The Birch Queen

Project Proposal

8thmuse@8thmuse.com

The Birch Queen is a short fairy-tale film about an ancient poet who asks the queen of paper birch trees for the immortal bark of a tree spirit, which he will use to bond himself to his true love by writing their story.

The film deals with love, loss, ecology, the roots of writing, and the world of lost stories.

The film will have a visually rich style, inspired by fairy painting, children’s book illustrations, Pre-Raphaelite painting, traditional Japanese painting, and anime. A team of talented artists will create inventive conceptual art, storyboards, costumes, make-up, and sets. We will shoot at a beautiful location in the New Hampshire woods.

We will shoot on mini-DV or HD. Our goal will be to achieve impressive production values on a low budget.

We are in pre-production now in Boston. We plan to shoot in the spring and summer of 2009, in New Hampshire. We hope to enter the film in festivals when it is completed.

We are looking for talented cast and crew who are committed to treating this as a professional project, even if they don’t have a lot of professional experience. We can offer all cast and crew credit, food, reimbursement, and a copy of the completed video. For some key positions we can offer deferred pay (we will agree to an amount you will be paid out of any revenue the film receives.) We hope this will be an excellent work sample and a satisfying work of art for all involved.

Collaborators So Far:

Writer/Director/Producer: JoshuaKastorf

Costume Design: Ten31Productions

Art Director: EricLove

Conceptual Artist: Acrylick Alchemical

Assistant Director: Sarah Spiegel

Please check out our casting call.