Summary
My partner and I are writers and we work in video production for a living. Last October, I posted a status update on Facebook. I wondered who might want to come out and play on a horror comedy short for the Freakshow Film Festival. The response from friends and former collaborators was encouraging. So we worked up a script, with two of our favorite actors in mind, and now the time has come to turn it into a reality.
The idea behind fundraising is to shoot for quality this time. Over the years, we've done several small shorts that we always ended up telling people were "just examples". We're getting our ideas across, but the quality hasn't been there yet.
Contributors to this campaign won't just be funding a funny short for a film festival. They'll be bringing a team together that has a lot of potential to do some great work over the next few years on a slate of several projects.
What We Need
We need $2500 to get this film professionally shot, edited, scored and entered into the Freakshow Film Festival at the Spooky Empire Horror Convention.
$300 each goes to our two lead actors, our propmaster, our hair and makeup pro, our post-production supervisor and our composer (each is taking less than their typical day rate on this project)
$50 goes to the festival entry fee
$100 goes to our production assistant
$250 goest to feed the cast and crew for the 8 hour shoot (breakfast, lunch, snacks, beverages and dinner)
$300 will go to location fees (the cost of studio space for the day as well as purchased time in two exterior locations to be shot on another day)
What You Get
For $10 or more, your name will appear in the credits of the film. For $25 or more, you'll get the credit in the film as well as a digital copy. For $100 or more, you get the credit, the copy and a poster signed by cast and crew.
If we don't reach our goal, whatever we get will go to the actors, the director of photography and the composer first. Without them, the story wouldn't be worth telling. The idea is to take what we can do to the next level here. So what would be the point in trying it without the pros?
It would be tough, but we could probably ask cast and crew to brown bag it on shoot day, film around props we couldn't afford, use our home for a location and even handle the editing and post-production ourselves. (Though it would be far less impressive.) But working with a truly talented cast and crew? That's what can't be sacrificed.
The Impact
Why are we taking a horror comedy to a horror film festival? It's our genre of choice. We grew up on Young Frankenstein and American Werewolf in London. It's what we love. It's what we know best.
Our creativity always seems to come back to monsters. Whether it was one of Jake's graduate short films The Wolfman's Brother or Audrey's print journalism focusing on famous monster performers, (Ben Chapman, Doug Jones, Bela Lugosi, etc.) we're drawn to the metaphors and meditations on the mixture of man and monster. Plus, they're cool.
Guys, we love this stuff. With a passion. We know we can do our ideas justice. We just need a leg up. Writers and filmmakers are typically idea people. But ideas don't create great movies. Great PEOPLE who can work together create great movies. We want to hire those people! Sometimes, you do get what you pay for and your ten dollars is the equivalent of rocket fuel to us. We're prepped and ready to go, we just need help getting off the ground.
Other Ways You Can Help
We've watched SO many great fundraising campaigns come and go and have been unable to contribute. It's an awful feeling.
If that's you right now, if you're a HUGE fan of Heather Leonardi or Mike Carr or the music of Josh Rosentreter or the years of amazing video produced by Marc Naugler, you can show your support by spreading the word about this project.
Share links! Bring it up at the watercooler! Or the water fountain. Any water source will do, really!
Just spread the word! We'll make you proud! We promise.