WHO ARE WE?

Our team is a diverse group of creative professionals dedicated to the art of storytelling and a curiosity for exploring human emotions and relationships. Our goal is to tell a visual story that leads our audience into a world of wonder and conversation to create effective change by looking within.

Delane Leahy has had a passion for storytelling since the age of nine. Growing up in Lowell Massachusetts allowed her to spy on film sets such as The Fighter before she landed her first professional job on the set of Patriots Day,  before relocating to Los Angeles. After taking some time off from making short films to get her health in line, she landed a gig on the TV series, The Orville, where she made some of the most meaningful relationships of her career to date. This is where she connected with actor Scott Grimes, who also hails from Lowell, MA.

After expressing her overall career goals to her mentors and friends from Orville and others, Visual Effects became a world she wanted to explore. The Orville post team was more than happy to hire her as a VFX Coordinator to teach her the world of post. 

But she still hadn't lost that creative spark and just as she was ready to get back into the director's chair-- an old friend from Lowell sent her a message on December 5th, 2020.

Tim McQuaid owes his writing chops to his late mother, Carol McQuaid, who was instrumental in revitalizing the art scene in Lowell while she was an editor at The Lowell Sun newspaper. His stories have gotten increasingly more complex over the years and his writing career has culminated in his most ambitious project to date: The Great Pacific Race. He sent the script to the one person he trusted to pull it off and on the first page read this:

And Delane was hooked... 

Tim's vision to shoot this as a oner was an intriguing technical adventure. She took great inspiration from 1917 and relished at the thought of dragging an audience into a world for a comfortable amount of time to talk. The audience is in a constant state of discovery as we watch all three characters get smacked in the face by the reality of a very real situation--and are forced to discuss it. 

From the start, The Great Pacific Race was always that--a discussion.

WHY THIS STORY?

We begin our story with a question: 

This is a real race where two people bravely row from California to Hawaii in a canoe. But this film isn't about a race across the Pacific Ocean. This is about a race of stamina. Determination. Focus. One mistake can cost you and everyone else in the boat their life. And that is exactly the mission that Chuck and Freddie are on. 

Chuck's plan was foolproof:

• Sneak in from the water on a boat.
• Break into the guarded canal house of a billionaire when nobody would be there.
• Use your technological savant of a half-brother to steal evidence from his computer.
• Be in and out in a few minutes.
• No problem.

Except every foolproof plan has flaws. He didn't account for Quincy’s mistress—I mean, lawyer—to be there. Brandy Pavone, the Spin-Doctor Master General, was expecting a spicy night with her man, and yet she still has time to finish up her work calls for the night. The case preventing her from enjoying her night is Chuck’s lawsuit against Manapharma.

You see--Chuck's father has recently passed away to a MRSA infection that he caught while working on a factory farm that Manapharma supplies antibiotics to. Chuck believes that Manapharma is responsible for oversupplying antibiotics to these farms and causing antibiotic-resistant strains to run rampant throughout the community.

But his case is nearing the end of the trial as Chuck’s side has failed to come up with sufficient evidence. And he's getting desperate...

So he calls his little half-brother.

Freddie doesn't get it. He's someone that doesn't want anyone to get hurt and often says things without thinking. He's family--but he never takes anything seriously. 

But this is serious now. Quincy is only minutes away. They are already in the middle of the ocean. No turning back. In the fight for power--lines are drawn and people's true selves are revealed.

Tone:

The Great Pacific Race strikes a true balance between comedy and drama. This piece is heavily influenced by the comedy duo, Abbott and Costello. Putting the archetypes of Abbott and Costello into a film like this allowed for the exploration of the fundamental aspect of their comedy--conflict. Abbott always wanted Costello to do things the right way--while Costello could only do things his way. The plots of their movies were often very serious--but their comedy acted as a blanket, satirizing the dramatic story underneath.

Our main inspirations for the tone were:

• Abbott and Costello
• True Detective
• 1917
• August Osage County
• Dopesick
• Erin Brockovich

The Great Pacific Race is meant to be a showcase of how to get someone to care about something bigger than themselves. Because that is the very real and present danger of climate change. Not enough people care and the journey to combat it is not easy. You have to row and row and row and row and row. It's  a very big ocean to cross --but someone has to do it. It’s a scary thing to venture out into the unknown and it’s often a dangerous and lonely path. But this struggle is necessary if true change is ever going to take hold.

This is about  the big picture. It's about trusting in the people you  love , and showing them that there is always a better way. These characters are meant to feel like they are in two different films. Chuck exists in a gritty, revenge  drama , while Freddie exists in a vaudeville, satire  comedy . They could not be any more different, but as the events of the film unfold--the two genres merge into one and when the final reveal hits--there are no more  jokes . This is  real .

This is The Great Pacific Race.

WHY NOW?

We want to relate the story of The Great Pacific Race to an existential threat. As a result of the COVID pandemic, public scrutiny about animal and food industries has increased tenfold. The factory farm industry has a direct link to the pharmaceutical industry, which results in potentially catastrophic consequences within nature. Greedy people tampering with nature as it was not intended is a very real and present danger.

Our aim is not to be political.

It is meant to show ideological differences between people and explore the role of  power in today's world. Because power always comes with a price. Extremism  is a dangerous road to travel down--in either direction. Chuck  and Quincy  represent their respective extreme methodologies to achieve their goals by any means necessary. Freddie  doesn’t care enough about the grand  problems  of the world to change his ways. And Brandy  is the wildcard--a turncoat--who represents the  courageous  people of the world who can admit when they are wrong and take steps to rectify that.

WHAT WILL IT TAKE?

Money.

Well--more than just that. This short film will require a huge amount of creativity and technical acumen to pull off. All of the departments need to be working in sync with the actors to be able to pull off the feat of one continuous take. 

We are incredibly happy with the team we've been able to wrangle together that have worked on projects ranging from effects-driven blockbusters like The Mandalorian, Avengers, The Orville, and American Horror Story--to character studies like Marriage Story, The Kid, and The Wolf of Wall Street. 

We have the talent. We have the passion. We have the story. 

Now we just need the $$$...

We decided to crowdfund to share this story with as many people as possible. Our whole team has all been working very hard this past year to produce and coordinate this film into becoming a reality. 

We began rehearsing this piece as a play, knowing full well that the camera would be a strong narrator, telling the audience--Hey, I have a story to tell you. It is happening now, and I am going to show it to you for exactly what it is. We began with actor rehearsals on a theater stage to set the comedic and dramatic beats before our first initial walkthrough with the camera for marks.

The marking walkthrough would create our road map for the half-brother's journey and invite the camera into the world we have been creating. It is here where I would start my journey with the DP (Cizko) and VFX supervisor (Adam) to plan the lighting and shot list, like building the walls to a home. Each scene has to be planned in creative ways to stitch together each disguised cut to keep the oner going. This would allow me to share this home with the rest of production to close the ceiling, bringing us all under one roof, before we share our story with the world.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

AND ABOVE ALL ELSE--CONTINUE SUPPORTING ART IN YOUR COMMUNITY!

Stories are how things change...