An Awful Story

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Las Vegas has seen its endless list of big budget films come to town such as Behind the Candelabra, Jason Bourne, The Hangover, Casino etc., there is also a local independent film community that is emerging. Hollywood usually brings their actors and crew to town, however from time to time they will hire local talent to work on their films. Most of the time they are hired as background talent. The local film community with smaller budgets or no budgets use, if not mostly all Vegas actors.

The local film community has seen its fair share of success stories, maybe not as mainstream as The Hangover, but Nevada residents are still finding a way to fund their true independent films. Vegas local, Anthony Avery, Actor/Writer/Co-Director of the comedic short film Awful is doing just that. Anthony has assembled a cast and crew who have film, TV and stage credits miles long, but credits don’t bring the money to produce a film. Although filming is already under way for Awful, this doesn’t mean that they still don’t need funding. They have launched an Indiegogo campaign to fund their film. The money raised through their campaign will be used for equipment, locations, hair/makeup, post production, submissions to film festivals etc.

“It’s very important to me that not only the LGBT community see this film, but the straight world as well.” says Anthony. “It’s time for stories to be told about the LGBT community where their “gayness” isn’t the focal point or the punch line of an awful joke. Pun intended. The character Nick, who I play, is a lonely struggling artist, who just happens to be gay. Being gay shouldn’t be the main focus in every gay movie.

“Awful questions what an LGBTQ film looks like,” says Joseph Castellanos, Co-Director of Awful and UNLV film grad. “It’s not typically what you see, which is usually sex, nudity, and talking about doing gay things. Nick, our “triple threat” in the film, isn’t seen having sex with a guy and doesn’t question his sexuality, being gay is just an aspect of his character. In a way, we’re normalizing and challenging what LGBTQ films will look like in the future.”

In Awful, you will recognize some of the actors as you may have seen the in local commercials (Tala Marie), on the Las Vegas Strip (Ben Stobber), local theatre (Matt Martello, Penni Paskett, Tucker St. John), TV (Valerie Carpenter) or movies (Anne Mulford). “I love my cast! I couldn’t ask for a better cast,” says Anthony. “The local talent here is amazing. I didn’t need to go to LA to cast this film. We have plenty of talented people here in Nevada.”

There is still a chance for you to be a part of this film. They have even included a one of kind perk through their Indiegogo campaign where one of the actors will mention your name in one of the scenes in the movie. You also have an opportunity to promote your business with their “Shameless Plug” perk. The list goes on.

You can get more information on the movie and watch the Awful Indiegogo pitch video here at https://igg.me/at/awfulshortfilm

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