Oddworld Forums - My first major film production

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I was apprehensive about posting this here, but whatever.

At the start of the summer, a close friend of mine approached me saying how he was more or less flunking school, and he needs to build up his portfolio. I'm pretty much in the same boat (only instead of flunking school I simply couldn't afford it). I want to be a filmmaker, but since film school was no longer an option, I made the then-tentative decision to try and start production on my own independent film.

Lending credit to my friend, I pitched him an idea I had in my reserve that was originally intended to be the premise of a stupid short film. The movie in question was quite simply "a reality show where all the contestants are brutally murdered". Being more inclined to comedy, I let him write the first half, which develops the characters and sets up the show itself. Then I wrote the second half, which was where it turned into a gore-filled snuff fest.

It wasn't long before we realized the treatment was shaping up to be far more ambitious than anything else we attempted as pissant, indie auteurs.

So I pulled a few strings, contacted a few of my loftier friends, and boom; I got a couple of professional actors (including some local legends, one of which was in the original Dawn Of The Dead movie), experienced producers (both local and abroad), and tech wizards (including our own Pilot) involved in the production.

Suddenly I realized just how much pressure I was under, and how the time was just boiling away. My original intention was to film this in July, but when it became clear that funding would first have to be secured, principle photography has been pushed back to August.

After TritinFilm's unsuccessful funding stint with Kickstarter, I learned a thing or two. For one, I went with a website that allowed flexible funding as opposed to fixed, so that I actually get all (well, most) of the money donated as opposed to all-or-nothing.

So yeah, that's where I am now.

My proposal has been gestating on IndieGoGo for a few days now, and the only funding it's secured has been a pittance donated by a few friends. The problem? I need to promote this mother. Hardcore. All the cast/crew involved have been pretty good about mirroring it on their Facebook pages and the like, but that's still not going to reach a very wide audience.

So I figured before I take a much needed vacay from this place, I would post it here for your consideration.

Reality Show

If you like it, promote it. Show your friends, your enemies, your family, your pets. Post it on your Facebooks, your Twitters, your Twatters, your Myspots, your Googles, your Boogles, your Yahoos, your Wahoos, whatever...

If you really like it, then donate. Every. Fucking. Penny. Counts. And even though what I'm asking for on this production seems excessive, it's actually hilariously low. Most people spend twice as much on short films, let alone full-length productions like what we're trying to make here.

Since I don't want to repeat myself, there's a lot more interesting information about the production and the funding campaign on the IndieGoGo page itself.

There's also a Facebook page, which I urge you all to like and share.

If you're somewhere on the fence between donate and promote, then I present an opportunity that is inexpensive and will get you a spot in the film's credits. On the Facebook page I have posted designs for fliers that accommodate standard 8.5x11 print paper. Print out a dozen and stick them around your town. Pin them to storefronts, telephone poles, the backs of sleeping strangers, whatever. The more congested the promotion, the likelier people are to actually check out what the fliers say. I, for one, am going to go around my town dressed as the killer and hand them out personally in addition to plastering every single flat surface with as many as I can afford to produce.

So yeah, that's about it.

Thanks for helping out, should you choose to. I'll understand if you don't, though.