An uncanny, high-stakes night for fans of Weapons, Backrooms, and Green Room.
One night. One suitcase. One very bad decision.
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Written & Directed by Clifton Highfield · Short film proof-of-concept · Austin, TX
A broke touring comic is so easy to overlook that when he vanishes into a room that isn't supposed to exist, nobody comes looking. One night chasing down a stranger's lost suitcase spirals into a fight just to be seen at all, through a motel, a fridge he hides in, an apartment, a train, a bus, and the back of a squad car.
“I'm easy to overlook.”
He says it about himself before anything happens to him. Every room he enters treats him as replaceable, right up until it can't. Nineteen pages, one continuous night, built to scale from a lean proof-of-concept now into a Texas-incentivized production next.
20+ years in improv as performer, teacher, coach, director, and producer
Two-time B. Iden Payne Award winner, Austin's highest honor for live theater
Teaches at Upright Citizens Brigade
Everyone attached to this is here because I asked, and because I believe in it. This isn't a crew reading it cold, it's people who already trust me.
Independent production is the one part of the industry still growing while the rest contracts, and Texas is where that capacity is landing right now. Austin was just ranked the #5 best filmmaking city in the country. This is a good film, and right now is a good time to make it well.
Tier 2 scales to the full 13-role script as an Austin production qualifying for Texas's TMIIIP rebate, up to 31% cash back on qualifying in-state spend once financing reaches full production. Full budget breakdown and the complete incentive math are in the deck.
Download the Pitch Deck (PDF)It's for me, the film I want to watch. It's for festivals, Fantastic Fest and Telluride Horror Show both sit right at the horror/dark-comedy overlap this film lives in. And it's for the ALTERs of the world, the curated genre platforms (ALTER included, ~7M subscribers, also on Tubi, Plex, and Samsung TV+) built to give a film like this a real audience after the festival run.
Every dollar goes directly toward the Tier 1 budget: crew, locations, equipment, and sound. Leave your info and I'll follow up, or send straight to the fund on Venmo. Note in the message field if you're requesting the password for the first 3 pages, and I'll send it your way.
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