“The Hoia-Baciu Forest – Truth or Legend” travel documentary
About the documentary:
“The Hoia-Baciu
Forest – Truth or Legend” is the first
professional travel documentary ever made about the Hoia-Baciu Forest. Deep in
Transylvania, an area long-associated with vampiric legend and horror, lie almost
300 hectares of dense woodland, called The Hoia-Baciu Forest. The place is
believed to be the most haunted forest in the world.
For over 60 years, it’s
been told that this place makes you see and feel inexplicable things, it makes
your cameras malfunction and it gives you the shivers as soon as you step into
it. No wonder paranormal lovers all over the world strive to come here as often
as they can. It is almost impossible to make the difference between the truth
and the legends told about this place.
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This is why we are
in the process of making the first professional travel documentary about the
Hoia-Baciu Forest. The touristic potential of this forest is huge and nobody
has ever exploited it so far. Each year, hundreds of foreigners come here in
search of paranormal experiences. Even if they don’t experience anything
unusual, they still notice that the forest is strange. Almost all trees here are scabby, twisted and bizarre. The documentary will include remakes of stories told by
people who say they have experienced strange phenomena while visiting the
forest. There will also be included some testimonies of Romanian and foreign
tourists that claim to have lived inexplicable moments, but also interviews
with locals and different researchers. All
these will be shot using high performance devices. The final editing will not
include misrepresentations, but it will still be captivating.
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The aim of the project is to create a professional
touristic documentary, that can be compared to the most wanted documentaries abroad. Part of the money gained from selling the documentary will
be used for cleaning the forest and supplying touristic guidance on wooden panels
in the forest.
Who are we and what do we do?
The people involved in this project are all professionals. The producer of this film (Cosmin Giurgiu) has 8 years of experience in
tourism promotion, 15 years in video production and 4 years in aerial filming. He owns Transylvania’s most visited website, www.ghidvideoturistic.ro.
He enjoys promoting travel destinations more than traveling itself. He is
responsible for all video concept and content.
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The associate producer of the documentary (Laura Calugar) is an experienced TV
journalist, that took this personal project as a challenge. She is responsible
for all English and Romanian texts in the documentary, but also scripts,
stories and interviews.
Alex Surducan and Marius Lazin run an NGO that promotes different activities in the Hoia-Baciu Forest. They also organize private tours in the forest and greening actions in the woods. They love this forest and its bizarre trees and they are striving each day to protect and promote it. They are responsible for all documentation needed.
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How can you help?
The documentary will most probably become the most
wished-for souvenir of Romanian and foreign tourists. It will include images of
the forest in all seasons, so the production will last until the end of 2016. There will be night and day scenes. The techniques used will be similar
to those of an artistic documentary. The script will strictly take into account the
stories of the people who visited the forest. There will be no embellishment,
mystification or manipulation.
Anyone can help promoting this
unique place. We know a lot of you are curious about it already, especially because the Hoia-Baciu Forest is worldwide known due to the first
UFO ever captured on a camera (the picture was taken by military-technician Emil Barnea in
1968).
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In order to provide tourists quality video souvenirs, we
need your help. We need 20,000$ to be sure that this documentary will be ready to sell by the beginning of this December. The documentary will be shot all
year because we want to capture the forest’s aspect in every season, so we’ll be
working and needing funds for 10 months. We have most of the equipment
necessary, but we still need more. With your help, we can raise money for:
·
Sound Mixing
·
Color Correction
·
Music
·
Car maintenance
·
Design and printing
·
German, French and Hungarian translations
·
Web design
·
Outdoor equipment
·
Night filming equipment
·
And the list goes on...
We are really enthusiastic about this project and with your
help, we can make Transylvania and the Hoia-Baciu Forest one of the most
visited places in the world. www.lonelyplanet.com nominated Transylvania as the
best travel destination in 2016. Be part of this travel experience! Your
generosity will contribute to developing a high quality product that any
tourist will be excited to own. Moreover, your kindness will help keep the
forest clean as we plan to organize greening actions during the summer.
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The impact:
We've already gotten the attention of media on this. They
are asking us about the project each day and they are writing tens of stories
about this. The media understands the need of internationally promoting one of Transylvania’s
biggest assets. Tourism in Transylvania
is increasing and we need to keep up the good work. Romanians have lots to
recover in order to shine among the most visited sights in the world. This
documentary is striving to put Transylvania and Romania on the map of any
tourist. He will not only experience the unexperienced, but he will also take
with him part of the forest, as a video-souvenir.
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Other ways you can help :
Even if you are short on money, you can help with no costs. Please get out there and be noisy about our
campaign. Feel free to use the Indiegogo share tools - post to social media
regularly! Talk about it with friends, family and like-minded folks and give them the link.
Or if you really want to help, contact bloggers, journalists and travel lovers and show them info about our cause!
Whether you post, share, email, check our website (www.hoiabaciuforest.ro) you can and will make the difference.
Your help is essential to us! THANK YOU SO MUCH!
