MOVIE TAO PRODUCTIONS

LOCAL CHARITY

Two sets of friends' lives intertwine when the results of a radio station contest force them to confront who they are and realize that what's missing from their lives is each other.

"Local Charity" is a fun romantic comedy written by Bren Pettengill and Chuck Fallaw. The story follows four young singles carrying on long-distance romances, each with a secret identity they must, for one reason or another, protect. A shocking surprise comes when the tabloids find out about the celebrity status of one of the singles and their lives are abruptly thrust into the public eye. Each player in this love tryst suddenly has a lot of explaining to do and everything to lose.

"...the premise is killer, and you obviously have the formula for this genre down pat... such a great idea! Good luck--I'm sure we'll be hearing from you out there in movieland!" Cynthia Dagnal Myron Epiphany Pictures

Notes from the writers:

Bren Pettengill

I first began writing, "The Date" a year and a half ago, after my first feature screenplay went into production. Although writing supernatural thrillers and horrors are more my style, I had always been intrigued by relationships and how people go about getting into them, maintaining them and ultimately, making them work. I find love mostly funny, so to explore different relationship scenarios, I decided a romantic comedy would be my next attempt at screenwriting.

Of course, I can do nothing normal, so I concocted an extreme situation for my characters to be tangled up in. A celebrity, a radio contest, hidden identities, long-distance romance, a deviant DJ, compromising contract, meddling mother, psycho stalker, incompetent investigator, confidentiality clause, and a plot that keeps changing the viewer's mind as to who should fall for whom. Or, at least that's what I attempted to do.

Around 84 pages I got sufficiently stuck. Though I had an outline for the entire script and a treatment completed, the scenes were getting more and more difficult to progress to conclusion. That's when Chuck Fallaw of the SC Film Club contacted me via e-mail and asked me if I had anything cooking. He'd come across the website for my feature indie and decided to investigate further. I immediately sent Chuck my unfinished screenplay, which by then was entitled, "Local Charity," and got a response the same day. Luckily, Chuck has the same strange sense of humor I do and told me that the first 84 pages had him hooked. I asked him to become co-writer and he and I banged out the rest of the script within the next two weeks!

I couldn't be happier with how, "Local Charity" ultimately turned out. Chuck inspired and/or wrote several scenes and kept me motivated and moving in the right direction. The response from the few who've had the opportunity to read it has, thus far, been all positive and I'm extremely excited to get this film produced and into theatres, as I truly believe this is the next, "feel good hit of the summer."