Nice Thievage
Joselle is long on working hours and short on money. One night on the way home from work she encounters something that will change her life. Temptation.
Nice Thievage is a short sci-fi comedy film released 2024.
Starring Cayley Baird, Aimée Thorne, and Joel Vinsen.
Nice Thievage Playlog
📽️ Screened at the Golden State Film Festival TCL Chinese Theatre, Los Angeles, 26th February 2024.
👀 Selection Candidate for the NZ Indie Film Festival, New Zealand, March 2024
👀 Selection Candidate for the Fortean Film Festival, UK, March 2024
🏅 Semi-Finalist at the Blastoff festival, Los Angeles, March 2024.
📽️ Screened Idaho Panhandle Film Festival in Wallace, Idaho, Saturday 20th April 2024
📽️ Screened at the Orlando International Film Festival, May 15-19, Orlando, Florida, USA.
🏆 Awarded in the spring round of the Freewheeling Film Awards in seven categories, including "Best actor - comedy short" for Joel Vinsen.
📽️ Screened at the Flight Deck Film Festival in New York, 28-29 June 2024.
📽️ Screened at the Markham International Film Festival, 20-21st July 2024, Ontario, Canada.
📽️ Screened at the Comic-Con International Independent Film Festival in San Diego, 27th July.
📽️ Screened at Gen Con Film Festival, August 1-4 2024, Indianapolis, USA.
👀 Selection Candidate for the Lit Laughs International Comedy Film Festival, August 3rd 2024, Harrogate, UK.
📽️ Screened at Click Fest, 17th August 2024, Fulton MO, USA.
👀 Selection Candidate at the South Pacific Film Festival, 12th September 2024, Nelson, New Zealand.
📣 Honorable mention from the Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival, 20th September 2024, Sydney Australia.
📽️ Screened and ✴️ Nominee at the All The Laughs Comedy Awards, 27-29 September 2024, Atlanta GA, USA.
📽️ Screened at the Swindon Independent Film Festival, 8-12 October 2024, Swindon, UK.
🏅 Semi-Finalist at FilmHaus, 30 October 2024, Berlin, Germany.
📣 Honorable mention in the Best Movie (short) category from the Fortean Film Festival, October 2024, UK.
📣 Honorable mention at the Vienna International Film Awards, 7-8 December, 2024, Vienna, Austria.
👀 Selection Candidate at the Aussie Gold Film Festival, January 2025, Melbourne, Australia.
See Nice Thievage on IMDb
Watch the Nice Thievage trailer on Vimeo
Watch the Nice Thievage trailer on YouTube
News and goss on the ThrownUp Facebook and Instagram pages, come follow.
Making a Comic-Con worthy scifi for zero budget
Useful info from San Diego Comic-con IFF presentation 27/07/24
Locations
Free locations:
- Houses
- Schools
- Private property
- Church (content warning)
Some might trigger a requirement for a film permit:
- Public spaces
- Streets
- Cars on roads
- Parks
- Forests
Auckland / Tāmaki Makaurau - permit needed public areas. Christchuch / Ōtautahi - permit not needed public areas for "low impact".
Story
Nice Thievage has:
- 7 Beats in Freytag pyramid structure
- Screenplay just 1.5 pages as is very visual. Next project has much more dialogue.
- Used Kit Scenarist free software.
- Storyboard is 74 boards, 64 shots excluding the fight sequence (which was ad-hoc)
Nice Thievage used Storyboarder by Wonderunit which is free. Check out Mark Simon, the Godfather of storyboards.
Research the 180° rule, 30% rule, rule of thirds.
Production - Bare minimum gear
Camera
The larger the sensor or the aperture (in lens) the lower the light. The film was shot mainly on a Sony FX-3.
Tripod
One that goes up to 6ft. From $40.
Microphone
I’ve used a 1st gen Zoom H1 for years, $100. Some kind of sock essential.
Use for foley, live shoot recording and ADR (“soundbooth” dialogue afterwards).
The H1 was used for foley and ADR in combination with camera mics and a directional Rhode attached to the camera (borrowed).
Keylight
I have a small Neewer LED rechargeable light <$50.
Post-production, Editing
The one stop shop that is free Davinci Resolve.
Music composition was done with Filmstro. Watch for sales on lifetime licenses such as black Friday.
Free level accounts needed on Vimeo and FilmFreeway.
I avoid AI harvesting storage platforms like Gdrive, Onedrive, Dropbox, and openly plundered email like Gmail.
I use "zero knowledge" providers Mega for storage and shares, and Proton for email. Both have a pretty good free tier.
Total cost summary
Pre-production excl. film permit related, insurance: $60
Production inc. actors expenses, excl. camera: $850
Post production excl music: $40
Total NZD: $950
= Total approx USD: $575