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Tripcouch

The first feature film from Red Fox Creative Studios, made with love.

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Tripcouch

Tripcouch

Tripcouch

Tripcouch

Tripcouch

The first feature film from Red Fox Creative Studios, made with love.

The first feature film from Red Fox Creative Studios, made with love.

The first feature film from Red Fox Creative Studios, made with love.

The first feature film from Red Fox Creative Studios, made with love.

Rob Wood
Rob Wood
Rob Wood
Rob Wood
1 Campaign |
Buena Vista, United States
$725 USD 5 backers
36% of $2,000 Flexible Goal Flexible Goal
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DVD-ROM of TRIPCOUCH

$1 USD
Est. Shipping
July 2017
0 claimed
Overview
A mid twenties burn out, Benji, living in his fathers vacation home struggles with putting his life back together after his second DUI. Everything starts to fall apart when his brother, Heath, moves in unexpectedly to party for the summer. Benji finds an escape in the form of a magic couch in the forest.

The Road to Tripcouch:

For those that don't know, my name is Rob Wood Jr. and I am attempting to make my first feature length film called Tripcouch. 

10 years ago I was a freshman in high school. I played Frosh/Soph football and had a free 6th period since I had a 7th period (football). One day, during that free 6th period the Vice Principal came to where we were hanging out and waiting and told us we all needed an elective. He threw out some examples and said "Digital Video Production or Ceramics." 

Now in middle school, all the cool kids took video production to have a blow off class and some made cool little videos and I was jealous I didn't get think to take that class. I took choir instead. So I knew, this was my chance. Take the cool kid Video class. So I did. 

That spring semester I learned how to go out and shoot. The following summer, I had a back injury during the football summer camp and the doctors told me I couldn't ever play again without the risk of paralyzation. So I stopped playing sports and picked up a camera full time. 

I had to transfer high schools back to my old school district where I went to middle school and knew that I wanted to make videos. I got lucky and had a film teacher who was so enthusiastic about filmmaking, the history of cinema, and spreading that love all things of movies. I joined the film club and learned how much I didn't know. This was still barely the beginning. 

But at the end of the year, that teacher and mentor was transferring schools to a brand new high school that opened up the following year. I was crushed. This was my mentor. But the last thing he did was tell us about a 2 week film camp at Chapman University/Dodge College of Film. I had a panic attack in the interview but they told me they saw how much I wanted it and couldn't say no. I was in. Me and 14 other film kids made the cut. 

I got to stay at the College for two weeks. Take classes with college professors, pretend to pitch a movie, get help on the story, and shoot it. 

This was when I knew I was hooked because at the end of the two weeks, they screened each of the students movies in a full sized packed house theatre. My short, got laughs at the right time and great applause at the end. I was in tears because of how insane it was to me that I could create anything at all. I got the first bit of praise that got echoed throughout my projects I've directed which was "Wow, that was much better than it should have been!" 

That right there became my goal for every future project I directed. 

I then spent the following two years filming as many different projects as I could. Running around with a DV tape camera and my best friends trying to make weird experimental movies. It all reached a peak when I shot my senior year project. A 22 minute movie about a nerd who downloads a girlfriend from the internet. It has to be one of the most "high school" movies ever made, from story to quality. But it still played and I still had people tell me "It's better than it should have been."

Watch, A Wicked Creation here    

I was in every film class I could take senior year. ROP zero period film, TV morning broadcast production where I would shoot the digital shorts, film production, history of cinema and this was all in high school. 

So I thought I was a hotshot and didn't need the Film 101 class at my local community college and I should just go straight into Film 1. I took the test and barely passed it. 

Then I tried to meet with the film department head who had the reputation for being scarier and more intimidating than necessary. 

But I couldn't find his office. I missed the time we said to meet for me to get the Film 1 class code to add it to my schedule. I panicked and didn't know what to do. 

So I took the 101 class. 3 times. It wasn't the syllabus that was hard, it was my motivation to show up. See I had a Disneyland pass that year with the SoCal discount that I could make payments on, and I chose Disneyland over remedial film. 

But eventually I got through the class. I took a semester off to live with my dad in Colorado. I fell in love with sprawling plains and the Rocky Mountains. 

After the four months in Colorado, I finally made it to Film 1. I was so excited. I knew this was it. I wanted to do everything. I wanted to spend every single waking moment working on a movie. We were all split up into groups of 4-5. 

That was when I really started to learn about filmmaking. I got to direct a project which ended up with the 2nd or 3rd highest grade a project got that semester. The group that screened their movie right before mine got the very first A ever handed out and we all had to clap and it was a big deal. Then we watched mine and I got a B+. So I considered that a win. 

Watch Scavenge here   

That semester of Film 1 was extremely stressful and very hard. Our group had a lot of drama due to very contrasting personalities and it wore me down. I could have gone into Film 2 the next semester with all those same people, but I didn't. I took documentary filmmaking. 

Then my life changed completely. 

I was a dumb kid, who ended up going bowling and drinking. See the act of bowling was getting my blood flowing, chucking 12lb balls for 2 hours, and drinking with it, got me past the point of no return. I blacked out and thought if I left my car in the parking lot it was going to get towed. 

So I decided to total it instead by driving straight into a lamppost. 

The cops came, I then spent 16 hours in the very crowded drunk tank. This was my rock bottom. I sat and thought the entire time. The minute the car hit the cement base of the lamppost the world came rushing back to me. By the time I was at the jail I was sobered up. 

Also within the two weeks that followed, my best friend moved 8 hours away and I was kicked out of the room I was renting with no explanation.

So I moved home. Regrouped. Stopped drinking. And focused on film. 

I enrolled in Film 2. Wanted to keep a low profile. I didn't have any projects ready on day one so I went where there was the least amount of interest. Everyone wanted to be on camera team, but I chose sound. I learned sound mixing, and worked on all but 1 project that semester. I watched and observed. Why does this project not work? Why is everyone angry? Why can't everyone just work together? But I kept my mouth shut. 

I met the love of my life that semester. I was sound, she was art department. I was at rock bottom and not thinking at all about any girls. I just wanted to work and I was so grateful to not be in jail that my scent of desperation with women just wasn't there this time. We became glued at the hip and worked together on every project from then on. 

The semester ended and there was not enough enrollment for a Film 3 class, my Film2/3 class had a majority of kids in Film 3 that were in Film 2 together when I took the semester to learn about documentaries. I was out of the loop yet again. I missed out on shooting a feature film during that time, I was busy ruining my life and showing up late to the party. 

But I was hellbent on getting a film 3 class. Which became an independent study (I never actually took Film 3, I'm saving that for when I want to go back and slay) and I came in hot with a 25 page story about an artist who was living with his parents and wasn't doing anything with his life besides smoking weed and making cute little songs. He wasn't out there chasing his dreams and the movie ended with him finally cutting ties and hitting the road to pursue his dream. 

Concept Trailer King Daydream here 

I wanted to shoot a visual mixtape. Something that was a blend of music and narrative film. I had 8 tracks (sequences) together and I shot the first track. I still have all the footage but my computer is too weak to edit it. I could only get an assembly cut before giving up. Waiting 5-10 minutes after every single click got tiring. I know I could have converted the footage but there was a lot and I knew it wasn't going anywhere so I gave up. I knew it was not realistic and I was not ready. 

I had to make money. So I started working full time at Best Buy. 

This stopped a lot of film projects. So many jobs would come to me the night before, but I couldn't get work off and I would make more at Best Buy anyways, so I had to turn down a lot of them. 

Then came a little project called Rose. 

My little group of film friends came up with a B movie short film about a grandma that fights back against meth head home invaders. It was a clusterfuck of a shoot. I was given a bs title of consulting producer but I was really just behind the scenes hanging out with my friends trying to help them make a movie. I was not in that film 2/3 class. I didn't know the crew very well besides the vets that still hung around so I didn't have much sway, nobody knew me that well and saw me as some loud guy trying to hijack a movie. It was difficult. Oh, did I mention that this whole time, from my DUI till 3 weeks before starting the movie, I didn't have a car, and then got my grandmothers car as a birthday gift. It was a dream come true, I didn't see it coming and cried when I got it. It meant the world to me. 3 weeks later, on the night before we started shooting. A drunk driver slammed into 3 cars 20 feet from the apartment I was in, having a final production meeting with the producers. It sucked and made that shoot terrible for me. 

But I then a few months later I got engaged to my girlfriend which was the best decision I have ever made in my life period. 

So while I was at Best Buy, doing well in the department, leading in sales and thought I could possibly get a promotion. I told myself, get that promotion or move to Colorado. The greatest thing that happened to me was getting told hell no, you have like 2 years before we'd consider you and laughed out the room. So I turned in my 2 weeks and high tailed it to Colorado. 

There's a lot of space out here. Life is a little bit slower. You have time to reflect and think about your life and your actions and who you are as a person. 

I felt like I had been to hell and back. But I came out of it all a stronger person. Struggle breeds greatness. I'm not saying I'm great, I just like that quote from Jurassic World.  

I worked very terrible jobs out here to get my feet under me. I was a glorified janitor at a bathhouse. That was by far the worst job I have ever worked. I won't get into specifics since it's all so disgusting. But during the waiting game of working at a bathhouse in the middle of a Colorado winter, Tripcouch was born. 

We had a junk couch that we put in our front lawn and one night while partying we sat on the couch staring at all the stars in the country sky, thinking how weird and trippy it felt to sit on a couch outside.  We called that couch the Tripcouch that night. 

It stuck with me in the back of my mind. I started to think, what if you found a couch in the middle of the woods that if you sat on it you would trip balls. 

I spent the following 8 months writing every day. Mainly as a way to pass the time at my soul crushing day job. After the job went even further down hill and became harder to work at, I finally switched to a different hotel in town that was in walking distance and was such a better work environment. There was an opening for the night shift 11pm-7am 4 days a week. I knew everyone working on the movie also had day jobs so I thought, what if I didn't work in the day and was available to shoot whenever anyone else could? So for the past 3 months I've been up all night working on everything I could. I wrote the movie. Had a crucial structural change to the story which I knew I just had to rewrite it from page 1. But now I have finished the third draft. I have a crew of 8 people willing to do whatever it takes to get this movie made. I have the love of my life as my producing partner. 

And now we're making Tripcouch.

Here is my logline for the movie: 

A mid twenties burn out, Benji, living in his fathers vacation home struggles with putting his life back together after his second DUI. Everything starts to fall apart when his brother, Heath, moves in unexpectedly to party for the summer. Benji finds an escape in the form of a magic couch in the forest.

 

This movie was written with the intention of making it with what I have available to me. A beautiful national forest, mountains, small town America, and my friends. We have made our breakdown of the necessities for this movie that we will have to spend money on. 

 

What we need:

We are looking for 2,000 to pay for a lot of art department and general productin. Props, wardrobe, batteries, rental fees, craft services, memory cards, and a lot more. I have a full budget breakdown available if you would like to pay for specific items. 

 

This movie is my passion. I love being with friends making something come to life. Taking an idea and seeing it through to fruition. Any money raised is a blessing on top of something that is already going to be special. 

Our biggest risk is not finishing the movie, but everyone signed on to the movie is dedicated to see it through to the end. 

If you made it all the way to the end of this rant there are many other ways you can help. Sharing on social media will help get eyes on this project. I don't expect anyone to throw money down, but you can feel good by sharing this. Any time I got new material or something, a share and like would be more than enough. 

I am very excited for whats to come. This is only the beginning!

 

- Rob W.

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