Thriller | The Fundraiser

The PLOT: An annual “Community Dance Project” is planned as a unique memorial and a celebration of the arts. Its core mission was a fundraiser supporting arts education. The branding story is about weaving dance and generosity into one big, fluffy blanket that warmed an entire community… in the weirdest way.

A small-town dance studio strikes terror… and gold with a community fundraiser for Samantha Funding the Arts.

The Trailer | Volunteer actors lovingly create their own heart-stopping, characters

How does a fundraiser to support the arts create art of its own?

Brenda’s Body Shop is a sole proprietorship nestled in a quiet, country setting in Western Maryland. But this is not your grandmother’s dance studio. She may have been churning out annual, glitz & glamour jaw-dropping recitals for the last forty years, but founder and instructor Brenda Brosnihan has made it her business to foster creativity and dedication to craft, and not just to splits and pirouettes. Sure, sometimes it’s a matter of “can you dance?”, but a lot of the stretching is for a vision of student achievement and keeping you on your toes is about reaching your personal goals. So when it comes to performance – they are deadly serious.

This Thriller theme was one they had taken on casually in the past, but it became the focus of their 2018 Fall Community Dance Project, as it coincided with the 10th anniversary of Michael Jackson’s passing. It was poignant, and exponentially more sad that the last time they had done a group Thriller dance it was energized by the unstoppable enthusiasm of a young student named Samantha. Tragically, Sam was killed in a car accident in 2012. So it was almost unthinkable to plan this event without her. Ultimately, she would play a major in the this event.

Samantha was a seventeen year-old with exuberant artistic aspirations and in that spirit, a foundation was formed in her name whose mission it would be to support art education in the public schools and sponsor arts-related field trips and arts exposure for children. With that mission being one of her own, Ms. Brosnihan envisioned a fundraising performance that would be cast with volunteers and students (past and present) that would raise the bar and challenge records for similar past events. It would be powered almost entirely by the shear number of dancers and their ability to get sponsors. But then, when it comes to charity this particular community is known for breaking records.

The need for costuming, rehearsals and massive organization this would require sparked the idea that a music video would be a logical way to record and preserve that effort. And a video could generate revenue as well. It was around this stage of production that Eloqui joined the team. The performance night was scheduled at a very large barn that serves as a popular wedding venue. After proper due diligence, it was discovered that studio’s subscription for music usage didn’t allow for recording a performance and distributing or showing it on Youtube or any similar public access platform. So there would be no legal way to raise funds with the video using the the song “Thriller”. Fueled by necessity, another less obvious concept was hatched using the assets already in hand (costumed actors). The new purpose of the video was now twofold: To promote the event where Thriller would be performed and donations taken and recruit more aspiring zombies (and sponsor’s donations) for the actual barn performance.

So a two-minute plus “trailer” was made using several locations (“haunted” house, creepy dead sunflower field, etc.). The production schedule called for a 3-hour video shoot with actors being transported from one location to the next via county school bus (thanks to SFA). After editing was complete the video aired at the local movie theatre as a preview on multiple nights. It’s purpose was to promote the barn event which was two weeks later. The cast brought relatives and friends – all blown away, if only for two minutes, by the big screen showing. It was a social media darling for a while and undoubtedly a treasured memory for every zombie actor.

Perhaps the most unusual thing about this project is that a photo of Samantha taken by her mom, June, at the Thriller Event Sam organized in 2009 was to be the inspiration for and the basis of the promotional campaign. This felt strange at first until June announced she would be wearing her daughter’s costume for the video and the performance and she was, indeed, thrilled along with Sam’s dad Charlie!

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