So, it's about...what?
Okay, so here's a bit longer of a synopsis. Back in 2012 when President Barack Obama was re-elected, several states had petitions to secede. In our story, set in 2016, Texas secedes, followed shortly by Louisiana, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. Together, they form a theocracy called The Holy Texas Republic. Civil war ensues, and after a year of fighting a devastating war with half our military and citizens siding with HTR, Russia takes out New York, DC, LA and Seattle. Russia goes on to invade New England and a second war begins, giving the show it's name for the two battlefronts the US is fighting on. The first season was a video blog you can watch at giedproductions.com and shows the stories of two best friends, Connor Welles and James Farraby, trying desperately to stay in touch on opposite geographical ends of the war. This is our "Season 2", where we follow James as he tries to get his daughter to safety across the country, and Connor as he investigates a large HTR troop movement in Oklahoma.
Who Are You?
The minds behind "Fronts." and GIED Productions are Zach Little and Jake Morrison. Together they've worked on this project through months of writing, development and group testing. The two have been involved with independent art and film movements in the OKC and Seattle area for years.
This campaign address the one thing that holds any filmmaker back, funding. We have the cast, the crew, the locations scouted, and a whole plan for distribution and promotion, what we need is a little push to get off the ground.
By contributing to this campaign, you will be-in no uncertain terms-making dreams come true. From the two of us who have fostered and coddled this story from conception through development and writing, to the crew who will be adding to their resumes a feature-length project, to the cast who will be earning their ability to make a living in LA as professional actors, you contribution will help over a dozen people achieve something that is otherwise impossible.
So, there's going to be a military aspect involved, will you look legit, or will this be filled with inaccuracies?
This will be done as accurately as possible. We have two military consultants who advise us on military structure and protocols, tactics, intelligence management and strategy, and how to do things like clear houses. There will be some liberties we take due to the fact that this is fiction, and set in the future, but we respect our military service memebers and hold as a high priority their accurate portrayal.
So how much are you looking for?
$19,000. It may seem like a lot, but by filming standards, it's definitely low budget. So where's it all go, huh? It goes here:
- Equipment (cameras, microphones, recorders, lights, generators to power the lights.)
- Costume (some of it the cast will be providing, but for eight principle cast plus extras, we'll need full military Army Combat Uniforms. We really care about authenticity when it comes to portraying military. this is fiction, and set in the future, but soldiers aren't going to look like garbage. This means patches, name tapes, ranks and proper boots.
- Food (This is actually our biggest expense after equipment. Our cast and crew of about fifteen people are all volunteers working for the dream. The least we can do is give them a free meal for each six hours of work, and that adds up.
- Gas (because of our story, if we see cars driving by and busy highways, it's not believable that a civil war is going on, consequentially, our locations are isolated from populated. TLDR; we end up having to drive out to the middle of nowhere to film. Even carpooling, transportation becomes costly.
- Promotion (This all requires an audience, and we need to bring in views. Unfortunately, this is going on the back burner until we actually get everything above settled.)
So tell me about your perks.
All our perks are american made, and support smaller independent businesses. Each of these will be unique in some way to the Fronts. Indeigogo campaign, whether it's a t-shirt that's going to forego bogging down style with advertisement, or dog tags that memorialize you as a unique and numbered contributor, or signed scripts that will never be handed out again.
So what if you don't make 15k?
Well, to be honest, we'll make something happen. We'll tell our story even if it's in the most rudimentary way, but we would really love to see our vision come to life in its full potential with your help.
So where could this lead?
Well, there's a lot of things that could happen. But what we really hope for is that this brings about honest open discussion and debate between the constituencies of the far right and far left in the U.S. and brings an end to echo-chamber thinking in the respective media outlets of the two sides. This is an issue for every country worldwide. Every country has political tensions and political polarization and it needs to come to an end, everyone could gain from calm reasoned debate, and we hope to spark that through our art and vision.
This is something you can do on your own through us. This can serve as a talking point to open the doors for discourse. Whether it's showing off your Fronts. T-shirt, or sharing our videos with your friends, you can bring this up, regardless of what side of the debate you're on, and talk.
Fronts. deals with political polarization, religious/atheist relations, and the ethics and philosophies of war, among other things. All relevant issues studied in a deliberate and meaningful way.
So how could you fail?
There's lots of ways this, like any film project, could fail. Viewers could not like it. Viewers could condemn it. The seriousness of the controversy could be off-putting. People may love it but be afraid to share it. We can't help that, it's an inherent issue with art and film. We can help that it is in the public eye, and get it out there. They say that out of three people, one person will hate your work, one will be indifferent, and one will love it. We're going to do everything we can to maximize that one-third of the population.
We've assembled a team of professional writers, and advertising specialists, well experienced and educated in their fields to assure that this is spread via review websites, magazines, newspapers, and featured on related web pages.
I'm sold...but I'm broke.
That's cool, we understand. Really. We are too, that's why we're here. You can still help by being really, really gossipy. Like sharing this on facebook and twitter, and telling your friends and family, and neighbors and coworkers, pets, dead pets, and strange shadowy figures.
The formula for these things goes like this:
90% of people won't care and will scroll on by
9% will share and repost, retweet, retumbl etc. (increase this if nothing else)
1% will actually contribute. (This is increased by the number of people who increase the above.)
Indiegogo has sharing tools that make it convenient and easy to spread the word, so please, do it for art, do it for controversy, do it for the story.
Thank you, we'll answer ANY questions you have for us.
