Monday, April 11, 2016
Pittsburgh-Shot Indie Murder Mystery Seeks Funding
A locally shot thriller’s Kickstarter campaign to raise finishing funds concludes on Friday.
The producers of A Fancy Piece of Homicide must raise about $9,000 to meet their Kickstarter goal of $15,000.
Pittsburgh-based filmmaker Joe Varhola, who wrote, directed and self-financed the film, describe it as “a psychological murder mystery that contributes a unique chapter to the popular private eye film noir genre.”
The film stars legendary local stage and film actor Bingo O’Malley as Thomas Anderson, “a retired private eye [who] once served an extended prison sentence for the killing of a man he was hired to investigate. He now approaches the completion of his memoir to set the record straight, when one night envelopes containing photographs with connections to the past anonymously begin to show up at his front door, along with a mysterious man ([played by] Mark Tierno) who is receiving photographs of his own.”
The film was shot using local SAG-AFTRA actors also including Patrick Jordan, Sharon Brady, James Howard and Adrienne Wehr. The film itself is all but complete: A private screening for the cast and crew was held in March at Pittsburgh Filmmakers.
In 2005, Varhola, then 22, completed his first feature-length film, Dogplayers, and premiered it at the Three Rivers Film Festival. A subsequent short, “The Underwood Company,” screened at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival’s Short Film Corner and was an official selection of the 2008 Raindance Film Festival, in London.
As of midday today, about $6,000 had been pledged. Varhola is seeking the $15,000 mostly for film-festival application fees and for a graphic designer to create a poster and other marketing materials. Kickstarter funds go only to applicants who make their fundraising goal; otherwise, the pledged funds are forfeited.
The deadline to pledge is about 8 p.m. Fri., April 15.
The producers of A Fancy Piece of Homicide must raise about $9,000 to meet their Kickstarter goal of $15,000.
Pittsburgh-based filmmaker Joe Varhola, who wrote, directed and self-financed the film, describe it as “a psychological murder mystery that contributes a unique chapter to the popular private eye film noir genre.”
The film stars legendary local stage and film actor Bingo O’Malley as Thomas Anderson, “a retired private eye [who] once served an extended prison sentence for the killing of a man he was hired to investigate. He now approaches the completion of his memoir to set the record straight, when one night envelopes containing photographs with connections to the past anonymously begin to show up at his front door, along with a mysterious man ([played by] Mark Tierno) who is receiving photographs of his own.”
The film was shot using local SAG-AFTRA actors also including Patrick Jordan, Sharon Brady, James Howard and Adrienne Wehr. The film itself is all but complete: A private screening for the cast and crew was held in March at Pittsburgh Filmmakers.
In 2005, Varhola, then 22, completed his first feature-length film, Dogplayers, and premiered it at the Three Rivers Film Festival. A subsequent short, “The Underwood Company,” screened at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival’s Short Film Corner and was an official selection of the 2008 Raindance Film Festival, in London.
As of midday today, about $6,000 had been pledged. Varhola is seeking the $15,000 mostly for film-festival application fees and for a graphic designer to create a poster and other marketing materials. Kickstarter funds go only to applicants who make their fundraising goal; otherwise, the pledged funds are forfeited.
The deadline to pledge is about 8 p.m. Fri., April 15.
Tags: A Fancy Piece of Homicide , Joe Varhola , Bingo O'Malley , Kickstarter , Image
