A girl. A boy. A bear. Dead body not shown. New short "Hit" needs your crowdfunding help.

First dates are a nightmare. Especially when one of you just committed murder before your big evening out.

“Hit”, the debut short from new shingle Fancy Coyote (aka director Katie Trew Cheline and actress Haley Alea Erickson), features possibly the worst opening to a relationship Austin has ever seen. Brandon (Kirk Johnson) turns up at the apartment of Izzy (Erickson) expecting the normal kind of awkwardness that accompanies any initial romantic encounter. He doesn’t expect to find her with a dead body, and he definitely couldn’t predict that she’d think disposing of a corpse is the best ice breaker for a couple. Writer Felicia Golden explains, “The best way to describe Izzy is as a sociopath. She’s not exactly morally grounded like the rest of us. She’s still trying to continue with the date.”

A girl. A boy. A bear. Dead body not shown. New short “Hit” needs your crowdfunding help.

The project is a who’s who of local talent: Johnson is one half of local sketch comedy do Beef & Sage; fellow cast member Michael Joplin is an Austin Critics’ Table Awards regular and a Best of Austin winner; Plus, with both Erickson and Cheline fresh off the set of Rooster Teeth’s debut feature Lazer Team, they’ve managed to get machinima legend Burnie Burns on board.

So far, the short is over halfway to its goal of $18,000. With a closing date of April 1, you can still back it at theKickstarter page, and find out more about the producers at www.fancycoyote.com.

Remember: your contribution could save Kyle from being drowned for the insurance money.

One in a Crowd is a series intended to showcase Texas film and tech projects that are crowdfunding their way to a goal, be it distribution, a prototype, or production costs. If you have a project that we should know about, email us at filmflam@austinchronicle.com.

This article appears in March 27 • 2015.

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The Chronicle's first Culture Desk editor, Richard has reported on Austin's growing film production and appreciation scene for over a decade. A graduate of the universities of York, Stirling, and UT-Austin, a Rotten Tomatoes certified critic, and eight-time Best of Austin winner, he's currently at work on two books and a play.