Jill Orschel's Seed&Spark Campaign for SNOWLAND
Our little town of Park City is a 'hot spot' in a good way with the number of authors and artists who live and work among us. One of those artists is local filmmaker Jill Orschel.
Her current project is a documentary called Snowland. The film's hashtags of #escapetosnowland and #artheals allude to the theme of art being a healing lifeline. “The central story of Snowland is how Cora Lee Witt, chose creative art to free herself from the hold of polygamy,” explains Orschel. “She hoped for financial independence, but the film explores her freedom on a deeper level—how it heals her, gives her more control in her life and helps her believe in herself.”
The majority of the filming is finished and the editing and animation development is underway. Animation plays an integral role in bringing Cora's colorful drawings to life. “Cora's fantasy realm, together with her dark past in polygamy, creates something very interesting to examine from an art therapy perspective,” says Orschel. “I want to show progress and transformation and I want audiences to feel this in the film, especially in the animation sequences.”
It takes a crowd to get a project to the finish line. Orschel used funds from a MAST grant received through the Salt Lake Film Society to hire local professionals who had previously participated in the Park City Filmmakers Showcase, an annual event founded and directed by Orschel in which she mentors and highlights the work of emerging new talent.
“When the pandemic hit, I felt very fortunate to be able to hire local people. Working remotely on a creative project together with other women filmmakers during this time was very meaningful. Those individuals who made up our team are: J.R. Hardman, Paige Sparks, Claire Wiley and Kathleen Stone, as well as Angela Rosales Challis who created some animation sequences.”
The funding piece is essential to this project and Jill is working with the crowdfunding site 'Seed&Spark' to build support for this film by sharing the excitement and progress with an interested audience. “The campaign goal we decided on—$17,640–is the exact amount I calculated it would cost to pay professionals to help me complete the rough cut. We raised 100% by week 4 and so we were able to aim higher for a stretch goal for the remaining 2 weeks. It’s always a leap of faith when it comes to creative work, but some of these very specific methods that Seed&Spark lays out for us has really help me break things down, stay focused and achieve some step by step success.”
The Snowland team also did a live event during this campaign in partnership with Park City Film. “It was a real success. We had over 45 people attend our Zoom webinar and see our brand new Snowland teaser. We talked about the film, and answered questions with PC Film’s Katy Wang.“
The Seed&Spark campaign ends January 3. If you'd like to share the excitement and support one of our local filmmakers, join the crowd at https://www.seedandspark.com/fund/snowland