A simple film trailer could lead to big things for local film makers Gianna Isabella, Daniela Howard and Scott Sikma.

 They entered the trailer into CineCoup’s competition, vying for a $1 million first prize to help them make their movie.

“It’s a full length feature film about a female detective who investigate a crime scene after she’s promoted only to find her lover has been murdered,” director/ writer Gianna Isabella summarized. It is an interesting twist on the traditional police thriller as the serial killer is targeting women in a gay support group.

“At the time I was in New York, I was surprised that homophobia was so rampant. So I thought it would be a real twist on the detective story,” she said of her inspiration for the new movie. The idea started to develop around 2008, but she didn’t begin the actual writing process until 2011.

 The film takes place in the fictional city of Carnage, so they will be shooting it around Southern Alberta around Lethbridge and likely using Calgary as the skyline.

According to the Cinecoup.com website, The CineCoup Film Accelerator is a disruptive model for indie filmmakers to develop, market and finance their feature films. Filmmaking teams apply to CineCoup with a two-minute trailer then advance through a selection funnel that’s designed to package their projects and build fan support on the CineCoup social web platform.

All filmmakers who participate stand to gain valuable audience feedback, social media savvy and a professional online pitch package bolstered by fan support. The top 10 projects will be optioned for development. A jury of industry professionals and a CineCoup Superfan will select one project for up to $1 million (CDN) in production financing and guaranteed release in Cineplex theatres in January 2014.

The film makers submit their films and fans vote on their favourites through the Cinecoup site, which features trailers and “missions”  from all of the film makers competing. Voters must sign up through Facebook or e-mail.

 The 90 entrants will be  whittled down to 60 during the second round of voting March 21-24, then down to 40, then 20 then the Top 10.

Performing runs in the family for comedian Doug Mutai, who performs at Scores with Mike “Pickle Dambra,” March 28.

“ Holidays are interesting in my family. Everybody is just being a clown,  making  jokes or doing impressions of  some person,” said the Kenyan born, Calgary based comedian, who spent  his first years in Canada in Lethbridge taking business administration at Lethbridge College.

I  moved to Lethbridge because I had family there. I went to the college and joined the track team,” Mutai said.

  Most of his family are involved in  the performing arts in some way. He is the oldest child in the family, while his  younger siblings are playwrights and performers.

 So comedy came naturally.

“ I just started performing at open mics and never looked back. I saw comedians like  Derek Edwards and  the MacDonalds, Norm and Mike on television and thought it looked like fun,” Mutai said.

University of Lethbridge professor/ playwright/ director Ron Chambers explores not only student life, but the brief period of consciousness in between sleeps in his new play Estuary, which runs March 19-23 in the University Theatre.
“I usually write for professional theatre companies. And they usually have very small casts. They can’t afford to to pay a bigger cast,” he said adding he wanted to do something on a larger scale.
 Estuary features a cast of 18 students who live in a frat house.

“One of the students sees a girl, but he thinks it might just be a dream,” he continued.

“I essentially wrote it for the students so the roles are age appropriate. They can play a character closer to their own age rather than being a character who is much older,” he said.
“ So all of the characters are in their early 20s,” he continued.

 He said he was inspired to write the play after reading a study about sleep, which found people have who different stages of sleep each night, which is separated by  brief period of semi consciousness somewhere between sleep and wakefulness.
“It’s fascinating,” he said.

“I write a lot of plays for professional theatre companies, but this was an opportunity to so something specifically for students,” he continued.

The surreal, absurdist comedy, Estuary requires a massive set— two stories high connected by a staircase with about nine different doors plus a trapdoor.
 Set designer Roger Schultz was happy to being Chambers’ vision to life.