fundraising!
It is that time, that time when I ask for money.
As many of you probably know, I am a senior in film school right now. My senior project is to create a short film, of which I am the writer and director, and the goal is to submit this film to film festivals in as many places as I afford. A short film is a "calling card" for lots of filmmakers, and the stuff on my reel could land me a job. So I'm asking for your support now, because making movies costs money.
My film! It is written and in the preproduction phase right now. We are scheduled to shoot it mid-February, and it will go through editing and the rest of the post-production ~stuff in March and maybe April if we run into snags or if we have to reshoot. I have most of a great crew in place, starting with an excellent Director of Photography and an editor I really like. Full disclosure: I haven't met the Art Director who volunteered to work on my film yet, and I don't know what kind of budget she will need to do a really great job. I do know she is a grad student and comes highly recommended, so I'm hoping she can work on a very limited budget. The good news is that my film only involves two main actors and a handful of extras, and only two locations. We will shoot it probably over only two days, three if necessary, as it's only a 3-5 minute film with very simple shots and set-ups. All of these things mean I don't need very much money to actually get it done!
The things I will need money for, however, are locations (one, we have for free; the other is a fancy hotel we will probably need to pay for as if we were staying the night), set decorations, costumes, food for the cast and crew, transportation for the crew and equipment, a designated hard drive to store all the footage, and possibly some equipment rentals depending on what we can use from my school and what we might need to outsource. All of this does cost money, but hopefully not too much.
If you want to know a little about the content, here you go! It's a very simple story, composed of one main scene and one flashback scene, kind of interwoven and shown concurrently, flipping back and forth between shots of the main scene and the flashback. The title is Eulogy, and it's about a man, at a church, a funeral, giving a eulogy for his wife, who was murdered. The flashback scene is the wife being chased, cornered in a hotel room, and killed. The twist? The husband's the one who killed her, which we find out at the very end. I'm very excited about turning my script into a reality, and I've got a lot of great people working with me to make it happen.
My vague, proposed budget is around $2,500. That should cover pretty much everything, and give us good quality things when we need them (like the hotel).
Some of this money will also go to what my professor likes to call extending the "life of the film". After my senior showcase in the spring when I graduate, where my film along with all of the other films from my year will be shown in our movie theater on the big screen, student films basically die. I don't want my film to die, and I think it has a very good chance at success if I submit it to as many film festivals as I can manage. Film festival submissions cost money, but there are sometimes awards, grants, prizes, and invaluable opportunities to get my work seen by a ton of people. Film festivals are where new filmmakers get noticed, and I want to get noticed. I believe my film can get me noticed, too. So this is the biggest need for your help. There's no proposed budget for this part. The more submission money I have, the more film festivals I can submit my film to, so any little bit helps.
I will be putting together a pitch video and an official fundraising project on indiegogo which is basically like kickstarter. That's not set up yet, but it will be, and you could donate there or here. The difference will be the incentives. There, I will be offering incentives like your name in the credits of the film, set photography from the shoot, printed and signed "programs" used in a funeral scene in the film, DVDs, posters, and artwork from my storyboard artist.
Here, I am offering... well, you can have your name in the credits too, and a handwritten note of thanks in the programs from set, but my main incentive for this little donate button is fanfic. I will take prompts for the fandoms I write in, and even fandoms I'm familiar with but haven't written in before, basically whatever you want. I will write stories for you, in exchange for your support for my senior film. I've never participated in those charity auctions or fic exchanges like this before, so I don't know how other people do it, but if you donate some money we can email about prompts and whatever you want me to do for you in exchange. My email address is silentdescant@gmail.com. There's no deadline for donations, and you don't even have to give me a prompt if you don't want to (though I really do enjoy writing for people, and I would love to give you something in return for donating), and you can donate here or via indiegogo (once I get that set up in the next week or so). And there's no pressure or anything. This is just a request, if you have the cash to spare, to consider my project, and if you don't, then please pimp out this post or the indiegogo link when it's available! :)
Thank you, thank you, thank you, and I will update you on progress and all that soon!
As many of you probably know, I am a senior in film school right now. My senior project is to create a short film, of which I am the writer and director, and the goal is to submit this film to film festivals in as many places as I afford. A short film is a "calling card" for lots of filmmakers, and the stuff on my reel could land me a job. So I'm asking for your support now, because making movies costs money.
My film! It is written and in the preproduction phase right now. We are scheduled to shoot it mid-February, and it will go through editing and the rest of the post-production ~stuff in March and maybe April if we run into snags or if we have to reshoot. I have most of a great crew in place, starting with an excellent Director of Photography and an editor I really like. Full disclosure: I haven't met the Art Director who volunteered to work on my film yet, and I don't know what kind of budget she will need to do a really great job. I do know she is a grad student and comes highly recommended, so I'm hoping she can work on a very limited budget. The good news is that my film only involves two main actors and a handful of extras, and only two locations. We will shoot it probably over only two days, three if necessary, as it's only a 3-5 minute film with very simple shots and set-ups. All of these things mean I don't need very much money to actually get it done!
The things I will need money for, however, are locations (one, we have for free; the other is a fancy hotel we will probably need to pay for as if we were staying the night), set decorations, costumes, food for the cast and crew, transportation for the crew and equipment, a designated hard drive to store all the footage, and possibly some equipment rentals depending on what we can use from my school and what we might need to outsource. All of this does cost money, but hopefully not too much.
If you want to know a little about the content, here you go! It's a very simple story, composed of one main scene and one flashback scene, kind of interwoven and shown concurrently, flipping back and forth between shots of the main scene and the flashback. The title is Eulogy, and it's about a man, at a church, a funeral, giving a eulogy for his wife, who was murdered. The flashback scene is the wife being chased, cornered in a hotel room, and killed. The twist? The husband's the one who killed her, which we find out at the very end. I'm very excited about turning my script into a reality, and I've got a lot of great people working with me to make it happen.
My vague, proposed budget is around $2,500. That should cover pretty much everything, and give us good quality things when we need them (like the hotel).
Some of this money will also go to what my professor likes to call extending the "life of the film". After my senior showcase in the spring when I graduate, where my film along with all of the other films from my year will be shown in our movie theater on the big screen, student films basically die. I don't want my film to die, and I think it has a very good chance at success if I submit it to as many film festivals as I can manage. Film festival submissions cost money, but there are sometimes awards, grants, prizes, and invaluable opportunities to get my work seen by a ton of people. Film festivals are where new filmmakers get noticed, and I want to get noticed. I believe my film can get me noticed, too. So this is the biggest need for your help. There's no proposed budget for this part. The more submission money I have, the more film festivals I can submit my film to, so any little bit helps.
I will be putting together a pitch video and an official fundraising project on indiegogo which is basically like kickstarter. That's not set up yet, but it will be, and you could donate there or here. The difference will be the incentives. There, I will be offering incentives like your name in the credits of the film, set photography from the shoot, printed and signed "programs" used in a funeral scene in the film, DVDs, posters, and artwork from my storyboard artist.
Here, I am offering... well, you can have your name in the credits too, and a handwritten note of thanks in the programs from set, but my main incentive for this little donate button is fanfic. I will take prompts for the fandoms I write in, and even fandoms I'm familiar with but haven't written in before, basically whatever you want. I will write stories for you, in exchange for your support for my senior film. I've never participated in those charity auctions or fic exchanges like this before, so I don't know how other people do it, but if you donate some money we can email about prompts and whatever you want me to do for you in exchange. My email address is silentdescant@gmail.com. There's no deadline for donations, and you don't even have to give me a prompt if you don't want to (though I really do enjoy writing for people, and I would love to give you something in return for donating), and you can donate here or via indiegogo (once I get that set up in the next week or so). And there's no pressure or anything. This is just a request, if you have the cash to spare, to consider my project, and if you don't, then please pimp out this post or the indiegogo link when it's available! :)
Thank you, thank you, thank you, and I will update you on progress and all that soon!