NEW FUNDING GOALS:
£3000 - ADR Sound Studio Time
£5000 - ADR & Foley (Sound FX)
STORY
Max Peters, known around the world, wakes to find his phone has been hacked. As the social media tornado begins, his publicist, acting coach, and manager assemble in his London flat to contain the situation and find out who is responsible.
HOW IT STARTED
As some of you might know, making a film is tough! After writing/directing a number of shorts, I had been developing projects for several years, but finding millions of dollars is harder than one might think. Who knew!?
As the new year rolled around, I found myself thinking how I could bypass the usual process and create something original (and affordable). Looking for an idea seemed daunting, but as it turned out, I didn't have to look far. Just weeks prior, scandals surrounding the film business swirled like a hurricane of bad news. More and people, more and more stories, and soon it was all anyone was talking about, online or offline. It was clear this wasn't going away, and I decided to jump on the issue before anyone else had a chance to.
Now, nine months later, the controversy has grown into a full fledged movement and proves just how relevant our film has become. Though, it would be easy to take such dramatic events and portray a morbid look at what people are capable of, so instead, a satire would be my approach. I thought, why not make fun of these despicable people, show the utter ridiculousness of how they live their lives, expose the whole lot of them, all the 'Liars & Cheats'.
UNIQUE STYLE
Liars & Cheats is put together to feel like one continuous take, that means no cutting. This way, the audience is taken on the journey from the start to finish, able to see the speed of judgement in real time, from hungry reporters, upset fans, false stories, and public relations disasters.
To keep the energy moving, we've recorded an original jazz drum score that drives the pace of the film. Inspired by fast talking comedies of the 50s & 60s, from Billy Wilder's 'The Seven Year Itch' to Neil Simon's 'The Odd Couple', all the way up to 'Birdman', I made sure to cover every angle until the characters just couldn't take it anymore. Together with rapid fire dialogue, inventive shooting, and lively music, this film sets the chaos off and running and never lets up until the very last frame.
As a cherry on top, we will open the film with a lively animation reminiscent of The Pink Panther and Around the World in 80 Days. Steven Millington, known as Dry British on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/drybritish/), will be illustrating the sequence and creating the old school look by hand, starting off the film with something really special.
OUR PLAN
We've come a long way before asking for your help. Since shooting finished just a few months ago, the film has been edited, original music has been recorded, visual effects (that hopefully you'll never notice) are halfway done, and the colour grade of the film will be starting in September. All that's left to show this to the world is to perfect the dialogue and sound effects.
Specifically, the finishing funds will be put toward these stages:
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ADR (Additional Dialogue Recording) - Virtually every film has additional dialogue added after shooting is done. Sometimes this means recording lines again because of unwanted noise, or creating new lines of dialogue to help the story flow better. 'Liars & Cheats' has more dialogue than the average film (to say the least), so ADR will require lots of studio time
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Foley (Sound Effects) - The next step is to have every sound effect in the film created from scratch, to expertly match the movements on screen. Foley artists will use any number of odd objects to find the perfect sound, and record each effect in a large sound studio
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Sound Design / Mixing - While all this is being recorded, a sound designer will put every element together for the overall feel of the film. This person blends each and every noise to create a soundscape that enhances the movie. Lastly, they will spend a few days in a state of the art mixing room to finalize every piece of audio to perfectly suit your delicate ears
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Music Licensing - For a few obscure and affordable tracks that we would like to license to use in the film
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Film Festival Submission Fees - Choosing a handful of exceptional festivals to submit our film and show the world, to grow our audience, receive reviews, and help find distribution
Rest assured that no matter how much funding we receive, the money will be put to good use. We have prioritized each of these stages in the current order, and will begin one, two, or all of these phases, depending on the final amount.
Having got this far without additional funding, and through years of producing experience, I know how to stretch a dollar. Being able to reach our goal will certainly make this process easier and quicker, but if we fall short, we will progress through making deals. Even if we are only able to complete one stage, we can use our progress to convince final positions to come aboard. However, without funding these stages can take up to a year, and we are aiming to finish this movie quickly to be one of the very first films to directly deal with the post MeToo world.
THE TEAM
Jacob Migicovsky - Writer/Director/Producer - This project is Jacob's first feature, and previous work includes large scale short films and branded content for companies like Coach, Coke, & Hayman's Gin. He is currently developing and writing two other feature projects, both based on true stories.
Fred Bonham Carter - Producer - A prolific music video and ads producer who has worked with the likes of Pharrel, The Vaccines, & George Ezra. 'Liars & Cheats' marks Fred's first feature film as producer and looks to be the beginning of a long career.
Diana Olifirova - Cinematographer - A winner of the British Society of Cinematographer’s Emerging Cinematographer’s Award, Diana is a graduate of the NFTS with a strong style and always on the lookout for a new opportunity. This is also her first feature.
CAST:
JOSH BURDETT - Loving Vincent, Guilt, Murder Maps
HALIMA SLIMANI - Blue Is The Warmest Colour, Authentik
LUCY NEWMAN-WILLIAMS - London Has Fallen, Everest, Dr. Who
CAROLINE LENA OLSSON - Children of Men, Carmen, Catastrophe
STEPHANE CORNICARD - Spectre, The Royals, Saving Private Ryan
GEORGIA WINTERS - Jupiter Ascending, Where The Skin Lies
SUSANNA CAPPELLARO - Dark Shadows, Berberian Sound Studio
THAT'S ALL FOLKS
Well, I've tried to keep this little pitch as short as possible, just like our film, which runs at a cool 90 minutes. Just the right amount of time to have a laugh after a long day, and not overstay it's welcome. I hope we managed to intrigue you with the story, the relevance, our jazz score & continuous shot, or the over abundance of swearing in the trailer.
I have no doubt that these 'Liars & Cheats' will be working on some of your favourite films for years to come, but no matter how big a movie gets, nothing quite beats the feeling of coming together for the genuine love of a project. At the end of the day, that's why we all worked on this madcap endeavour, and if you think you might love it too, I know myself, the cast & crew, and our audience in waiting will thank you a million times over.
All the best, Jacob