Basic is an official SXSW selection, premiered at Santa Barbara International Film Festival, and played at dozens of other amazing festivals. It won BEST COMEDY at Hollyshorts Film Festival and BEST INDIE at Festigious.
Basic is a very short film exploring the insecure lil' ho in all of us.
Written & Directed by: CHELSEA DEVANTEZ
Shot & Cut by: KEVIN WALSH
Starring: GEORGIA MISCHAK & NELSON FRANKLIN & CHELSEA DEVANTEZ
Script Supervisor & Assistant Director: KENZIE ELIZABETH
Music by: TARA TRUDEL
Creative Consultant: KELLY REILLY
Sound Design: CODY SKULLY
Producer: YASSIR LESTER
Executive Produced by: CHELSEA DEVANTEZ & KEVIN WALSH
What do you hope people take away from the film?
“When people watch the film I hope they know who the villain is immediately, but by the end of the film change their mind and think a different character is the villain. And then three days later I hope the film crosses their mind for the briefest of seconds and makes them go, wait, am *I* the villain?”
— Chelsea Devantez
Meet the crew
Kenzie Elizabeth
SCRIPT SUPERVISOR & ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
Kenzie is a filmmaker, writer, and actor from Chicago. Her short film “Ponytail,” won Best Director, Audience’s Choice, and the Chicago’s Choice award, at Chicago’s Shortcut International Film Festival. Her latest film “Pathetic Woman,” a surrealist love story, will be out this winter. You can see her on ABC’s “Bless This Mess,” and Netflix's "Easy.” She currently lives in Los Angeles.
Kevin Walsh
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, CINEMATOGRAPHER, EDITOR
Kevin first met Chelsea doing improv in Chicago, and has had the privilege to collaborate on a number of projects together since. He’s written, directed, and edited projects that have been featured at the New York Television Festival and the Los Angeles Animation Festival. His sitcom pilot “The Startup” was sold to the CW – and his animated series pilot “The Kingdom” was sold and developed by Hulu. Kevin currently lives in Los Angeles with his wonderful partner, two dastardly cats, and the hundreds of unfinished projects clogging up his hard drive... haunting him.
Kelly Reilly
CREATIVE CONSULTANT
Kelly met Chelsea while writing sketch shows in Chicago, and has been lucky enough to work on a number of projects with her since. In addition to developing features and pilots, Kelly is the author of the young adult novel, The Ordinary Adventures of Hannah Alexander. Kelly’s projects have been featured at the New York Television Festival and the Los Angeles Animation Festival. She’s currently living, writing, and avoiding getting too much sun in sunny Los Angeles — seriously it’s an SPF 50 kind of a place.
Meet the composer
Tara Trudel
Tara Trudel is a composer and songwriter whose recent credits include "Uno Por Uno: The Cuban Missile Crisis" (Sony's Voces Nuevas 2019) and "Dreamer" (Vulture's Best Comedy Videos 2018). She and Chelsea first met while performing together for The Second City Touring Company where Tara worked as a musical director.
The making of the film
Basic was shot over the course of two days in LA with a crew of four people. A tiny, but mighty production, Chelsea, Kevin, Kenzie and Kelly, took on multiple roles during shooting, and found innovative ways to make the film happen in such a short amount of time with seven different locations. In order to tell a visually captivating story on a budget of nothing, Kevin and Chelsea did multiple test shoots with various locations and gear; you can see a glimpse of those ventures below. All natural lighting was used for the outdoor shots, and one of the best sources of colored light for the indoor scene ended up coming from an app on an iPhone. The film was shot on two cameras: Kevin’s Sony A7 and Chelsea’s Canon 80d. The most expensive element of the budget came the day before when Chelsea and Kevin panicked and bought $200 worth of back up batteries that they never used.
Fun fact: the vocals in the credits song are Chelsea’s.
