Private Project

Clown College

A twisted dark comedy about a coed overcoming the memories of an over bearing father.

  • Wendy Keeling
    Director
    Past Partum, The Unconventional Gourmet, Sarah's Dream, Shades of Scarlet, Bounty Momma, Self Offense
  • Wendy Keeling
    Writer
  • Wendy Keeling
    Producer
  • Bailey Ingersol
    Key Cast
    "Quincy Gacy"
    The Walking Dead, The Originals, The Inspectors, Sarah's Dream
  • Chad Newman
    Key Cast
    "Dentist"
    Lobster Boy, The Nick Cannon Show
  • Jim Dougherty
    Key Cast
    "Mr Gacy "
    Ozark, The Chicago PD, The Inspectors, House of Cards
  • Wendy Keeling
    Key Cast
    "Receptionist"
    Madhouse Mecca, Don't Run, Sarah's Dream
  • Peter Donald Badalamenti II
    Key Cast
    "Rockin Dude"
    Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Evil Bong 666
  • Alyssa AnnMarie Marquez
    Key Cast
    "Young Quincy"
    The Little Mermaid, A Bad Moms Christmas
  • Carshenah Jefferson
    Key Cast
    "Vain Woman"
    The Black String, Shameless, 24
  • Jeffrey Wells
    Key Cast
    "Game Man"
    I Am Going to Kill Someone This Friday, Octagon, Wake Up
  • David A. McElroy
    Key Cast
    "Professor"
    The Groveland Four
  • Ambria Pulliam
    Key Cast
    "Paddle Ball Princess"
    The Exchange
  • Kierra Pitts
    Key Cast
    "Obnoxious Child "
    The Season
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Horror, dark comedy, drama
  • Runtime:
    9 minutes 56 seconds
  • Production Budget:
    5,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Genreblast Film Festival
    Winchester, VA
    United States
    World
    Wendy Keeling Nominated Les Femmes Du Genre
  • Chicago Horror Film Festival
    Chicago
    United States
    September 28, 2019
    Winner Best Sound Nominated Best Composition
  • Reels of the Dead
    Louisville, Ky
    United States
    August 31, 2019
  • Toronto Independent Film Festival
    Toronto
    Canada
    September 11, 2019
  • Victory International Film Festival
    Evansville, In
    United States
  • The Valley Film Festival
    Los angelos
    United States
  • The UNDO Divergent Film Awards
  • Southeast Regional Film Festival
    Jacksonville, Fl
    United States
  • Picture Show Panic

    United States
    October 19, 2019
  • Film Girl Film Festival
    Milwaukee, WI
  • Key West Film Festival
    Key West, Fl
    United States
  • Dead in Decatur
    Decatur, Il
    United States
  • Kite Film Festival

    Winner Best Costume Design
  • Genre Celebration Festival
    Corpus Christi
    January 25, 2020
    Nominated Best Director, Nominated Best Horror Short
  • Women in Horror Film Festival

    Semi Finalist
  • South Texas Underground Film Festival
    Corpus Christi
    January 25, 2020
  • Bare Bones Film Festival
    Muskogee, OK
    United States
    Nominated Best Horror
  • Milwaukee Twisted Dreams Film Festival
    Milwaukee, WS
    United States
Director Biography - Wendy Keeling

Wendy Keeling is an actor, artist, director, and producer. She has been involved with the film industry for years with her first festival being Sundance in 2004. She has been working both in front and behind the camera ever since. After several years as a freelancer she caught the film bug and started producing original content with her company 7 Mile Bridge Productions. Her short films have won many awards on the festival circuit. Wanting to be more involved, she started working as a festival screener and juror. Wendy was recently named Creative Director for The Orlando International Film Festival

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

I wrote Clown College couple years ago after a brainstorming session with my husband Kevin Keeling at dinner one night on date night at a bar over drinks and apps. Our normal writing MO and another twisted story takes place with the influence of booze and fried food. Needless to say, I took the story and ran with it from there.

The screenplay was purposely light on dialogue. I wanted it to be moody with a heavy influence in the music. As a recovering musician and drum major from high school and college, I saw this film as an opportunity to direct the story with the movement of sound. The clown characters were chosen with a specific action and accompanying musical sound. For the end scenes, the actors were actually conducted by me to structure a compliment of sound/noise for the composition. Landon Knoblock and I talked about how we would design the composition and sound together to create the mood of the story. Both Landon and Jey Mayberry, my sound designer, were instrumental to making this film come to life.

In the beginning the film proved problematic to produce. I tried to produce it in Nashville but soon realized that this one was going to involve actual cash to produce. After teaming up last year with fellow writer Jeffrey Howe, we made a deal to fund and produce both Clown College and his short screenplay Past Partum in 2019. With my recent move to Florida I wanted to try to shoot at least one of these films here. Thus, Clown College is the first film I have directed in the state of Florida!

I had worked with lead actress Bailey Ingersoll on a couple films. Including our most recent short Sarah's Dream. I knew she would be the right fit for this story. So with the talented Bailey and the rest of our talented cast we were able to bring the story to life.

The film has a definite sense of the bizarre in the end. Hope you like it!!!