CAFE Huntington

Project Description:
Ladybeard is the second feature-length independent comedy by Apartment 2B Productions. It’s a story about a standup comic named Andy, who pretends to date his best friend Michelle so she doesn’t have to tell her parents that she’s a lesbian. Michelle’s girlfriend proposes, and Andy’s faced with the prospect of losing this excuse to hang out with his best friend. Through a series of mishaps, they all face the consequences of their lies becoming untangled. When Andy tries to “fix” the situation, things end up even worse. The movie stars local actors Toby Poole (from Channel 20′s Lords of Fun) and Penny Maple (from Charleston’s Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School). Once we’re finished with the film, we hope to take it across the country to film festivals. We are also interested in having it be available for streaming on services like Netflix and Amazon on Demand.

Project Importance:
One of the reasons we began making movies is because of the negative way West Virginia is depicted in pop culture. Movies like Wrong Turn dominate the movie theaters, which leads people outside of West Virginia to think our state is backwards and violent. We want to present a positive presentation of our home state and our fellow West Virginians. We also want to tell the stories of communities that don’t normally get spotlighted. While depictions of LGBT folks are more mainstream now, they’re still deeply rooted in stereotypes. As Appalachia and the South in general are often stereotyped as being homophobic, we feel it’s important to highlight LGBT Appalachians and show them in a real, positive way.

How Money Will Be Used:
The final scene of the movie takes place during a wedding. Much like a real wedding, a fake wedding will take a significant bit of cash. We would like to make at least a $50 donation to the church that is letting us film there. We will also need a wedding dress, which even used averages about $30. In addition to this, the money we receive will be used for food, decorations, and other props to make this look like a convincing wedding.

3 Month Goal:
The wedding scene will be the last scene we shoot. Our shooting will begin in January, and this scene will be shot toward the end of March. The money we receive will be spent a few weeks before the shoot date. After we shoot the final scene, we’ll spend April and May editing the film. We hope to have the Huntington premiere in the summer . After that, we plan to tour with the movie. We’ve taken our short films and our feature film on tour two different ways: screening it at film festivals and setting up screening in non-traditional film venues such as bars, art galleries, and comedy clubs. With Ladybeard, we plan on doing a combination of the two.

Read the Script.

January 23, 2012