Molly Greville Gets Vulnerable

Film Title: Waspringa

Logline: A young woman is outed during her wasp family's annual sailing trip, sending the weekend in an unexpected direction.

Synopsis: Liv has a girlfriend. Or at least, she hopes she does. As she boards the sailboat for her WASP family's vacatopm off the New England coast, she hopes to keep that part of her life to herself. Instead, she's trapped in close quarters, miles out to sea, with her brother Angus, who is flailing as he tries to live up to his father's expectations; her half-sister Shauna, newly out of rehab and clinging to a fragile sense of self; and her parents, proud card-carrying members of the coastal elite, to whom progressive politics are easier performed than practiced. When Shauna impulsively outs Liv during an argument, the trip unravels as everyone struggles to respond in the only ways they know how. Meanwhile, the one person who might understand her remains just out of reach. Is the romance she's been clinging to even real at all?

Waspringa was a finalist for our Spring 2026 Grants Program and a grant recipient of our Fall 2026 Film Festival Submission Grant Program, intended to support filmmakers as their projects move through the film festival circuit. Full of heart and witty comedy, Waspringa is sure to do well on the circuit!

How did you fund the project?

[Molly Greville] We crowdfunded Waspringa. I was so nervous to crowdfund, because in general I have a hard time asking for things and asking for money especially makes me want to eat my own teeth, but I survived! And overwhelmed with pride by how much support we got. Crowdfunding got us about 80% of the way there. Transparently, the remainder of the money I self-contributed by taking a loan out from my 401k, for better or for worse. But it felt right at the time, and it still feels right.

Did you have funding in place before writing, or get funding together after you wrote the script?

[MG] None at all! The hope was to write something amazing and then get it to win awards and screenplay contests and have some benevolent millionaire/deity fall in love with it (and me) and give us financing. That didn’t happen (wah) and so we had to make other arrangements.

What are some of the pros about funding this way? The cons?

[MG] Pro: You get to work on your own timeline. You can move as fast (or as slowly, I guess, but who wants that!) as you need to. Grant applications don’t always come at a convenient time for your production or post-production, and so finding the money elsewhere gives you ownership over your shoot and release dates.

Con: It’s can be vulnerable and time consuming. And you have to be prepared to over communicate about your project, and every day validate to others (and yourself) that you deserve this and that you’re worth the investment.

What is your long-term vision for the project?

[MG] We’re submitting to festivals now, and are really excited to share it with everyone. Long term, I think this story has legs to be a series or feature. Already working on the script for both!

Did you learn anything when it comes to funding and budgeting that you will do differently on your next project?

[MG] For sure. I think I underestimated how much contingency we would need. We went a little bit over budget in almost every area, and we completely drained our contingency budget. Next time, I’ll pad the contingency considerably. Also, we filmed on a boat, which required so much extra and specialty insurance, which we hadn’t accounted for when we made the initial line budget. Next time, I will definitely be filming on land.

Were there any areas where you were able to call in favors/save money? What were those areas?

[MG] Totally. This film wouldn’t have been possible without favors. Our primary location was donated to us, so we saved huge amounts there. We housed our crew at a local college. They gave us a reduced rate for simple dorm accommodations, which was way more cost-effective than an AirBnB or hotel. Almost 80% of our on-set meals were donated by local businesses. My friends and family PA’d for free, and we booked crew and cast transportation on credit card points and miles. I actually strategically upgraded my credit card because there was an offer going on to get 50,000 points if you made two large purchases in a week or something. I was like, “Great. I’ll pay the insurance fee and rental house today, and then the points will pay for our rental van!” I think the internet calls that “girl math.”

Did you get any budget or expense surprises that you weren’t expecting?

[MG] We had to move around our schedule on the first day, and it meant we were expecting a bit of rain during an exterior shoot. An added expense I hadn’t accounted for, was making sure we had a pop-up tent ($200+) and rain ponchos. Plus tarps for the camera and equipment.

Any fun anecdotes you'd like to share?

[MG] I mentioned that we filmed on a boat, and because of that we were really vigilant about safety (keeping our crew safe and keeping the equipment safe.) We only lost one piece of equipment overboard, and it was minor — only cost $30 to replace. That was a huge win!

The boat presented a bunch of logistical and financial challenges. We had crew members who were getting sick because it was a little choppy out there on our first day. My production team bought a sufficient amount of anti-nausea provisions before production, thinking it would be plenty, but every day we had to replenish it. That was another couple of hundred dollars we didn’t anticipate.

Any final thoughts?

[MG] Just that a lot of people told us that this was going to be logistically hard, and we kind of nodded and ignored them. They were totally right. It was hard. Crowdfunding was hard. Production was hard (we had 5 boats to coordinate the movements of per shot, plus it’s my debut film so I’ve never directed before, or led a crew.) Post-production was hard. It was all sooo hard. But so worth it!

Thank you so much for sharing, Molly! We loved the project and wish you much continued success with Waspringa!

About Molly Greville

Molly Greville is a Brooklyn-based actor, writer and filmmaker. Waspringa is her first film.

IMDb.