TTH Press Kit

The Tell-Tale Heart Press Kit

Log Line:

She cares for the Old Woman, but something about the Old Woman’s eye makes the Woman have to kill her.

Short Synopsis:

The Tell-Tale Heart, 2014, Color, 10 minutes

Directed by James Cotton

The Old Woman's nurse is driven mad by her dead eye. One night, the Woman murders the Old Woman, buries the body under the floorboards.

Long Synopsis:

The Old Woman is too old to live by herself, so she has the Woman living with her as her nurse. The Woman cannot stand the Old Woman’s dead eye, and every night she looks in on the Old Woman when she sleeps, but cannot do anything because the eye is always closed. On the eighth night, the eye is finally open, so the Woman can do it. She rushes into the Old Woman’s bedroom and kills her. Then she dismembers the body and buries it under the floorboards of the bedroom. As soon as she is done, the police arrive, having been alerted by a neighbor who heard the screams of the Old Woman. The Woman invites the Police Officers in to look around, then to rest for a while. While they chat with her, the Woman begins to hear a heartbeat and is slowly driven mad by it until she confesses to the murder of the Old Woman.

Writer/Director’s Bio – James Cotton

James Cotton, a North Carolina native, has been entertaining people all his life. From an early age it seemed obvious he would eventually be an entertainer. His first onstage roles were Lt. Brannigan in Guys and Dolls and Eugene in Grease for which he won a Favorite Character Actor award from the theatre.

He went to Western Carolina University, graduating in 2000 with a BA in Theatre with an emphasis on acting and directing. While at WCU, he appeared in such shows as Steve Martin’s Picasso At the Lapin Agile, Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, and Willi with David Forsyth as well as writing, producing, directing and starring in a one-man show titled The Tragedy of the President of the United States (in 1999). He also worked backstage as Stage Manager, soundboard operator, sound effects technical, and many other jobs on shows such as Mustang, Arsenic and Old Lace, and Barefoot in the Park. He was property master on a post-apocalyptic production of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

James worked for a season at Flat Rock Playhouse, the state theatre of North Carolina. While there, he appeared on stage with Pat Hingle in You Can’t Take it With You and worked as a scenic artist on West Side Story, The Woman in Black, Oklahoma, and many more.

James then appeared in productions of Arsenic and Old Lace as Teddy, The Odd Couple as Felix, and Clifford in DeathTrap at various theatres in North Carolina before turning to directing in 2003, directing The Rainmaker and The Diary of Anne Frank for the Uwharrie Players, a theatre group in central North Carolina where he has also served as a member of the board of directors for many years. In 2010, he directed Smoke on The Mountain for them.

In 2004, James decided it was time to go to film school and enrolled in Vancouver Film School, where he started in the summer of 2005. While there he was the editor on the documentary Rev-Up, assistant director for the midterm drama Mary McPhearson and director of the midterm drama Iguana Pizza as well as serving in several other jobs on other short films.

After graduating from VFS in 2006, James adapted, produced, and directed the short film Violet that was included in the 2008 Cannes Short Film Corner at the 2008 Festival de Cannes. He produced and directed a short parody of “Twas the Night Before Christmas” as Twas the Night After Christmas in 2008.

James has worked for Stanly Community College, running the local PEG channel, SCC-TV, since 2010 where he produces all the programming for the channel as well as promotional material for the college.

In 2013, James wrote, produced, and directed the 20-minute short film One Man’s Poison, a 1930s Film Noir detective story.

Producer/Director of Photography Bio – Carl T. Rogers

Carl T. Rogers was born and raised in the Tar Heel State. Fascinated with movies as a youngster, Carl became serious about movie making as a high school senior when he shot and directed his premier short, Still Kickin.’ This raw tale of redemption won Best Short at the 2011 Modern Film Festival and earned Carl a scholarship to Regent University in Virginia Beach, VA, where he graduated with his B.A. in Cinema-Television in 2013.

While at Regent University, Carl focused primarily on directing and cinematography, directing a number of short films, including Everyone Wants to Be President, Pirates of Canadia, Hero, and the grad-level Languishing in Langley. As an undergrad, Carl also helmed a seven-part web series for TV Tropes in its breakthrough international Alternate Reality Game entitled The Wall Will Fall. Carl served as director of photography on such shorts as Devil’s Snare, Shatter Box, and Blown Away, which was an Official Selection at the Channel 757 Fall Showcase in Norfolk, VA.

Carl’s Senior Thesis, Annabel Lee, was written and directed as a fantasy adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s haunting romance poem of the same name. It won Best Director at the 2013 Otis Film Festival, and was an Official Selection at the 2013 Orlando Film Festival. It was also awarded Platinum Best of Show by the 2014 Aurora Awards, and is distributed through Gaiam TV.

Since graduating from Regent, Carl has directed photography for two of James’ films: One Man’s Poison and Tell-Tale Heart. As a freelancer, Carl has directed a series of commercials for Montgomery Community College in Troy, NC. An avid reader of philosophy and apologetics, Carl is now studying Film Production at Florida State University, where he will graduate with his M.F.A. in 2016. He most recently directed the music video for Emmy-nominated rapper and actor T.O.N.E.-z’s latest single, “Sins of the Father,” which will soon air on VH1 and MTV2. You can see Carl’s films by visiting his website, http://doorway-films.com, or tweet him @doorwayfilms.

Stefani Cronley - The Woman

Stefani Cronley is a senior at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina. She will graduate in May of 2015 with a BFA in Acting and a minor in Film Studies. Stefani started acting in school plays and local theatre when she was 8 years old, but found her true passion for film as a freshman at Western. She studied in the acting program at Central Academy of Technology and Arts in Monroe, North Carolina, has worked with the Carolina Actors Studio Theatre in Charlotte, and was heavily involved in the Union County Performance Ensemble, and North Carolina Theatre Conference festivals during her high school career. Some of her favorite stage roles include “Dill” in To Kill a Mockingbird, “Connie” in A Chorus Line, and “Alice” in Alice in Wonderland. She has worked in radio as the voices of “Lady Greystoke and Jane” in WCU’s radio production of Tarzan of the Apes,and has earned several IMDB credits through her work with independent filmmakers “The Slash Gang”. Despite her fear of all things gruesome, she has found her niche as an actor in horror films.She says the experiences have helped her face her fears and conquer (almost) all of them. Of those roles, her favorite will always be “Molly Lawson” of The Recapturing, which received several awards at the 2012 MonsterCon film festival in Greenville, South Carolina.

Stefani hopes to continue to work with independent filmmakers in the coming years. She says “one of the great things about independent filmmakers is that their goal is still about telling a great story. Of course everyone is out to sell their movie, but independent filmmakers haven’t yet lost sight of the reason we do what we do.” She hopes every project she has the opportunity to work on reaches and audience in a unique way and gives them a good time at the movies.

Lisa Ewers - The Old Woman

Lisa Ewers is originally from New Jersey, but now resides in Albemarle, NC. She has been performing since she was in the fifth grade when she had her first vocal solo with her elementary school chorus. Lisa also began playing the clarinet as a child and had the opportunity to study instrumental and vocal musical performance in college. She can usually be found singing or playing in a local ensemble. Playing in the pit orchestra for musicals while in high school gave Lisa an appreciation for theatre. Since then, she has also discovered a love for acting and the technical aspects of theatre. Lisa plays both starring and supporting roles, as well as designs sound, for musical and dramatic productions with her local theatre company. Being an extra in James’ last film gave her the opportunity to learn about the film industry and now she’s hooked! Portraying the old woman in this wonderful adaptation of Poe’s “The Tell Tale Heart” was too tempting for Lisa to pass up. She enjoyed every minute… even the two hours of the aging (make-up) process!

Director’s Visionary Statement

The Tell-Tale Heart started out as a weekend film and quickly bloomed into a much larger project. The idea came out of a conversation with Carl T. Rogers about wanting to shoot a short film on one lens, preferably a 50mm. Carl said it would be difficult and I took that as a challenge. It took me a while to settle on a story, originally intending to write an original story, but being unable to come up with anything I felt would be small enough to shoot in a weekend, I decided to look at Edgar Allan Poe for inspiration.

I looked through several of Poe’s stories and settled on “The Tell-Tale Heart” as it is one location and only four people, the perfect weekend project, I thought. It is also a story that lent itself to being a bit more creative with the camera angles and lighting, so I thought it would be more fun for us. After adapting the script, I had a conversation with my make-up artist, Lena Olson, who had been doing a little research and mentioned the idea that the main characters do not necessarily have to be men like it has always been done. I liked the idea of adding a new twist to the old story and doing it in a way that’s not been done before, so I changed the Old Man to Old Woman and Man to Woman. It seemed a natural change.

We shot the film in the oldest public building in Albemarle, NC, the Freeman-Marks House, built around 1847. It is a very small, four-room house. It was going to be a cramped shoot, and quickly we determined we would not be able to stick with the 50mm only idea, so Carl and I decided to shoot the film entirely on my old Canon FD manual lenses. This, too, gave the film an interesting look.

Filming took two hot days in July. Once finished, I quickly edited the film so that it could go to our sound design person, Justin Michael Brittain, because we knew that the film would really take life once the sound design and music were added.