Filmmakers ask for $3,000 in Kickstarter campaign, fans donate over $14,000
An awkward boy secretly falls in love with the most popular boy in school, what could go wrong?
Well, how about his heart literally beating so hard out of his chest that it starts to cause all sorts of trouble.
In this completely wordless animation entitled In A Heartbeat, Sherwin’s heart is on a mission to get him the boy of his dreams.
But how will heart-throb Jonathan react? And what will the whole school say if they find out?
Esteban Bravo and Beth David are filmmakers at the Ringling College of Art.
Bravo said: ‘Being gay is a subject that hasn’t been widely explored in computer animation.
‘Nine out of ten LGBT youths have reported incidences of bullying based on their orientations and identities,’ he said.
David continued: ‘We want to put out a message of love and self acceptance to all the kids and young people who struggle to identify as LGBT+ just like Sherwin does.’
‘The heart wants what the heart wants, and there’s nothing wrong with that,’ Bravo added.
Last year, they launched a Kickstarter campaign to help raise funds to provide an original score to the 3-4 minute final product.
The goal was $3000 (£2308 €2680) but donators contributed more than $14,000 (£10,769 €12,505) to the campaign.
‘We can’t even begin to say how thrilled we are by the response this project is getting,’ they wrote after a week of the campaign.
They added: ‘Thank you again, a million times over!’
As part of the project, they had to create mock movie posters for the film and they chose two in particular:
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
The Fault in Our Stars (2014)
The complete film is released in Spring/Summer 2017.
