The Chrysalis (formerly The Caterpillar & The Butterfly)
Hamden, New Haven County | Film Short
Thriller, Drama
HELP US HIT OUR NEW FLEX GOAL OF $10,000!!! A universally relatable story dealing with jealousy, first loves, sibling competition, and learning people's true colors all wrapped inside a suspenseful, visual, unnerving psychosexual thriller with twists and turns you'll never see coming!
The Chrysalis (formerly The Caterpillar & The Butterfly)
Hamden, New Haven County | Film Short
Thriller, Drama
1 Campaigns | Connecticut, United States
Green Light
This campaign raised $10,125 for production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
136 supporters | followers
Enter the amount you would like to pledge
HELP US HIT OUR NEW FLEX GOAL OF $10,000!!! A universally relatable story dealing with jealousy, first loves, sibling competition, and learning people's true colors all wrapped inside a suspenseful, visual, unnerving psychosexual thriller with twists and turns you'll never see coming!
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
We are hardworking, dedicated to the craft of filmmaking, and have never been so passionate about a project. We have been studying and making films for years together and we finally are ready to prove to the world that we are ready for the industry. We are yearning to tell this story and we hope that audiences around the world will enjoy and relate to our film. It's been our dream to be given the opportunity to create a film without so many restrictions and limitations that we can be proud of, and this is it. We simply love cinema and want to be a part of it.
THE CATERPILLAR & THE BUTTERFLY follows Liza and Megan as they travel for a bonding session before Liza moves to LA and Megan goes to college. Megan clearly is more self-conscious about her sexual experiences than Liza, but tries not to show it. When they get a flat tire in the middle of nowhere during the height of a severe snowstorm, they stumble upon an abandoned warehouse where they take shelter. In the warehouse they find Adam, a runaway who has also taken shelter from the storm. The three get mixed in a love triangle filled with jealousy, sex, secrets, and violence, and no one comes out the same way they came in.
This film is for our senior thesis capstone project at Quinnipiac University where we study film. However, this is much more than a school assignment to us. We've been anxiously preparing to bring this film to life by making dozens of films and helping others with theirs. Every film is a learning experience and our time to show what we've learned is now; we are ready. This project is going to be an accumulation of six filmmaker's experiences over the past four years. Our time of asking our friends to act and shooting in dorm rooms is over, and there's no turning back.
The idea came to me when Richard and I were in line at the Sundance Film Festival for a film. The waitlist lines are long so we were fantasizing and brainstorming feature film ideas that could maybe get us into the festival. I love films that utilize either one or mostly one location such as 12 Angry Men, Room, and The Hateful Eight. I also worked at my family's furniture store for almost four years assembling furniture in the warehouse, so warehouses seem to be where many of my ideas are set. The image of a pair of eyes peering through the darkness sparked a snowball of other ideas until THE CATERPILLAR & THE BUTTERFLY came to be. Over the course of many drafts, themes that are very important to my life have emerged under the surface of the narrative, which I believe will be the key to the film's success.
The Director and Director of Photography are challenging themselves to make every shot not only visually compelling, but also to tell visual information that will aid the narrative. We hope the film can be told without words, and the dialogue will be the icing on the cake. Additionally, as the story and characters change we believe the visuals should change with them. It is a challenge to make a film visually diverse in the same location, but we have come up with many ways to create different looks that are intriguing.
After working with amazing post-sound editors in Portugal, my eyes have been opened to how audio can sub-consciously help aid the tone of the narrative in very creative ways. We aim to have the sound and music drive the narrative just as much as the visuals.
Major Influences on the script are The Shining, 10 Cloverfield Lane, Primal Fear, Arrival, Repulsion, Lost Highway, Victoria, Fargo, Y Tu Mama Tambien, almost every Fincher film, the lighting in Nicholas Winding Refn films, and the novel The Da Vinci Code.
This film is the most important thing to us up to this point in our lives. The magic in watching, making, and experiencing movies is something beyond words that we hope to share with our audience along our journey in making THE CATERPILLAR & THE BUTTERFLY.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Equipment Rentals
Costs $4,000
Rentals such as a RED camera, lighting kits, cinematic lenses, and professional sound equipment.
Meals
Costs $550
We want to have a happy, healthy, well-fed and hydrated cast and crew!
Festival Fees
Costs $200
We want to network and pitch our film for the feature script so we need exposure.
Transportation
Costs $500
We need to provide train rides to get an amazing cast, which is vital.
Lodging
Costs $500
We need to provide hotel rooms to get an amazing cast, which is vital.
Composer
Costs $750
An ominous, professional score will heighten the emotions we want to get across in the audience.
Post-Production Sound
Costs $500
No masterpiece has ever been created without incorporating the use of sound to aid the narrative.
Visual Effects
Costs $250
We need a VFX editor to create the snow for us, which is crucial to the story.
Insurance
Costs $500
We need to make sure our cast and crew is covered in case of any emergencies.
Practical Effects
Costs $200
We need to achieve certain effects for our story that can’t be done with computers.
Art Department
Costs $550
We need to use props, costumes, and set design to make our film a masterpiece!
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Matt Kravitsky - Writer & Director
Born and raised in Massachusetts, Matt Kravitsky has wanted to be a writer and director for films since age eight when he ran around with a camcorder filming his cousins. After interning at The Montecito Picture Co. in Los Angeles and directing countless short films, he has never been so ready and excited to make The Caterpillar & The Butterfly an unforgettable cinematic experience. He strongly believes this film will do big things for the crew’s future in the industry.
Favorite Movies: Pulp Fiction, Do the Right Thing, Room, Arrival, Twelve Monkeys
Favorite Hobbies: Listing movies for his unhealthily large DVD collection, arguing that DVD’s aren’t obsolete, and eating Ben and Jerry’s, Chipotle Burritos, Strombolis, and Reubens.
Richard Olsen - Producer
Richard is originally from small-town Vermont and became a passionate filmmaker while studying at Quinnipiac University. He is an active member of the Quinnipiac film community serving as Vice President for the Quinnipiac Film Society and as a mentor with the QFS Screenwriting Guild. Richard has been lucky enough to produce a number of projects and travel to expand his education in the world of international cinema. Coming off of a summer interning in Los Angeles, Richard is eager to get production started for The Caterpillar & The Butterfly and is excited to show the world what this team can do.
Favorite Movies: The Place Beyond the Pines, Arrival, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Nightcrawler
Favorite Hobbies: Making bad jokes, NETFLIX, scrolling mindlessly through social media, being a millennial
Remy Sullivan - Sound Dept.
Born and raised in northern New Jersey, Remy has wanted to be in film and television production since she was a young and crazy kid who loved Danny DeVito. Remy is pursuing a career in sports television but, during her time in college has focused on the world of sound and has loved every second of it. After interning in Los Angeles last summer for More Media, a music video and commerical production company in the Arts District, Remy's eyes have been open to the beauty and creativity in all productions, big or small. Remy is excited to contribute to the beautiful and unique sounds of The Caterpillar & The Butterfly and to enhance the suspense of the film.
Favorite Movies: Trainspotting, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Matilda, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Sandlot
Favorite Hobbies: Watching sports, snowboarding, longboarding, and laughing
Laura Grosso - Editor
A Connecticut native, Laura has been fascinated with the film industry since she watched Citizen Kane on a snow day as a middle-schooler, and fell in love with classic Hollywood. After working at Slooh in Morris, CT, directing and creating broadcasts for hundreds of thousands of viewers; she’s excited to take on the role of editor for The Caterpillar and the Butterfly. Laura can’t wait to see the creativity and hard work of the crew pay off when putting together this unique film.
Favorite Movies: The Third Man, Singin’ In the Rain, The Sting, Lord of the Rings, and Toy Story
Favorite Hobbies: Going through directors and watching their entire filmography, constantly trying to outdo anyone she meets in nerdiness, drinking copious amounts of seltzer, and hunting for Pop! Figures.
Ross Cohen - 1st Assistant Director
Ross is a Quinnipiac University filmmaker who is looking to make his big splash in the industry coming out of college. He has been working alongside writer and director Matthew Kravitsky through many successful award-winning projects. Making films is such a huge part of his life as his dreams send him to Los Angeles every night, only to have him wake up in a dorm room in Connecticut.
Favorite Movies: Goodfellas, Inception, The Dark Knight, The Social Network, Django Unchained
Favorite Hobbies: “Snapping necks and cashing checks” (Step Brothers … anyone?) Making films/skits along with watching sports
Michael Zukswert - Director of Photography
Working alongside director, Matt Kravitsky, for more than three years on various narrative pieces, Michael has been a devout artist, only looking to further perfect his craft. His previous work includes interning with More Media TV in Los Angeles, professional Quinnipiac Athletics film content, and he directed, shot, and edited a player documentary spot that aired on ESPN. Michael is looking forward to working with the team to produce an amazing short film with breathtakingly beautiful images for you.
Favorite Movies: Shawshank Redemption, A Beautiful Mind, Whiplash
Favorite Hobbies: Music production, photography, and playing basketball
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
We are hardworking, dedicated to the craft of filmmaking, and have never been so passionate about a project. We have been studying and making films for years together and we finally are ready to prove to the world that we are ready for the industry. We are yearning to tell this story and we hope that audiences around the world will enjoy and relate to our film. It's been our dream to be given the opportunity to create a film without so many restrictions and limitations that we can be proud of, and this is it. We simply love cinema and want to be a part of it.
THE CATERPILLAR & THE BUTTERFLY follows Liza and Megan as they travel for a bonding session before Liza moves to LA and Megan goes to college. Megan clearly is more self-conscious about her sexual experiences than Liza, but tries not to show it. When they get a flat tire in the middle of nowhere during the height of a severe snowstorm, they stumble upon an abandoned warehouse where they take shelter. In the warehouse they find Adam, a runaway who has also taken shelter from the storm. The three get mixed in a love triangle filled with jealousy, sex, secrets, and violence, and no one comes out the same way they came in.
This film is for our senior thesis capstone project at Quinnipiac University where we study film. However, this is much more than a school assignment to us. We've been anxiously preparing to bring this film to life by making dozens of films and helping others with theirs. Every film is a learning experience and our time to show what we've learned is now; we are ready. This project is going to be an accumulation of six filmmaker's experiences over the past four years. Our time of asking our friends to act and shooting in dorm rooms is over, and there's no turning back.
The idea came to me when Richard and I were in line at the Sundance Film Festival for a film. The waitlist lines are long so we were fantasizing and brainstorming feature film ideas that could maybe get us into the festival. I love films that utilize either one or mostly one location such as 12 Angry Men, Room, and The Hateful Eight. I also worked at my family's furniture store for almost four years assembling furniture in the warehouse, so warehouses seem to be where many of my ideas are set. The image of a pair of eyes peering through the darkness sparked a snowball of other ideas until THE CATERPILLAR & THE BUTTERFLY came to be. Over the course of many drafts, themes that are very important to my life have emerged under the surface of the narrative, which I believe will be the key to the film's success.
The Director and Director of Photography are challenging themselves to make every shot not only visually compelling, but also to tell visual information that will aid the narrative. We hope the film can be told without words, and the dialogue will be the icing on the cake. Additionally, as the story and characters change we believe the visuals should change with them. It is a challenge to make a film visually diverse in the same location, but we have come up with many ways to create different looks that are intriguing.
After working with amazing post-sound editors in Portugal, my eyes have been opened to how audio can sub-consciously help aid the tone of the narrative in very creative ways. We aim to have the sound and music drive the narrative just as much as the visuals.
Major Influences on the script are The Shining, 10 Cloverfield Lane, Primal Fear, Arrival, Repulsion, Lost Highway, Victoria, Fargo, Y Tu Mama Tambien, almost every Fincher film, the lighting in Nicholas Winding Refn films, and the novel The Da Vinci Code.
This film is the most important thing to us up to this point in our lives. The magic in watching, making, and experiencing movies is something beyond words that we hope to share with our audience along our journey in making THE CATERPILLAR & THE BUTTERFLY.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Equipment Rentals
Costs $4,000
Rentals such as a RED camera, lighting kits, cinematic lenses, and professional sound equipment.
Meals
Costs $550
We want to have a happy, healthy, well-fed and hydrated cast and crew!
Festival Fees
Costs $200
We want to network and pitch our film for the feature script so we need exposure.
Transportation
Costs $500
We need to provide train rides to get an amazing cast, which is vital.
Lodging
Costs $500
We need to provide hotel rooms to get an amazing cast, which is vital.
Composer
Costs $750
An ominous, professional score will heighten the emotions we want to get across in the audience.
Post-Production Sound
Costs $500
No masterpiece has ever been created without incorporating the use of sound to aid the narrative.
Visual Effects
Costs $250
We need a VFX editor to create the snow for us, which is crucial to the story.
Insurance
Costs $500
We need to make sure our cast and crew is covered in case of any emergencies.
Practical Effects
Costs $200
We need to achieve certain effects for our story that can’t be done with computers.
Art Department
Costs $550
We need to use props, costumes, and set design to make our film a masterpiece!
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Matt Kravitsky - Writer & Director
Born and raised in Massachusetts, Matt Kravitsky has wanted to be a writer and director for films since age eight when he ran around with a camcorder filming his cousins. After interning at The Montecito Picture Co. in Los Angeles and directing countless short films, he has never been so ready and excited to make The Caterpillar & The Butterfly an unforgettable cinematic experience. He strongly believes this film will do big things for the crew’s future in the industry.
Favorite Movies: Pulp Fiction, Do the Right Thing, Room, Arrival, Twelve Monkeys
Favorite Hobbies: Listing movies for his unhealthily large DVD collection, arguing that DVD’s aren’t obsolete, and eating Ben and Jerry’s, Chipotle Burritos, Strombolis, and Reubens.
Richard Olsen - Producer
Richard is originally from small-town Vermont and became a passionate filmmaker while studying at Quinnipiac University. He is an active member of the Quinnipiac film community serving as Vice President for the Quinnipiac Film Society and as a mentor with the QFS Screenwriting Guild. Richard has been lucky enough to produce a number of projects and travel to expand his education in the world of international cinema. Coming off of a summer interning in Los Angeles, Richard is eager to get production started for The Caterpillar & The Butterfly and is excited to show the world what this team can do.
Favorite Movies: The Place Beyond the Pines, Arrival, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Nightcrawler
Favorite Hobbies: Making bad jokes, NETFLIX, scrolling mindlessly through social media, being a millennial
Remy Sullivan - Sound Dept.
Born and raised in northern New Jersey, Remy has wanted to be in film and television production since she was a young and crazy kid who loved Danny DeVito. Remy is pursuing a career in sports television but, during her time in college has focused on the world of sound and has loved every second of it. After interning in Los Angeles last summer for More Media, a music video and commerical production company in the Arts District, Remy's eyes have been open to the beauty and creativity in all productions, big or small. Remy is excited to contribute to the beautiful and unique sounds of The Caterpillar & The Butterfly and to enhance the suspense of the film.
Favorite Movies: Trainspotting, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Matilda, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Sandlot
Favorite Hobbies: Watching sports, snowboarding, longboarding, and laughing
Laura Grosso - Editor
A Connecticut native, Laura has been fascinated with the film industry since she watched Citizen Kane on a snow day as a middle-schooler, and fell in love with classic Hollywood. After working at Slooh in Morris, CT, directing and creating broadcasts for hundreds of thousands of viewers; she’s excited to take on the role of editor for The Caterpillar and the Butterfly. Laura can’t wait to see the creativity and hard work of the crew pay off when putting together this unique film.
Favorite Movies: The Third Man, Singin’ In the Rain, The Sting, Lord of the Rings, and Toy Story
Favorite Hobbies: Going through directors and watching their entire filmography, constantly trying to outdo anyone she meets in nerdiness, drinking copious amounts of seltzer, and hunting for Pop! Figures.
Ross Cohen - 1st Assistant Director
Ross is a Quinnipiac University filmmaker who is looking to make his big splash in the industry coming out of college. He has been working alongside writer and director Matthew Kravitsky through many successful award-winning projects. Making films is such a huge part of his life as his dreams send him to Los Angeles every night, only to have him wake up in a dorm room in Connecticut.
Favorite Movies: Goodfellas, Inception, The Dark Knight, The Social Network, Django Unchained
Favorite Hobbies: “Snapping necks and cashing checks” (Step Brothers … anyone?) Making films/skits along with watching sports
Michael Zukswert - Director of Photography
Working alongside director, Matt Kravitsky, for more than three years on various narrative pieces, Michael has been a devout artist, only looking to further perfect his craft. His previous work includes interning with More Media TV in Los Angeles, professional Quinnipiac Athletics film content, and he directed, shot, and edited a player documentary spot that aired on ESPN. Michael is looking forward to working with the team to produce an amazing short film with breathtakingly beautiful images for you.
Favorite Movies: Shawshank Redemption, A Beautiful Mind, Whiplash
Favorite Hobbies: Music production, photography, and playing basketball