Five Dollar Friday — Heath Hill & ‘The Repair’
A filmmaker and their short film deserving of your attention
Happy Five Dollar Friday!
Today I’m so very happy to introduce you to Heath Hill, a director from northern Louisiana. We were introduced by his producer, Taylor Deville, a talented director in her own right.
Heath’s upcoming project is The Repair.
On the eve of a cross-country move to California, a daughter returns to her estranged father's garage, where fixing her car means finally facing the years of grief and resentment between them.
Heath, apologies, but I’m not going to bury the lede here: as of this writing, your campaign for The Repair has $0 pledged in its first three days live. I spend a lot of time browsing campaigns for this newsletter, and a campaign that’s as well-executed as yours should be further along by now. What steps have you taken to market your campaign so far?
The steps I have taken were to craft a fully fleshed out campaign page, reach out to people in my filmmaking circle and post on social media 1-2 times daily at the start of the campaign. I think some retooling of my approach is overdue, and I'm diving in to learn more ways to market this as well as I can. I hope I learn real soon!
I get it. It’s very hard to get any kind of traction crowdfunding outside of your own network these days. Heck, with changes to the algorithm on Instagram & Facebook, it’s now hard to even get your own network to see and engage with content.
When I crowdfunded my campaign for Draft Night on Kickstarter, 90-95% of the donors were people I knew personally. I got excited when I raised my initial ask in the first 48 hours… but no matter how much effort I put into it, I was unable to find a way to widen my circle of support beyond the people I knew. I started this newsletter to try to change that in some small way but, if you want to get close to reaching your goal, you’re going to need to drum up significantly more support in your own network.
I don’t mean to scare you, Heath, but I strongly suggest you clear your schedule for the next couple of days and focus on fundraising. Treat today as day 0 and the first day of your launch. Personally email every single person you’ve ever met — not joking, literally everyone — and tell them about your campaign and how important it is to you that they help out in some small way.
The night before my campaign launched, I was sick to my stomach. Terrified of rejection, nauseated at the thought of publicly asking people for help. And then the next morning a wonderful thing happened: people from both my present and my past showed up for me in the most incredible way. I’m still overcome with gratitude and that heart-full feeling only community can give just thinking about it. And I will always cherish the memory of my very first donation coming in, a donation from a friend I hadn't seen or talked to in over a decade (shout out to Bob Merrick, you beautiful man).
Thank you, Tom! Getting started on this now.
[Note: In the few hours since encouraging Heath to reach out to his network via email, he’s gone from $0 pledged to over $400 pledged at the time of publishing.
For anyone reading this that’s planning a campaign in the future, I recommend lining up support in advance of your campaign’s launch. Send your closest friends and your strongest advocates a sneak peek the day before it goes live. And then remind them shortly after launch. Momentum matters. The general rule of thumb when crowdfunding is that you’ll raise 33% of your total pledges during the first three days of your campaign.]
Okay, back to dreaming, I’d love to know what inspired you to direct The Repair. Why this project?
I had a lot of ideas, treatments and scripts laying around. And I recognized I had resources around me: a blend of encouragement, support, ideas, technical understanding and people I could depend on. I adopted the philosophy that I either find something I can direct here and now or I just will never direct.
Not only did The Repair serve as something I can realistically shape, with its limited locations and characters, but it also was something I understood well. Growing up around very proud blue collar people I am familiar with how they talk, what issues populate their life, and how those issues impact their close family and friends.
Blue collar stories are ripe for visual storytelling. Working class people make up most protagonists in movies big and small, and I believe it's because of the universality of their experience. Most of us today are only a few generations removed, if that, from people whose lives depended wholly on blue collar work.
What makes me interested in these characters are the relationships between them and their environments. These people must either harmonize with or struggle against their surroundings, creating natural dramatic tension that translates well to screen, whether tragic or hopeful, as characters physically engage with their world in ways that establish clear stakes and visible challenges.
Yeah, there’s something great about both the textures you find in an environment like a repair shop and the way the work is externalized: watching someone crank a wrench is infinitely more fascinating than watching someone type at a keyboard.
I completely agree! I think another thing I'd add to that notion of textures are layers. I grew up around these types of people; mechanics, farmers, carpenters, and I know there is more to them than a simple person living the simple life. That’s something I take away from Martin Macdonough’s films, his average people with unglamorous lives are never just a stereotype of an easy going small town slow life yatta yatta.
They have faults, dreams, hearts, ideas (sometimes misguided), and goals. Their lives are far from small scale but they encompass a small geography which, again, is the perfect combo for filming.
I understand you’re originally from northern Louisiana, you moved to central Arkansas, and now you’re back in northern Louisiana. The Repair is a story about someone leaving their home to go west to California — how personal is it? Is it an exploration of a choice you did or didn’t make?
I have an extensive family who live all over the country, people move all the time, far and near and so when I have moved in the past I didn't really see it as a BIG move. And I realistically see more moves in my future. I don't know. I just see moving off and back and off again and back again to be a very natural part of life.
So in the story, the mother/wife to our respective daughter father duo is ill and has been for years. And our main character is moving to California. So both of these things, to me, are just things that naturally happen. You might as well expect them. The issue with my other main character in the story is that he has to react positively to these things that you can't FIX or change and you have to have a reaction to them that will allow you to move on and that is Work, similar to the labor intensive work he's used to.
I recognize a handful of your collaborators, including the aforementioned producer Taylor Deville as well as your director of photography, Alexander Jeffery. How did you come to know them and get them on board The Repair?
After moving to North Louisiana from Central Arkansas, where I lived for some years, I knew I wanted to find good filmmakers in my area as soon as possible. When I attended the Film Prize* last year, I met all these folks and instantly recognized they were A+ people. It's amazing how having met such talented individuals will inspire you to work on creative projects. So when I finally had a script I felt confident directing, I knew exactly who to reach out to — I was eager to collaborate with this group of filmmakers I admired so much.
[*If you’re not familiar with Film Prize, hang tight, I’ll circle back to that at the end.]
What early conversations have you and Alexander had regarding the film's visual language and storytelling approach for The Repair?
I shared with Alexander how Ford v Ferrari was a major visual inspiration, and we bonded over our shared admiration for its cinematographer, Phedon Papamichael. His work brilliantly captures the textures and light of automotive environments — exactly the atmosphere we needed for our repair shop setting.
For narrative style, as I mentioned earlier, Martin McDonagh's films are a significant influence. His work typically unfolds in the aftermath of or alongside major events, focusing not on the dramatic moments themselves but on how characters react to them. This approach is evident throughout The Repair — we're less concerned with showcasing big, dramatic turning points and more interested in how our characters navigate their emotional responses to what's happening around them. People and their environments — that's the relationship I want to focus on in my storytelling.
Speaking of your storytelling, how did you get here? What’s your background as a filmmaker?
My background has been varied but I evolved from a student seeking real world on set knowledge to a wedding videographer to a camera operator and 1st AC on short films and commercial projects (and the whole time never turning down a PA job). I've also had the fortunate experience of serving as DOP on various brand projects that I believed in, where I was able to really put myself to the test learning how to craft a moving image and tell a story with it.
I think one thing I'd highlight that made the most difference in all this experience is that I was always asking questions to an unbearable amount. I was never interested in showing up on set acting like I was the best at this because I knew it wasn't true. What I wanted was to learn every ounce of info I could from every department. So between sets and during downtime I'd ask producers, directors, sound mixers and hair stylists as many questions as I could in the event that I never got to see them again.
I love that. Any observation in particular that sticks with you?
The main thing I took away from those days on set, asking questions, is that it's less about technical proficiency (though that does indeed matter) and more about how well you treat your fellow crew members. The days are long, the sets are cities, and it takes humanity to get through them so the people with good attitudes in film are the ones that stay. I try to always be an example of that. I'll leave it to others to be the judge!
That’s such a great sentiment. Now, go! Email those crew members you treated well. I hope they’ll support you in your moment of need. Thanks again for our conversation and best of luck with The Repair!
Before I go, I reached out to Alexander Jeffery and asked him to briefly explain to readers what Film Prize is and why it’s so special:
The Louisiana Film Prize is a really unique short film festival in that it almost operates like a studio/film school in a way where you are producing a film with the distribution at this particular festival in mind before going out to other festivals. It gives filmmakers a clear deadline structure to finish rough cut submissions before completing their final deliverables for the event. Also, unlike most short film festivals, if you make the Top 20 you can expect about 3,000 people to see your short film in one weekend because the audience must see every film in order to vote for the winner. The panel of judges is incredible with representation from Tribeca, Sundance, Cleveland and amazing independent filmmakers/producers.
Films must be shot in Louisiana to qualify for the $25,000 prize, or Caddo/Bossier Parish to qualify for $50,000.
More info on the Louisiana Film Prize here. You have until July 8th to submit!
Most of the short film campaigns I spotlight are already on their way to success well before I reach out and write about them. Not this one. If you want to send positivity into the universe and brighten someone’s day, you can join me in supporting Heath and his film The Repair by contributing to the campaign below. Even $1 can be a huge help — number of supporters is an important metric, too!
Thanks to the help of paid subscribers, my weekly contribution has increased from $5 at the start of this newsletter to now $18.
Again: it’s better for everyone involved if you contribute directly to the filmmaker’s campaign yourself and don’t become a paid subscriber to this newsletter. But, if you ain’t got time for that, you can upgrade your subscription and I’ll contribute a little bit extra each week on your behalf.
🎊 Today’s Five Dollar Friday just so happens to fall on a cinematic holiday. Happy Perfect Date to all who celebrate!
💰 Boulder Crest Foundation is offering cash prizes of up to $10,000 for short films and other video content on the theme of post-traumatic growth. The application window is currently open and closes May 23, 2025.
🥂 Congratulations to Jon Densk on the successful conclusion of his campaign!
⏳ There’s still time to contribute to Rachael Kuecher’s campaign for The Stress of IT!, William Smart’s campaign for Quick Fix, and Jimmy Chhiu’s campaign for Khmerican.
✍️ And, finally, feel free to write back if you have a question for one of the filmmakers, an update on a short film project of your own, or if you just want to say hi!