Project Description
Looking at societal obsession with celebrity culture, Scene House is set in a dystopian future where actors inhabit an enclosed area called The Scene House – an unsettling hybrid of a theme park and museum. Here, observers pay to enter and, for an additional cost, interact with the actors. One of these Actors begins to question their existence in The Scene House as the boundaries blur between performance and reality.
In a dystopian future, Actors inhabit an enclosed area called The Scene House. The Scene House serves as a unique hybrid of a theme park and a museum, providing Actors with the freedom to move about as they please. Actors are nurtured within the confines of The Scene House, making the environment entirely commonplace for them, akin to how animals adapt to a zoo.
Nevertheless, Observers - individuals who purchase tickets to The Scene House - are permitted to take photographs and even engage with the Actors. At any given moment, an Observer can intrude upon an Actor's daily routine to engage with them in a variety of roles, whether it's reenacting a scene from a favorite film, practicing quitting their job, or offering an apology to a loved one who has passed away.
The Scene House remains shrouded in mystery until the film's conclusion, concealing the true nature of the Actors, their origins, and how they came to be in this enigmatic place.
Written and Directed by Annabella Fazio
Project Status
Scene House is currently being shopped to production companies for feature development. Please see the Vimeo link below to watch the film now.
Variety Announcement
Film Stills
Collaborators
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Annabella Fazio
WRITER / DIRECTOR
Annabella Fazio is an emerging writer and director. As an avid traveler who has lived on multiple continents, Annabella is focused on elevating the modern experience of women and AFAB people all over the world and dreams of starting a documentary production company. She has co-written and starred in Kaleidoscope premiering at Cannes Court Metrage 2021. Other films she’s worked on have premiered at Oscar Qualifying festivals such as Hollyshorts and Catalina Film Festival. Her first narrative feature film, Camino, is currently in development.
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Lia Lee
PRODUCER
Lia Lee is a Korean American SAG-AFTRA actor and producer currently pursuing her MA in Creative Business at the National Film and Television School. She also holds an MA in Film Studies from University College London and, for the last eleven years, has split her time between the US and the UK. In addition to her studies, she works at the Ink Factory, one of the UK’s most formidable independent production studios. Driven by the pursuit of supporting talent and creating infrastructures in order to foster creativity, Lia is thrilled to be settling back in the UK where she can utilize her prior education, diverse work experiences, and International outlook to create great cinema.
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Ali Helnwein
COMPOSER
Ali Helnwein is an absolute genius. Ali has had a robust career as an LA-based composer who has worked on multiple Emmy and Grammy winning projects. Films he's scored have gone to festivals ranging from Sundance, SXSW, Tribeca, TIFF, and more, including projects for Netflix, HBO and other platforms. In his earlier days he founded the Traction Avenue Chamber Orchestra, which become known for showing up in places where one normally wouldn’t expect an orchestra, performing in places such as a skatepark, a Chinatown Alley, the rooftop of the Standard, etc. Aside from his own orchestra, he has worked with many other orchestras across the U.S. and around the World.
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Ravi Doubleday
CINEMATOGRAPHER
Based in North London, Ravi is a recent graduate of Amazon’s inaugural Prime Craft Academy, and is currently working toward his masters in cinematography at the prestigious National Film and Television School. Ravi is an emerging DoP who has shot a variety of narrative and commercial work. The most significant of these is Ravi’s first narrative feature, Inland, which stars Mark Rylance (Dunkirk, Bones and All) and Kathrine Hunter (Tragedy of Macbeth). The film, which premiered at BFI London Film Festival in October 2022, was long listed for eleven British Independent Film Awards and had its UK theatrical release with Vue and Picturehouse. It is set for a theatrical release in the US this autumn. Ravi is currently in development on his second feature with Inland director, Fridtjof Ryder.
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Sarah Carter
PRODUCER
Sarah Carter is a Canadian-born producer, writer, actor, director, musician, and CEO of Cheshire Moon Productions. Her directorial debut, In Her Name, which she also wrote and produced, won the Audience Award at Tribeca Film Festival in 2022 putting Cheshire Moon Productions on the map as a recognized house. CMP’s second narrative feature A Pity a film by brothers Kevin Barth and Alec Barth continues to collect accolades on the festival circuit while In Her Name was picked up for worldwide distribution with Tribeca Films, Giant Pictures and Drafthouse streaming now on all major platforms. Well-known in Hollywood for her work as an actor, she has starred in several popular TV series namely Falling Skies, Shark, Smallville, Rogue, Hawaii Five-0, Entourage, and The Flash and films The Vow, Haven, and Final Destination. Working with and shadowing top directors like Spike Lee and Steven Spielberg, she discovered her own passion for writing and filmmaking and the social impact of original storytelling. Her first official invitation into the writer’s room was from Judd Apatow and Seth Rogan to develop her character’s arc on Undeclared opposite Charlie Hannam back in 2001. Since then she has continued to pursue story as a way to connect dots, draw meaning, and share in the beauty, absurdity, and tragedy of the human condition.