Project of the Day: ‘The Toll’

Here’s your daily dose of an indie film in progress — at the end of the week, you’ll have the chance to vote for your favorite.

In the meantime: Is this a movie you’d want to see? Tell us in the comments.

The Toll

Tweetable Longline: In the final days of WWII, a bereft army corporal stumbles upon a top secret S.S. technology and is transported to an alternate 1945.

Elevator Pitch: The entire film takes place on VE day, May 8th, 1945, in San Francisco. U.S. Signal Corps radio operator Wesley Morris, mourning the loss of his wife at sea, confronts a mysterious stranger filming the Golden Gate Bridge. This chance encounter leads Wes face to face with “Die Glocke” (The Bell), a secret S.S. weapon with dimension altering capabilities, and the potential to reunite Wes with his lost love, but at the cost of countless lives.

Production Team:

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Director/Producer/Writer – Liz Anderson (Trauma (NBC), The Etymology of Zero (winer of the Netflix/Women in Film Foundation Finishing Fund Grant), SanFranLand, Dyke Central)

Actor/Producer/Writer – Wylie Herman (Senn, Trauma (NBC), The Walking Dead: The Game)

Actor – Anthony Cistaro — “Joel Rifkin”, the serial killer named boyfriend of Elaine on Seinfeld (NBC), and “Henri”, Woody and Sam’s French nemesis on Cheers (NBC), Friends (NBC), Witchblade (TNT),

Editor/Graphic Design – Spencer McCall (The Institute, now on Netflix)

VFX Supervisor – Josh Feldman (Senn)

Cinematographer – Tyler Cushing

Producer -Michael Balke

Costume Design – Antonia Gunnarson

About the Film:

This film merges three of my favorite things: SciFi, 1940’s aesthetic, and hallucinating in the forest. Wylie and I have both always been fascinated by the idea of alternate dimensions and parallel universes, and this story offered the opportunity not only to shoot our film in the SF Bay Area, where we live, but to imagine and create a San Francisco under Nazi occupation. Also, it’s our hope that after seeing our film and all the spectacular locations and talent San Francisco has to offer, more people will be inspired to shoot ambitious, high quality narrative work in Northern California!

Current Status: We are in post-production and fundraising to finish the short, and pitch the feature!

If you have an in-the-works project and you’d like to be profiled in an upcoming IW Project of the Day column, submit yourself by filling out this form!