A short comedy film about a son and his disabled father and their quest to buy 'one pill' in the hopes it will allow the dad to dance with his wife at her upcoming surprise birthday party.



Hi I'm Grant, the writer and director of 'Ecstasy'. We're making a beautiful and fun movie about Parkinson's Disease and dancing all inspired by my father Bob who's lived with Parkinson's for the last 20 years. 



If you're not familiar with Parkinson's, it's a neurological disorder which affects everything to do with your movement. Simple things like walking, talking and dancing become incredibly tough. The film is based upon the real-life revelation that ecstasy can temporarily remove the symptoms of Parkinson's as seen in the BBC Documentary Ecstasy and Agony. Check it out online, quite literally a man goes from struggling to lift a glass of water to being able to do acrobatics. 



Our film is a wild heartfelt movie about what lengths you would go to dance with a loved one... one last time. And what's more 70% of the movie has already been filmed! Check out our trailer here

 

In our film, father and son, Ian and Kristian, are blown away upon discovering the effect of ecstasy on people living with Parkinson's and set out to buy an ecstasy pill in the hopes it will allow Ian the freedom of movement to dance with his wife Rachael on her birthday. What follows is a whole-hearted and hilarious story that makes you think about how far you'd go to be able to dance with a loved one again. We want audiences to laugh, cry and rave in their seat!



**The jury is still out on the benefits of ecstasy on people living with Parkinson's disease. Right now, the negatives outweigh the positives. Read up on it, but please don't go out there and take it.**

Check out the rewards on offer (If you're on mobile scroll to the bottom), anything from a copy of the script to tickets to the screening can be bought to support our film. On top of this, for every single pledge over £30, we will be donating part of the proceeds to a UK based Parkinson's research charity to support their incredible work and contribute to finding a cure. 



Backing the project is just one way that you can help make ‘Ecstasy’ a reality. If you would be happy to spread the word about what we’re trying to achieve through sharing us on social media, tagging our Twitter and Facebook pages online or telling your friends and family via word of mouth, text or email - anything that gets the message out about the film - that could make all the difference.
 

We're looking to raise £7,000 to film our re-shoot. A percentage of the money raised will go directly to charity, so this is your opportunity to support a movie and research towards a cure all in one go! The eagle-eyed amongst you might be thinking... Hang on, didn't they raise money last time and why do they need to raise money again? Well, let us explain...



In January we had an incredible two day shoot, the toughest I've ever been on. We finished at 3.30am on Day 1 and 2am on Day 2. The visuals and performances were amazing but it was tough going from the start and we ran into a number of problems, first up was an unexpected BURST TYRE on our lighting van. Changing the tyre took forever and horrible traffic meant that it arrived 4 hours late... once it was dark. We'd set aside 3 hours to set up our lights to illuminate our car park location and as you can imagine it takes a lot longer to set up in the dark. Meanwhile, the local centre that were letting us use their indoor space let us know that they could no longer help out for the entire shoot and so we were going to lose power much earlier than planned and we had to scramble to bring in a new power source. Last but not least we cannot forget the unexpected BIBLICAL RAIN. It was so horrible that my timberland boots got drenched and I had to literally use carrier bags as socks to keep things dry. We had 3 tents covering the car, crew and equipment and at points the rain was so heavy we couldn't record for sound purposes. Moving tents around slows you down massively and all told it was very stressful. 

The hours lost and the crazy, CRAZY weather meant that we were fighting against time from the start. We had to think logically and change our plan with the knowledge that we had to come back at a later date. It was a soul-destroying decision to make but we simply didn’t have the hours in the day and we needed to keep the cast and crew sharp for Day 2 – which, conversely, was the best day of filming I've ever had.  We had a number of people with Parkinson's on set with us and they LOVED the experience. Quoting one of our amazing extras Gina 'We had a brilliant time, it was really good to meet other fellow sufferers and exchange symptoms and have a laugh.'



We've since assembled the movie and it's 70% complete with gaps ready to be filled. Our grand plans to raise money stalled as a result of the COVID pandemic, but as things open up we want to press ahead and complete our crowdfund and film our one remaining day. We only have 2 months before the car park location we filmed at is DEMOLISHED! We're going to have some huge continuity issues if we can't film in this location!



SO if you want to laugh, cry and dance in your seat at a movie that has so much heart you might melt into water then please help us to raise the money we need to make an AMAZING movie. Thank you!

WRITER & DIRECTOR | GRANT TAYLOR



Day in day out Grant is hustling as a director working on commercials, music videos and a lot of stuff with amazing charities and brands. For years he's been working on all kinds of creative projects, many of which you can see on his website here he's also worked on a number of projects raising awareness for Parkinson's Disease. His work tries to show the best of humanity with an emphasis on comedy. His work is bright and full of hope. Ecstasy is inspired by his own experiences with his father and after the idea was developed, he pitched it to a room full of people where he met...



PRODUCER | EMILY WYLIE



Straight after the pitch, Emily made a beeline for Grant because she loved the pitch. Since then, they've been getting the film through pre-production ready to shoot early next year. Emily works full time as part of a team creating behind-the-scenes featurettes for studio feature films such as EL CAMINO: A BREAKING BAD MOVIE, LITTLE WOMEN and 1917. 



They can't wait to make this movie and that's why they instantly asked...



ART DIRECTOR | ELENA MUNTONI



Elena has worked with Grant on lots and lots of music videos, stop motion and they co-directed a film which screened at BAFTA and won a coffee machine in the process (That comes in handy). She's worked on the Bafta-nominated short film STANDY and music videos for MUMFORD & SONS amongst others. She may look straight-faced when you're telling her a story, but don't be fooled! In her head she is putting up curtains, tearing up tape, and making your tale come to life in her imagination. Picturing the scene in all of its fine, artistic detail.



This leads us nicely to...



CINEMATOGRAPHER | HAMISH ANDERSON



A seriously talented cinematographer who's made a name for himself in the commercials and short film world, Hamish has shot energetic promos for BT Sport and elegant visuals for high-end fashion.  His narrative work has been screened at festivals around the world; including Palm Springs Film Festival in California and the BFI London Film Festival here in the UK. He loves telling audience-friendly stories with lots of action and comedy. If you can, check out BILLY THE KID, which has won a series of accolades on the festival circuit.



Finally, let's introduce...



1ST ASSISTANT DIRECTOR | KASHMAN HARRIS



Kash is the living embodiment of happiness. An absolute joy to work with, a talented writer and filmmaker in his own right. Kash and Grant have worked together in many harmonious on set environments for years starting with a truly EPIC battery recycling campaign (no joke). Since then, they've worked on commercials, music videos and a very ambitious web series. Kash will be keeping the team motivated and ensure everything is moving along smoothly as we capture all of the wonderful magic on our shoot.

 

EDITOR | GONÇALO SÁ CORREIA 



Long-time collaborator and editing maestro Gonçalo has worked with Grant for years on commercials, music videos and shorts. He's had his work shown on Channel 4, MTV and he's recently been seen at the BBC. He'll be turning what we shoot into the heartfelt and fun film we all want it to be.



MUSIC SUPERVISION  | NEW STATE



Record label New State have worked with Grant on a number of music videos for the likes of the Stanton Warriors, Dirty Vegas and Camelphat and they have an amazing back catalogue of absolute floor fillers. They were also the music supervisors on KEVIN AND PERRY GO LARGE! And are going to be helping the film to secure the rights to one stand out track for the finale. It's an audio visual medium and music is key!



WHY ARE WE HERE ON GREENLIT?



Well... After Grant pitched Ecstasy, Peter, the founder of greenlit expressed his passion for the idea. Greenlit have been offering a level of support unparalleled in the daunting world of crowdfunding. They are a British crowdfunding platform, explicitly dedicated to film funding AND they are fully compliant with best practice in payment processing, using the Stripe Connect platform for secure escrow handling of funds raised for filmmakers. Their fees are the most competitive of any of the major platforms for film and creative projects.