Sunday, April 15, 2012

You, Me and the Angry Octopus


Helming any new venture is like taking on an angry octopus.  Helming an independent feature is like taking on an angry octopus armed with sharp objects, a vendetta and a serious meth habit.  You do it because you have to.  You do it for love. 


You also hope you survive.


Funding is forever the greatest stronghold trying to strangle the process from the start. Getting the money to interest actors and crew, getting the money to pay for equipment and locations, getting the money to feed and transport all of the above, getting the money to market the film once it’s finished; it’s a never-ending choke-hold that you either learn to lessen and breathe through or else succumb to death by financial asphyxiation. Projects helmed by Sony or Disney and starring the likes of Zac Efron or Angelina Jolie have endless options for attracting capital; the small independent producer has far less. It takes guts, ingenuity and a little bit of crazy to succeed.  And a lot of friends.


I’m lucky.  I have some good friends.  Friends who believe in me and are willing to take a journey with me to tackle a giant, angry, weapon-wielding octopus on meth.  This octopus goes by the name “Deadly Revisions”.


If you’re new to my blog, you’ll not know “Deadly Revisions” is a blend of horror and psychological thriller about a writer with amnesia who has to piece back the lost memories of what landed him in the hospital.  Recuperating in a remote cabin, he has flashes of horrific visions including murder.  But they just can’t be real.  Or can they?  (The teaser trailer is below, to give you a taste.)


I wrote the screenplay to appeal to the growing market for low budget projects:  ones that take place mostly in one location and with a small cast and very few special effects.  But, having finished it, a voice inside made me wonder why I shouldn’t take advantage of the result and make the movie myself.  I tossed the idea to a few friends in the business and they were all hooked.  Suddenly I had interested a few crew and cast without even any funding to speak of.  So we decided to move forward.


Thus began the fundraising.  I got our first corporate sponsor and we set up our first crowd-funding campaign.  We began to get money from friends from Facebook, followers from Twitter and all sorts of outlets; not enough to make the film, but it was a solid start.  We continue to fundraise; creating new crowd-funding campaigns, seeking out more corporate sponsors and so on.  Every little bit helps in the independent film world.  It helps get movies made and get them distributed in a way so that you can see them—one way or the other.


If you’re reading this and you’d like to help out, we’d love you to no end.  You can click on the link below and donate securely through the PayPal site.  You can be a producer and help make “Deadly Revisions”. 


So…you wanna help tame a really nasty octopus?
                     
Go here:
www.DeadlyRevisionsMovie.com