Parousia

About us:

We are a team of proactive creatives who all share a deep passion for making exciting and thought provoking content. 

This project is the 2nd short film that Puzzle Piece Productions will have created, after the success of the 'The Ferals'. We had a great festival run and won multiple awards. The film will premier online from the 16th Oct 2020, so be sure to catch it. But now we have decided to step up our game to bring and produce the mind blowing action short film, 'Parousia'.

With the creative industry not being at the forefront of the governments support scheme we are very grateful to Crowdfunder for making it 100% free for crowdfunding projects during the coronavirus crisis. This is also why it is important, now more than ever, for a project like this to receive as much help and support from you, the public, so that we can inject some creative energy back into an industry that has been fundamental in getting us all through these hard times.  

The Directors Vision:

The inspiration for this film stemmed from the current global pandemic combined with our directors love of apocalypse and action films. The vision is not only to push the boundaries of what is possible with action shorts but to also produce a thrilling story that has the potential to be developed in to a full blown feature film. (Director: Stefan Ruiz) Stefan has been in the industry since the age of 7. He began as a child actor in West End shows such as The Lion King (Young Simba) and The King and I and went on to train at Guildford School of Acting where he graduated with a 1st class degree in acting in 2013. Since then Stefan has continued his performing career and has completed several UK theatrical tours as well as touring the US last year and performing on Braodway. Stefan began directing and creating his own content after drama school and he now runs Puzzle Piece Productions which he now produces, directs and edits short films, actors showreels and music videos.

The Story:

• Parousia (Noun): An ancient Greek work meaning presence, arrival or the second coming.

The story itself revolves around our protagonist, Mia, who leads a rebellion in a post apocalyptic Un-United Kingdom, against the tyrannical rule of a centralised government who neglect but, at the same time still control the lives of the struggling survivors left behind after a mutated virus has ripped through the country.

Meet the team:

This time around, opposed to just having a cast of 3 and a crew of 2, we have managed to collaborate with some of the top talent out there to ensure this film really does push the bar for action shorts. 

We have Bare Arms Production Company on board who will be supplying us with fire arms and weapons safety advice. https://www.barearms.co.uk/

Kevin McCurdy, who is the chairman of The Academy of Performance Combat and has also worked on large scale features such as John Carter, Season of the Witch and Journey's End. (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1276617/?ref_=rvi_nm).                          https://www.theapc.org.uk/

True Edge Combat, which is run by our writer Rachid Sabitri and is one of the UK's leading fight academies. Rachid's career as an actor and writer boasts of credits on platforms such as HBO, Showtime, BBC, CBS, Londons West End and Off Broadway.

 https://www.trueedge.co.uk/

We are very happy to announce that we have Charles Meunier on board as our producer, he has had a long career in producing very successful short films. (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6538725/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0)

Along with these renowned companies we also have an elite pool of incredibly skilled fight and stunt performers who are all itching to begin filming and not forgetting our super talented lead actor, Kirsten Foster.(https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5518861/) who has a glowing career in TV, film and theatre, including performing on Broadway last year.

What we need:

If you know anything about, or have seen, our last short, which we were able to film with a tiny team and zero budget, then you can imagine what would be capable of if we are able to reach our current crowdfunding goal.

Your investments in this project will be going towards:

-Location hire

-Insurance and fire arms licences

-Lighting, Sound and Camera equipment

-Cast and Crew transport and accommodation

-Catering

-Post production and screening costs.

The Location:

The location we are looking to use is a former top-secret, atomic weapons facility in East Suffolk. The location is set on a spit out on the coast, surrounded by wild marshland, remnants of by-gone war technology and looming radar towers. The main facility, which is a maze of military grade faraday cages, is where radar was first invented.

No short or features has ever been filmed at this location before so we would love to be the first production to use it. Especially as the owners are looking to turn the site into a renewable energy facility which we are very supportive of.

Reaching our crowdfunding goal would not only enable us to create an exciting and thought provoking short film but would give many struggling creatives the opportunity to reconnect with their passion.

Research shows that crowdfunding projects that get off to a good start are a lot more likely to succeed, so even if you are only able to make a small investment it will still make a large difference.

Thanks again for all of your continued support.

From the whole team, thank you!