This film was funded by people online and produced with the help of our local community. Locations were donated. Actors and Crew members donated services and now we have been screening the film in a Brooklyn Basement.
and hitting "DEMAND IT" on the right hand side of the screen.After you do that, share it with your friends.By Clicking "DEMAND IT" you are showing distributors that this film has a world wide demand.
Since the last post (I know I have busy) we finished the movie...yay. Now we had to figure out how to raise money for film festivals and get the film's name out to people. In April, the idea surfaced. We had a basement..a screen...and a projector. Sounds like a screening room to me :)
So we have a screening and people come. Those people LOVE the movie and donate money to our festival fund. We have another and BOOM it happened again. This time one of my producers decides to add concessions to the deal. http://www.lillysfoodblog.com/
Lilly's Food became a hit! They were labeled "the best brownies ever" buy audience members. We also started to sell posters. What a hit the event became. EVERYONE loved the movie. People would bring their friends back to see it. Our entire community, online and in person, became charged up by what was happening in our neighborhood. We even did a double feature night! With "Oh Dear God No!" How cool.
.
Our film was now entered into nine festivals and our online personality was growing. We got up to thirteen screenings and had a blast. That was until someone called 311 complaining that we had an illegal conversion. We should have known that 1500 commercial views in four days, wouldn't just be a good thing. The conspiracy theories began.
"Do you have enemies?"
"Who would want to do this?"
"I know who did this!"
"I'll find out who did this!"
Oddly I wasn't interested in finding out who did this or why. I felt calm. As if we just passed an important point in this film. I didn't know why but I felt good. As a precaution I shut down the screenings. Our landlord is very cool and no one wants to be fined or cited. I post a public message to cancel to next screenings and the response poured in. Everyone felt lost. That feeling I felt also but I knew this wasn't the end.
Now I realize. This had nothing to do with a hater or a space or a government agency. This was about cool people doing a cool thing. So as of now I think we're going underground. Secret screenings. Only word of mouth. Only friends of friends. No addresses promoted. No more commercials. Just the food, friends and a really cool film.
A couple days ago friend mentioned how relaxed I must be now. Now that we're in the final weeks of post production, my mind is free to worry about the other half of filmmaking... The audience. Who are they? How to get to them? Do I start screening or do I enter festivals and wait?
This time around I have different goals. I'm not waiting for a distributor to tell us the film is good. This film is great. I want the festivals to promote the film and build an audience. Maybe win some prize money :)
From what I have been reading and watching online, most people make very little from distributors. I think that if I keep promotion costs down, we can screen and distribute this thing ourselves.
In the past we put ourselves in a hole to rent a space to show the film. This film was shot in a location that can host private screenings to our most loyal fans. Who wouldn't want to watch a horror movie in the location that the film was shot in. Besides that, people have passed away in the location and it may actually be haunted (don't tell my cast). Also wouldn't it be better to go to festivals and have a way for the people we meet to actually buy the film? "Yeah you can buy it here".
I have to see what the festivals that we want require but I'm so leaning towards online distribution of DVDs and file downloads. What do you think? If you have a thought I'd love to hear it.
Every step so far has left me with more work and many more questions. Today's step has brought clarity of thought.
I bring the latest copy of the movie over to Melvin's. We start going over the music and Melvin gets quiet. Now if you know anything about him you know he is never quiet. He asks me why I am thinking of so many different musical themes. We realize from coming out of editing and doing special FX I see the film as many segments. That doesn't work for the score. The music has to bring to images together as one. Not further fracture the film. So at this point I say "Take everything I said and throw it out. That is if you even took it in". We laugh, smoke a cigar and then he tells me the plan he had before I even showed up. Well the soundtrack is on it's way and this film will be done before the spring has sprung!
Two hours with someone who knows what their doing saves months of problems. I love having a Melvin!
So, months ago we lost our CGI artist. I then contacted every school and message board I could find that had anything to do with compositing or CGI. Most people responded as if I was crazy. "That's way too much work". A bit of a let down to say the least. I knew I was asking a lot but I also know what I am offering. This film will be scored by a film legend! Who doesn't want to be involved with that. Evidently everyone.
Weeks went by and I was contacted by a woman named Sayma. Then a kid named Geoff. At one point we had four people who expressed interest in doing the CGI. I met with everyone. They were great. Email chains were started. I was excited.
A few days went by and communication broke down. Emails were no longer coming back. Calls didn't help either. I started to look up videos that featured effects that I would like in the movie. After playing around a bit I was about to create the first ghost look.
Soon after, varying them became easy and I was attempting more difficult effects. Eventually...one by one, the effects list became shorter. From 37 scenes needed to 30 and so on. Tonight I write on the cusp of our final effect! I will be combining old school practicals, Lucas type screening with new school technology to finish the visual lock of this film!!!
A 3 month shoot, 5 months of post and about two more of sound, music and score to go. This film may be ready by spring! Wouldn't that be a hoot. Finish in the spring and wait till October to screen it.
So, ready for post production and BOOM! We lose our CGI guy. Damn CGI. Well as we search for another artist...Wall Street becomes occupied. I'm watching this on the news and realize that what is being reported can not possibly be what is happening. So since I can't finish my movie yet. I started an new one lol. Don't know what we are doing yet but here are some clips
So the Kickstarter campaign lead to this http://www.cypherproductions.com/GhostHuntedthemovie.html
If you can please donate to the film. It would be so helpful for us to take this great film to audiences. Film festivals are expensive but after making a movie it's unreachable for us. It's hard to explain to myself how we will get people to care about this movie before they see it. Some how we will though. Don't know how or who they will be but they are there.
It takes a village to raise a child and what is a film if not a growing child that you hope will reach it's potential?
.jpg)
