editor, director of photography on various student films, and has worked as a filmmaker for clients including: The Yale Admissions Office, The Association of Yale Alumni, Paprika!, Sugar Hill Culture Club, Those People, First Things Foundation, City Atlas: New Haven. Two of his favorite projects were a documentary, Pa'Que Tu Lo Sepas (Don't You Forget it!), which explores the relationship between Puerto Rican Islanders and second-generation "mainlanders," and his work on the 2013 Yale Symphony Orchestra Halloween, a fifty-minute silent film that screens to two thousand students on Halloween.
JARED FELLOWS (producer) is a junior Film and Media Studies major at Yale University, a member of Yale’s WYBC radio station, and Publicist for Bulldog Productions. Jared started at Yale interested in radio broadcasting and music. In the spring of his sophomore year, Jared worked as boom operator/sound mixer for Bulldog Production’s Captain Invincible is Dead!, which Travis Gonzalez executive produced. This past fall, Jared produced Bulldog Production’s Something Else and was sound designer for a student production of Julia Cho’s The Language Archive. For the past three summers, Jared has interned as an HBO LA Intern in their series development, film development, and production departments as an Emma Bowen Foundation scholar (more information here).
LUKAS COX (director of photography) is a freshman in the Directed Studies Program at Yale University and a freelance cinematographer, composer, and editor from Amherst, MA. Past commercial clients include the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute, StartupGrind New Haven, Small Parade, OsteoNaturals, and the UMass iCons program. His narrative work has been showcased at the Northampton and Traverse City film festivals; recent projects include Bulldog Production’s SOMETHING ELSE (DP, editor) and BLACK EYE (DP) as well as the Yale College Class Day Video (AC). He is a recipient of the Joseph Maddy Summer Artist Award in Cinematic Arts from Interlochen Arts Academy.