Financing & packaging deckA Memoir Productions film · Draft for discussion
The film
A twelve-year-old maker gives up his dream machine to prove that a dead inventor's greatest idea belonged to the widow at the long table, and breaks his mother's only rule to get the proof up the stairs.
An animated short in handcrafted, hybrid stop-motion. Family audience, adult heart. Written and directed by Mara Collins.
~12minutes
13scenes · 14 pages
4hero puppets
6locations
41paper birds
Why this story now
A film about who gets the credit.
Authorship
Eleanor designed a famous machine in 1968 and let her husband be its face. Every audience knows someone whose work carried someone else's name. The plaque is wrong; the film fixes it with a sticky note.
AI, honestly
The hero's app reads handwriting aloud in the writer's own voice. It doesn't replace anyone. It makes a hidden hand audible, and then people act. That's the story the moment needs told about technology.
Care
A night engineer who keeps a great house running, a widow who reads every letter, a girl who spends her one message on her friend. Invisible work, finally named, without a villain.
“Every great idea begins with somebody else's.” The film is made with new tools by human hands, and it's honest about both.
The look
Carved wood. Folded words.
Carved, lacquered puppet faces, hand-knit costumes, balsa and felt sets, lantern amber against deep indigo. Only words are paper: handwriting lifts off the page and folds into small birds.
The characters
Everybody is right about something.
Theo Reyes, 12¾
The maker
Watches the big house's one lit window. Gives his dream away to prove a plaque is wrong.
Priya Anand, 13
The partner
Builds his machine better, wins, keeps the money for the roof, and gives the credit away in writing.
Adela Reyes, 38
The night engineer
Keeps the house running and made the rule herself. Signs her own name to her son's risk.
Eleanor Whitlock, 84
The founder
Invented everything. Hasn't opened her husband's notebooks in nineteen years. Laughs.
Development · already made
The film exists on paper, on screen and in sound.
- 1Screenplay, draft 213 scenes · about 14 pages · Sept 28, 2026
- 1Story biblecharacters, look, set-ups and payoffs
- 5Character turnaroundsTheo, Priya, Adela, Eleanor, Arthur
- 21Key frames and location plateslocked style frame, 16 scene frames, 4 plates
- 1:50Trailerdevelopment cut, temp voices
- 3:30“The Long Table” audio dramascenes 8–10 · temp voices, score and sound
Production approach
Hybrid stop-motion: real hands where the story says hands matter.
Built by hand
Practical stop-motion · about 40% of shots Estimate
- Four hero puppets with carved, lacquered faces
- The long table, the staircase, the boiler room, the kitchen
- Every close-up of hands, notes and paper birds
- Practical origami for the flock's hero plates
Made with makr.ai
Animation, extension, finishing
- Boards, animatic and shot design (already begun)
- Wide shots and set extensions: the lawn, forty windows
- Multiplying the flock from hand-folded plates
- Compositing to match the practical footage
Humans at the table
Voice & performance
- A human voice cast for all five speaking roles
- Recorded together, so the whispers overlap
- Filmed table reads as the animators' reference
- Temp voices in the current trailer are replaced
The mix is a lever, not a doctrine. More practical shots raise cost and craft; more makr.ai shots lower cost and speed delivery. The budget slide prices three points on that line.
Production plan & schedule Estimate
Twelve months from green light to festival delivery.
M1M2M3M4M5M6M7M8M9M10M11M12
Pre-productioncasting · final boards · animatic
Voice record & table readshuman cast, filmed
Puppet & set buildfour puppets · four sets
Stop-motion shootpractical shots
makr.ai animation & compwides · extensions · flock
Music, sound & mixscore · Foley · the birds
Picture lock, grade, deliverablesDCP · captions · festival files
Festival submissionspremiere strategy
Delivery
Budget ranges Estimates
Three ways to make it.
makr.ai-led, handmade inserts $90k–$160k
Animated with makr.ai throughout; hands, notes and hero close-ups built and shot practically.
Hybrid stop-motionRecommended $280k–$420k
About 40% of shots practical, the rest made and matched with makr.ai.
Full stop-motion $750k–$1.2M
Every shot animated by hand on built sets.
Hybrid plan · working build-up
| Puppets: four heroes, armatures, carved faces | $60,000 |
| Sets & props: table, staircase, boiler room, kitchen | $55,000 |
| Stop-motion animation & camera crew | $85,000 |
| makr.ai animation, compositing, set extensions | $35,000 |
| Voice cast, table reads, recording | $20,000 |
| Music, sound design, mix | $25,000 |
| Post, grade, deliverables | $20,000 |
| Festivals, marketing, delivery | $15,000 |
| Contingency (about 10%) | $30,000 |
| Working total | $345,000 |
Producer's working estimates for discussion, not quotes or comparables. Voice rates depend on union status and territory; all lines will be re-bid with a line producer before commitment.
Festival strategy
Premiere where animation is judged by animators.
Target premiere
Annecy International Animation Film Festival
June 2028, Annecy, France: the first edition after delivery on the twelve-month schedule. The Cristal for a Short Film and the short-film Jury Award are on the Academy's qualifying list for short films. Depends on delivery by the festival's submission deadline.
Then: animation festivals on the Academy's list
- Animafest Zagreb Grand Prix · Croatia
- Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film Grand Prix International Competition · Germany
- Hiroshima Animation Season Grand Prix · Japan
- Anima, Brussels Grand Prix for Best International Short · Belgium
And short-film festivals with animation awards
- Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival Grand Prix · France
- Sundance Film Festival Short Film Jury Award: Animation · USA
- SXSW Animated Shorts Jury Award · USA
- Palm Springs International ShortFest Best Animation Short · USA
Family & audience
After the festival run: children's and family festivals, educational licensing around authorship and invention, and a release alongside the Memri app.
Sources: Annecy is held each June (annecyfestival.com, checked Sept 29, 2026); 2028 dates are not yet announced. Qualifying awards from the Academy's 99th Academy Awards Short Films Qualifying Festival List (updated April 10, 2026), which covers wins from Oct 1, 2025 to Sept 30, 2026. The list is published yearly; the one for Keepsake's eligibility year must be confirmed before submission.
Transmedia · the connection to Memri
The film is the app's origin story.
In Keepsake, Theo builds “Mom Decoder v0.3” to hear his mother's sticky notes read aloud, and renames it Memri at the finals. Memri is a real product (memri.media). The film gives it a story no advertisement could buy, and the app gives the film an audience that keeps its handwriting.
The filmThe emotional origin: a hidden hand made audible.
The audio drama“The Long Table” works as a standalone release and podcast episode.
The appPoint it at a note; hear it in the writer's voice.
ProposedMemri as a brand partner or co-financier. Not committed; terms to be discussed.
The team
Small table, long table.
01
Writer · director
The filmmaker
Wrote the screenplay, and leads the look, the cast and the cut from the first board to the festival print.
- Screenplay, draft 2
- The look and the cast designs
- Direction of every voice and frame
02
Producer · Memoir Productions
The producer
Brings the financing and the partners, and hires the line producer and the stop-motion supervisor.
- Financing and partners
- Line producer and stop-motion supervisor
- The twelve-month schedule
03
Voice cast · five speaking roles
The voice cast
Eleanor, Adela, Theo, Priya and Arthur, played by human actors recorded together, so the whispers overlap.
- Five speaking roles
- Recorded together at the table
- Table reads filmed for the animators
Everyone who makes it gets their name on it.
The ask Proposed
Finance the hybrid plan.
$350,000
Proposed production financing for the hybrid stop-motion plan, open to a lead partner plus grants, broadcaster pre-sales or a brand partnership. Structure and terms to be agreed.
Animation: practical and makr.ai
Voices, music, sound, post
Festivals, delivery, contingency
What partners receive Proposed
- Producer or executive-producer credit on screen and in festival materials
- A place at the long table: the filmed table reads and the premiere
- Recoupment and rights terms to be agreed on a term sheet
- For brand partners: the film's integration with the Memri app, with full creative approval kept by the director
Figures on this slide follow the working budget on slide 09 and are not an offer of securities.
Keepsake
Bring the bird.
Written and directed by Mara Collins. A Memoir Productions film.
