"Hey, do you want to try to win an Oscar?"
"Bet."
Julia asked... and Nick responded.
-Our Story-
Inspired by a guest speaker in class in Fall 2018, Nick and Julia formed Bafia-Stamey Productions, with the goal of producing a feature-length, original musical film, with the intent of submitting to (and winning) the 2021 Oscar for "Best Original Musical".
After convincing friends and peers to pool creative talents and energy, Nick and Julia united the Film and Theatre communities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with organizational support from UNC Student Television, UNC Pauper Players, Carolina Film Association, and Company Carolina. We wrote, composed, produced, and filmed Fix in the Fall and Spring of 2019. With post-production complete in Summer 2021, our Academy-Qualifying theatrical run begins on October 22, 2021 in Hollywood!
Filmmaking, and the arts in general, is an immensely collaborative process. The Bafia-Stamey Productions team is made up of about 50 former and current students, all responsible for different parts of the process. The team all attended (or attends) UNC-CH and have diverse backgrounds in film and theatre. Despite being students, this is not a student film, as we produced this film as a passion project, through all our own time, talent, and resources.
Our goal is to win an Oscar. Most Oscar-winning films have huge budgets (in the millions), but we believe we can do it with a bit less. This is not to say that films are over-funded; we just have the thriftiness and resourcefulness generally associated with "starving artists" and "college kids". Looking at the Entertainment industry, in Hollywood and around our campus, it can be seen that film-making is a privileged medium, inaccessible to those who can't afford to purchase the equipment required to make quality productions. We want to prove that film-making is for everyone; what better way to do it than by bringing an Oscar home to student-artists who are often blocked by the financial barriers of big-budget Hollywood?
With the project being Chapel Hill born and bred, we turned to local businesses and a crowd-funding campaign, raising almost $15,000 and getting all of our filming locations from helpful community members and friends of the project. This overwhelming display of support allowed us to fund the items listed below and minimize some of our expected production expenses.
Where the funds went:
Timeline (revised June 2022):
Below is a general outline of our production schedule...
We thank you so much for your support, whatever it may be. We believe it is important to give artists of all kinds an opportunity to showcase their skills, without financial or social barriers.
"Bet."
Julia asked... and Nick responded.
-Our Story-
Inspired by a guest speaker in class in Fall 2018, Nick and Julia formed Bafia-Stamey Productions, with the goal of producing a feature-length, original musical film, with the intent of submitting to (and winning) the 2021 Oscar for "Best Original Musical".
After convincing friends and peers to pool creative talents and energy, Nick and Julia united the Film and Theatre communities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with organizational support from UNC Student Television, UNC Pauper Players, Carolina Film Association, and Company Carolina. We wrote, composed, produced, and filmed Fix in the Fall and Spring of 2019. With post-production complete in Summer 2021, our Academy-Qualifying theatrical run begins on October 22, 2021 in Hollywood!
Filmmaking, and the arts in general, is an immensely collaborative process. The Bafia-Stamey Productions team is made up of about 50 former and current students, all responsible for different parts of the process. The team all attended (or attends) UNC-CH and have diverse backgrounds in film and theatre. Despite being students, this is not a student film, as we produced this film as a passion project, through all our own time, talent, and resources.
Our goal is to win an Oscar. Most Oscar-winning films have huge budgets (in the millions), but we believe we can do it with a bit less. This is not to say that films are over-funded; we just have the thriftiness and resourcefulness generally associated with "starving artists" and "college kids". Looking at the Entertainment industry, in Hollywood and around our campus, it can be seen that film-making is a privileged medium, inaccessible to those who can't afford to purchase the equipment required to make quality productions. We want to prove that film-making is for everyone; what better way to do it than by bringing an Oscar home to student-artists who are often blocked by the financial barriers of big-budget Hollywood?
With the project being Chapel Hill born and bred, we turned to local businesses and a crowd-funding campaign, raising almost $15,000 and getting all of our filming locations from helpful community members and friends of the project. This overwhelming display of support allowed us to fund the items listed below and minimize some of our expected production expenses.
Where the funds went:
- Equipment - There are technical requirements put in place by the Academy. We met them by using high-quality equipment, purchasing what we needed and borrowing what we could.
- Recording - As a musical film, we have the unique expense of recording songs in a studio, which is an expensive and specialized process. Thankfully, Chris Stamey, Julia Stamey's father, is an accomplished sound engineer and musician.
- Professional/Legal - Entertainment law can be tricky. We want to make sure everything that we do is by the books and foolproof. No rules will be broken!
- Screening - Our Academy-Qualifying run in LA County requires 7 consecutive days of showings, 3x a day
- Props/Costume - We had many assets at our disposal, between personal collections and student orgs, but there were still some production-related costs to building our world
- Marketing - A crucial part of this process is becoming "critically-acclaimed" and building a recognizable campaign
- Food - A semester-long production that involved college students featured many hungry mouths. Snacks were provided!
- Misc - We cannot predict every single cost we'll run into. Our goal budget was our minimum, so anything more we get will be immediately funneled into increasing our production value.
Timeline (revised June 2022):
Below is a general outline of our production schedule...
- December 2018-January 2019 -- Finalize Script, Audition/Cast Talent, Secure Funding
- February 2019-May 2019 -- Finish pre-production, Secure Locations, Film Everything
- May 2019-Jan. 2020 -- Assembly edit of film, Conduct Re-shoots as necessary
- Feb. 2020- -- Final edit of film, finish studio recordings of music, encourage other eligible entries
- Pandemic and Post Production delays... WE ARE GOING TO SUBMIT by Nov. 2021! With a Fall 2021 theatrical release, we will qualify for the 94th Academy Awards
- October 2021 - Begin our Academy-Qualifying theatrical run, on Friday Oct. 22, at Sunset Cinelounge, in Los Angeles, CA.
- November 2021 - NC Premiere at Varsity Theatre in Chapel Hill, bringing the project home on Sat 11/13.
- February 2022 - "Fix", now streaming on Amazon Video!
- Spring 2022 - We had 5 original songs accepted and eligible for nomination, but did not receive a nomination.
- Spring 2022 - The original musical soundtrack from Fix is now streaming on Spotify and other services!
We thank you so much for your support, whatever it may be. We believe it is important to give artists of all kinds an opportunity to showcase their skills, without financial or social barriers.
Fix - Original Musical Film
Synopsis: The film opens on three estranged high school friends—Cameron Poole, Jackson Schiff, and Emma Porter—who reunite at a concert in their 20s and are suddenly confronted with the dreams that life had forced them to abandon; as they struggle to heal their relationship, their futures, and themselves.