Lizzie

A young woman, Eliza,  returns to her home town for summer break, and must confront a fragment of her past.

Introducing... Lizzie. 

A heartfelt, coming-of-age drama set in Tai Tapu, Christchurch. Lizzie serves as a thought-provoking deconstruction of the inner child discussion, and explores themes of self acceptance, sisterhood, and growth. 

Rippit Studios is a fresh start-up film collective, pushing limits in grounded, character-driven storytelling for the screen. Owners Sam, Rahil, and Hannah, have been creating together since high school - and have joined forces to bring their distinct narratives and visual style to a wide audience.

Lizzie began as a collaboration between Rippit Studios and gifted screenwriter Rebecca Johnson, and later grew to involve a talented cast and crew from the University of Canterbury and beyond.

Cast

• Alyssa GIlbert as Eliza
• Rose Griffiths as Lizzie

Crew

• Sam Dalton -  Director and Co-writer
• Hannah Spragg - Producer and Production Designer
• Rahil Uddin -  Director of Photography
• Rebecca Johnson - Executive Producer and Co-writer
• Jessie Jukes - 1st Assistant Director
• Casper Clerens - 1st Assistant Camera
• Austin Cook - 2nd Assistant Camera
• Kenta Lord - Gaffer
• Ben Fabling - Sound Recordist
• Rich Bell - BTS Photo
• Jack Thomas - BTS Video

If successful with our funding goals, we intend to use the proceeds to support our post-production efforts and ensure we can complete Lizzie to the standard the story deserves, and distribute it as widely as possible.

We intend to grow our team for the post-production stage, and hire industry-level creatives with skills we know will ensure Lizzie can perform on the world's stage.

Involving technical specialists in fields such as sound mixing and colourgrading will allow us to create an immersive world, rich emotional impact, and overall, a final product that is a higher and more consistent quality than we would be able to produce alone.

We also intend to distribute Lizzie both domestically and internationally in a variety of film festivals, including Show Me Shorts, NZIFF, and Top of the South. Many of these festivals have submission costs, and we want to ensure that we can participate in as many of these events as possible.

We also hope to recoup business costs associated with production to ensure we can continue to create and share our stories.

This short film follows the story of Eliza, a 19 year old girl from small-town New Zealand. After spending a year away from home at university, she has returned home for the summer. While on a run, she meets her 10 year old self, Lizzie. Through conversation, sisterly bickering and disagreements, Eliza is forced to confront the realities of moving away, growing up and the influence her past has on the person she is, and who she will become. 

Lizzie is a down to earth, yet nuanced story about self-acceptance, coming of age and learning to be unapologetically yourself. 

Lizzie is the kind of film that we want to linger in the minds of audiences, and come to mind during moments of change and growth. The world is getting harder, sooner. Young people are being forced to leave behind the carefree parts of themselves, or risk being left behind themselves. Lizzie is to remind people that the youthful, different, or vulnerable parts of themselves should be loved, not buried, and shared with the world.

Lizzie’s story is a distinctly female one. Inspired and informed by women in our cast and crew, the female perspective and experience is a major focus. Filmmaking is a male-dominated industry, and we strive for Lizzie to inspire other female creators to share their unique stories.

Lizzie proudly champions small town NZ, from our setting to our story, and we hope this story will help to shine a light on places and communities that are underrepresented in our current media.