Unfinished Projects
- Project Type: Independent Short
- Pay Status: Paid
- Production Company / Studio: Backdive.tv
- Location: Austin area
- Start Date: Monday, November 2, 2026
- Shooting Schedule: 3 Days
- Wrap Date: Wednesday, November 04, 2026
- Producer(s): Willi Patton
Casting Vanessa (30s) for a short horror film. Film and character described below:
At a budget motel in the middle of nowhere, Eric (40s) is jolted out of his isolation by the sound of a gunshot coming from the room across the hall.
In the aftermath of the gunshot, Eric connects with Vanessa (30s), a rattled single mother staying in the neighboring room, and they begin to commiserate over a bottle of whiskey while playing a collaborative storytelling game: exquisite corpse, using the night's grim events as their material.
But as their macabre collaboration grows darker and their attraction to each other more intense, their invented elements surrounding the gunshot start to bleed into reality.
Vanessa is warm, flirtatious and disarming on the surface, with an edge underneath that only reveals itself gradually. She's quick, curious, and sharp; when she and Eric sit down to play exquisite corpse, she's the one who drives the game forward, pushing for darker and more interesting choices while Eric doubts himself. She has an instinct for story and a confidence in her own taste that Eric noticeably lacks.
She's also a single mother traveling alone with an infant, but remains always confident and unshaken. She's not rattled by the gunshot for long. When she knocks on Eric's door after the shooting, it reads less like vulnerability and more like a woman who knows what she needs and goes and gets it.
Submit resumes to:
casting@backdive.tv
http://backdive.tv
As with any workplace, the film and television industries can present a wide range of potential occupational health and safety hazards to workers. The Texas Film Commission expects all productions, regardless of budget to employ best practices such as establishing a workplace harassment prevention policy as well as maintaining overall industry safety standards in order to encourage and accomplish safety on set. Please visit the Safety On Set page for additional industry safety resources as well as information about employee rights and laws in Texas.
Project posted June 18, 2026