Adorable Rascals

Nick

Travis

Zazie (Franny, for the Rascals!)

Some years ago, I went to the première of The Darjeeling Limited by Wes Anderson at the Cinéma des Cinéastes, in Paris. 
When I arrived there, though, I found out that the event was sold out.
I was winging outside the cinema, when I saw Wes Anderson walking towards the place… he was stopped by two guys who were talking to him in a very passionate way. Then, Wes walked towards where I was and we started chatting because we have met before at some friend’s house, in New York: "Thanks for coming", he said. "Well, actually, it is sold out, so I can’t get in", I replied. "Oh, wait, maybe I can do something...", and off he went into the cinema, vaguely waving at me and at the two boys. After few minutes a woman came out of the cinema, screaming, in French: "Who are Wes Anderson's friends?" I was with a friend of mine, and the other two young men were timidly approaching, so I looked to this woman and I said: "Here we are!", indicating the four of us.
This is how I met Travis and Nick, two guys from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, cinema students being in Paris for their last year of college, and this is how we became friends. Thanks, Wes!

Together with other two guys from their school, Marc and Aaron, we started going to the movies quite regularly: it was with them that I saw for the first time Rushmore in a little cinema of the Quartier Latin. We could talk endlessly about cinema, that was the amazing thing, with them. They really look like Max Fischer, the Rushmore hero: they had his same age, the same sense of humor and the same romantic vision of life (this is what happens when you’re twenty something). It was weird, because I never felt our age difference, since we used cinema as our common language. I remember once, though, when we were talking about Stranger than Paradise by Jim Jarmusch and I told them it was one of the first interesting films I saw in a cinema (back in 1984-1985). Their simple answer was:
"We weren't born yet!"... Ouch! 

Being cinema students, Travis, Nick and Marc not only were huge cinema fans but they also wanted to make movies. They showed me the shorts they made as their diploma essay and I found them very good. I was moved by their enthusiasm and their genuine willing to be part of the cinema world. 
These last years many things happened: Marc moved to San Francisco, Travis and Nick moved to New York. It was more difficult to keep in touch, but we never lost track of each other and every time I am in New York I try to see them (it was the case last June).
The other day, I received a message from Nick… he told me about a new project is working on with Travis and he was wondering if I could help, somehow. As it is always the case for cinema emergencies, Zazie is ready to give a hand, and I thought that maybe some of my adorable readers may help too… so, I asked Nick to write something to let you understand what they have done until today and what they are going to do. And here they are:

The Rascals

First off, Travis and I started a directing duo called Rascal last year. Our website is: www.yourascal.com. Last year we had the opportunity to be apart of a few film festivals with our short film, The Other Dave. The movie had its premiere at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival as part of a feature anthology called, Other Than. We had a bit of a falling out with the producer of that film (he hated our subject Dave, but from what we heard, at the screening, The Other Dave got the biggest response from the audience) and he agreed to let us (Travis, myself and the director, Pasquale Greco) take it out of the feature and submit our own cut to various film festivals. We were not only accepted to the SXSW film festival but also the AFIdocs festival among serval others. We became more successful than the feature we were apart of. 
Recently, we had a variety show at a place in brooklyn called Videology (the venue is featured here in the New York Times). We hosted a sold out show, screened many of our short films and had many of our stand up comic friends perform. We are planning another show sometime this summer.
Which leads us to Tongue In Cheek. Tongue In Cheek is a brutally surreal, dangerously blue-collar comedy that follows a day in the life of a skilled worker. It deals with the frustrations we all have in our lives, trying to take control of our destiny with cards we have been dealt. And poses the question, when we have nothing, are our lives defined by the people we touch or are doomed to be puppets for a man sitting on a high mountain? Until this point we have mostly created and shot things on the fly with very little money and wanted to take our next production to another level. The costs mainly fall in the area of equipment. We'd like to rent a few lenses, a 4K camera and also some portable lights. Also some costumes and other production nick-nacks. We just cant afford them on our own. We've already recruited a few of the best actors I know to play the lead characters. They've appeared in a variety of plays, movies, and TV, including Late Night with David Letterman. 
Thanks for any help you can give,
Nick

So, dear readers, as you could see, two young and extremely talented film-makers need your help for their new project. Would you like to participate - as Zazie already did - to this adventure? I hope you want! 
The link to the kickstarter for Tongue in Cheek is: 
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1018483892/tongue-in-cheek-a-short-film 
C'mon, guys, there are only 24 days left!!!
Thanks for any help you could give to Travis and Nick.

Zazie

The Other Dave from The Other Dave on Vimeo.