Target reached!
We will use additional funds raised for festival entries & publicity to ensure t...
Soggy Biscuit - Short Film
Ashurst, England, United Kingdom
Aim
A dark comedy directed by Emma Jesse about toxic masculinity. Your support will get the project through post-production and onto screens!
Soggy Biscuit is a short dark comedy exploring toxic masculinity, men's mental health and how so often peer pressure, humiliation and brutality acts as a substitute for emotional vulnerability and support. Written & Directed by Emma Jesse - a filmmaker based between London and West Sussex.
The film follows a squad of soldiers - Britain's last reserves in a war they're clearly losing - as they take cover for the night. Private Dibner, a twisted bully, initiates a game of soggy biscuit; a game of urban legends wherein a group of men masturbate around a biscuit - the last one to finish their business must eat the soiled biscuit. Throughout the game, we see the emotional trauma experienced by each of the men come to the surface - their friendships, insecurities and boundaries explored during the humiliating and disturbing game... When a loser is declared, Dibner's sadistic ways earn him a befitting dose of karma.
We completed principal photography in West Sussex during September, working with an incredibly talented cast of screen and stage actors, shot by award winning DOP Hamish Anderson (Panalux Cinematography Award 2016, NFTS Graduate).
We are asking for your support to help us raise funds to cover VFX work, remaining production costs, edit and grade costs and our festival run. This is a bold, provocative and meaningful project about the often overlooked issue of men's mental health and the toxic gender norms men are conditioned to uphold. Emma wrote the project as a comedy to break down the uncomfortable barriers obstructing discussions surrounding mental health, peer pressure and emotional vulnerability issues affecting men of all ages and backgrounds. She believes that by making the audience feel at ease, space is made for honest reflection and open conversations.
We are offering a range of rewards, experiences and memorabilia from the shoot, and additionally Executive Producer credits for the top contributor rewards.
We're planning an extensive festival run for the 2021 circuit, and can't wait to share the finished project with you all. With your help we will be able to finish the film and realise its full potential!
Emma started her career as a set & costume designer, working across short films, features, theatre & installation. Emma directs stories with provocative and vital messages, using comedy and genre to explore uncomfortable ideas and subject matters. The last play she directed, 'Dora vs Picasso', ran at the Drayton Arms Theatre, November-December 2019.
After working for Lionsgate UK as an in-house runner while studying at university - assisting marketing and development, Oli began work in film production in AD department on short films, music videos and commercials. Now producing short films, music videos and documentaries, with a keen interest in new writers & directors, bold stories and emerging film distribution platforms.
Hamish is a London based cinematographer. His narrative work has been screened at festivals around the world; from Palm Springs Film Festival in California to the BFI London Film Festival, and also won a National Royal Television Society Award for his film 'Shadowed'. He received the Leverhulme Scholarship to study Cinematography MA at the NFTS, where he graduated in 2016 winning the Panalux cinematography award for his graduation film.
Ruby is a production designer specialising in art direction, costume design, set dressing and props. Having spent the last 3 years working mainly in commercials and independent films, as well as design for theatre, Ruby is now looking to move into larger feature films and TV drama. She trained as an actor at Arts University Bournemouth before moving into production design and building her home workshop for making and prep.
Hayley is a highly skilled Makeup and Special Effects Artist with an eye for detail and a love of producing accurate character makeups, she has trained and worked with some of the best professionals in the industry. She is extremely enthusiastic about Film and TV and began her career working for Mac Cosmetics representing the brand at the Baftas, Biftas, Olivier Awards and Fashion Houses like Versace at London Fashion Week.
The bully of the squad and the instigator of the game... aggressive, obsessive and keen to see who ends up as losing. As the game reaches its end, his sadism and twisted passion for humiliation reaches a fever pitch...
The squad's tech expert and an impressionable and weak willed man - overly fixated on scoring Dibner's respect and camaraderie.
On the outside, Mac appears tough, athletic and the most combat experienced out of the men. However, this masks a more complex picture on the inside... as Mac finds himself in the final stage of the game with Private Wakely, a more vulnerable side of him comes bubbling to the surface.
Cole is the youngest member of the squad, and a man of few words. A recent addition to the group of men, he is especially keen not to lose the game. Under the stress of it all, he is left with no other choice but to make ample use of his imagination...
The squad's lieutenant - the man in charge. When he takes his rest for the evening, the game begins... Upon his awakening, he realises a terrible oversight the men have made whilst playing their demented game.
A handsome, quiet but highly tortured man. Unable to communicate readily with others, he has a tight friendship with Robinson, the group's medic - a friendship put to the test during the squad's round of Soggy Biscuit.
Robinson is the group's medic - a kind hearted man. He looks after Batra, the most heavily wounded soldier in the group, and shares a connection with Cruise. The film explores the parts of the mens' psyches that can't necessarily be healed with medicine alone...
Batra is covered head to toe in bandages - scarred from the war in which the soldiers are fighting in. Unable to see, he relies heavily upon the other men, particularly Robinson to support and look out for him.
Wakely is bullied and perpetually made to feel excluded by the group. When he faces off against Mac in the final showdown, the outcome causes a change within the formerly meek and mild mannered Wakely...
Something isn't right about Skinner. Years of torment and abuse from the fellow soldiers in his Squad, compounded with the horrific surroundings of a country at war has affected Skinner's mind and capacity for emotional intimacy with others. A sinister and disturbed man who seeks out others' discomfort.
The majority of the money raised will be split between remaining production costs (outstanding location costs, going towards cast & crew rates, equipment hire fees), post-production costs to ensure the film looks and sounds incredible (editing, VFX, colour grading & sound mix) and the remainder will be used for film festival entry fees and publicity to ensure the film is selected at our targeted festivals and is shown as widely as possible!
Any additional funds we receive past our target will contribute to additional VFX costs, publicity and festival entry spend. With your support, we will be able to finish Soggy Biscuit to the highest standard and give it the festival run it deserves!
Rewards include an early screening link when the film is finished, bound hard-copies of the screenplay and storyboards, an invitation with a plus one to our cast & crew screening and for our biggest patrons, a long-weekend getaway in a Shepherd's Hut at our beautiful filming location in West Sussex (pictured below) and an Executive Producer credit! We've got lots of rewards on offer for our generous supporters.
Emma created storyboards for the film by creating a scale replica of the set and characters, lighting them with small LEDs collected from her time working as a model maker.
One of our rewards includes receiving model figurines of characters from the film, while another includes an incased section of the model set with a still life of the figurines acting out a scene!
We are incredibly grateful for all contributions and support - you are helping us make Soggy Biscuit the best it can be. It has been a labour of love and hard work by everyone involved, and shines a light on a subject matter that isn't discussed or explored enough. Thank you for taking the time to learn more about our project!
This project successfully funded on 16th December 2020