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| Created Date | July 03, 2019 | |
| Expiration Date | July 02, 2019 | |
| Posted by | Administrator | |
| Country | United States | |
| State | California | |
| City | Los Angeles | |
| Location | Los Angeles | |
| Project Type | Short Film, Union or non-union | |
| Project Title | ThinHead | |
Description:
“Tinhead” is a short film that explores Becca’s dependency on her father’s dependency on her, how defining her life in those terms has left her living in the past, unable to move on, and whether she’s happy with that existence. Becca, the lead role in this story cares for her elderly father, Tim, who suffers from dementia and spends his days transfixed by a TV that he keeps tuned to static. Becca’s brother tries to convince her to place Tim in assisted living, which she resists, insisting that both her and Tim’s life is better with him at home. After returning from a tour of the assisted living facility, Becca finds Tim seems to have taken a turn for the worse. He pushes her to join him in staring into the static, and she must decide whether to continue humoring him.
Breakdown:
| Role Name | Gender | Ethnicity | Age Range | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Becca Heady | Female | Any | 40-49 | Becca was born and grew up in Cleveland – middle America; a city big enough that people knew about it, but not anywhere most people would put on their list to visit. Her family was on the line between working class and middle class. They had enough money to consider themselves middle class, but not enough to withstand a real financial shock. She lost her mother at the age of 10 due to cancer, and about 4 years prior to Tinhead, her eldery father, Tim was diagnosed with dementia. Tim’s deterioration reminds Becca of her mother’s, and she’s determined to care for Tim in all the ways she couldn’t care for her mother, even though she knows deep inside it’s a battle she won’t win. |
| Tim Heady | Male | Any | 60-70 | Tim was born in the early days of World War II, before the U.S. got involved. Though technically not a baby boomer, he grew up primarily in that period of post-war prosperity when men where the breadwinners and everyone moved to the suburbs. He studied mechanical engineering at Kent State, where he met and fell in love with Mary Masterson. Tim and Mary began a family in their mid-30s. Becca was their first, followed by Charlie a few years later. Tim and Mary did their best to give their children a good life while instilling in them a sense of responsibility, and they enjoyed many good years together. Mary was diagnosed with cancer when Becca was 10, and the next two years were a roller coaster ride for the family. In his late 70s, Tim developed dementia. He slowly began losing track of time and space. In one case, he lapsed while flipping through channels on TV and found himself staring at static. He thought he saw an image of Mary buried within it, an idea that wouldn’t go away. He began deliberately turning the TV to static, staring into it in search of patterns that might be Mary. Eventually, he began to see her. It took all his concentration, but the more effort he put into it, the clearer Mary became. He practiced every day, until he became able to relive all his happy times with Mary. He became addicted to it, preferring to spend his time in that happy place, than in his infirmed and wasting body. But as his illness progressed, Tim began to lose the ability to stay focused on the static. It didn’t help that Becca would sometimes hijack the TV to watch a program, but he felt he owed her that for all she did for him. He searched for ways to improve the reception, ultimately discovering that an aluminum foil hat acted like an antenna and allowed him to maintain access to the static world despite his failing mental faculties. |
| Charlie Heady | Male | Any | 35-40 | Charlie was born 5 years after Becca and was the beneficiary of his parents’ previous experience with her. He looked up to Becca and she looked out for him from the beginning. When their mother became ill, Charlie was old enough to know that some bad stuff was going on, but too young to really grasp that she would be gone forever. When Mary died, Charlie was 7. Becca shielded Charlie as much as she could from whatever turmoil was going on in the family, allowing him to have a relatively normal childhood. After finishing college, Charlie moved to New Orleans, where he had spent many nights partying during his student days, and started working in administration of oil and gas operations. He met Louise Bosier, a local lawyer, at a bar during Mardis Gras and against all odds struck up a lasting relationship that resulted in marriage a couple of years later. A few years after moving to Houston, Charlie and Louise had their son, Josh. Once Josh was old enough to travel, they made the trip up to Cleveland to visit Becca and Tim, and Charlie and Tim were able to reconnect due to the face time. Subsequently, they tried to visit at least every year or 18 months. The infrequency of his contact with Tim allowed Charlie to perceive Tim’s deterioration more acutely than Becca. After much intense discussion, he and Louise decided to move to Cleveland to be closer to Tim and help take care of him in what were clearly going to be his final years. |
