FEATURE: Finding Me

So... where was all this storyboard talent on all the films I did for you? :huh:
(and that's one Fat Cat!)

:)
 
OldCorpse said:
Ouch...! I'm so sorry. And you are right - it is against the laws of nature for a production to go smoothly... I know the pain, believe me - I've had the same production delayed 4 times now, for all sorts of reasons, all very dramatic and unexpected. But... I'm not giving up - in fact, when things are going smoothly, I become suspicious: this is toooooo easy... wonder what disaster is lurking just around the corner?!
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I agree. If it's quiet for some length one comes to expect a great disaster shortly.



alex whitmer said:
Few more storyboards. It's Sunday. News travels slow.



Mr. O'Connor visits Emma's room.


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Erin up in Fezra's face

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And kinda what a 'Finding Me' storyboard looks like all pieced together - sans the text and dialogue so we don't give too much away.

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These storyboard look great! Hope they help. I haven't done storyboards in while, since my cast doesn't ever look at them. In fact, instead of looking at the storyboards they dig out my shotlist and start going through that instead!?
 
I would think with a cast this massive you could fund this just from all the parents kicking in.....then you wouldn't have to give up a percentage.
Have you talked to everyone involved?
(just a thought)

:beer:
 
I'm very happy for you, Alex, that the project is gelling nicely! Here of course, is the paradox - what is often the most valuable part of these boards is the real-life feedback and experiences documented in real time of people making their film dreams come true; and yet, when you are in the thick of it, it is precisely when you have the least time to document what is happening.

And so, it is here. You drop tantalizing hints, but understandably have no time to fully elaborate - short bursts of text to map your progress, but you can't really document the hours of prep work that would be just as time consuming to report.

Anyhow, thank you for keeping us abreast this exciting saga. You have my very best wishes!
 
alex whitmer said:
Not that anything will come of this, at least in hard dollars or props/food for the set. If nothing else, at least the word is out there in places it likely hasn't reached yet. And maybe someday those who put my email in the trash will be thumping their heads saying 'Dang, if only I had known it was going be this good!'
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Ha, you'll have ten thousand people claiming they were at the premiere for street cred. "I was there man, before it went mainstream..." :)
 
Wow...just saw this Alex, so I'm pretty late. Its awesome to see you fired up again about what you love to do man :). Have you found a director as yet? I'd through my hat in if I was close by (or at least even in the same country lol) but taking a chance on a director on his first feature may not be something people wanna do :). Anyway man, really hope you get this ball "ah rollin'. I'll go read the script again right now cuz I hardly remember it now (you sent me months ago).

Question. why don't you direct it :)

edit: i see how many other things you are doing. Forget directing :)
 
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alex whitmer said:
I will say this, though. It has most certainly occured to me that there is little room on this forsaken planet for business from the heart - passion as it is also called. You have to make every single decision from a purely abstract point of view, with no emotional ties or loyalty to any one person or project detail. It's like trading cards.

Way too much short-term thinking.

I will argue that this is why so many films (most?) are just so fricken ordinary.


Curse the idiot who tries to do something extraordinary.
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Maybe it's just me, but the whole point of doing no-budget self-financed full-control films is exactly so that you can do whatever it is you feel passionate about without worrying about anything else other than your art. That's what I am doing for my upcoming project. I will accept no money from anyone. There are good and bad parts to this. The good is that you now answer to no one only to yourself - and if you're any kind of artist, you understand that ultimately you'll have to answer to some kind of audience... may not be mass audience, but it has to be some audience, no matter how small a demographic it might be, otherwise you're merely shooting for your own projection room. The bad part is that your budget is liable to be anywhere from zero to tiny - unless you're independently wealthy.

The moment you seek backing for your project, you must answer to your backers - that's the nature of the deal, and it's hard to complain about the situation, after all, if there is no quid pro quo, why should there ever be any backing for anything? How much you accommodate is a matter for negotiation.

Most people are not willing or able to limit themselves to self-financing - for lack of money or inability to constrain their vision within a budget they could make themselves. So they feel forced to turn to backers - and the sorrows begin.

I have chosen to avoid all that. Heck, I'm not even going to do kickstarter or indiegogo. Why? Because even though I wouldn't be financially responsible to any kickstarter/indiegogo contributor, I would still feel psychologically obligated and I don't want to bear that psychic burden - I don't want that subconscious feeling in the back of my mind. I want to be utterly free.

And with that utter freedom comes utter responsibility. Whatever the outcome, I will have no one to blame/credit but myself. There's something very refreshing about that in a world where people feel like they have little control over their fate.

I salute anyone who undertakes the challenge of making an independent film, however they decide to meet that challenge. Sometimes, part of that challenge is dealing with people over whom you have no control, and on the contrary those people may have some degree of control over you - but that's part of the deal, isn't it?

I have a friend who has been trying to get a particular film made for the past 5 years - he's come close many, many times, but something always derails it, frequently at the last moment. He has little control over it. One of the reasons, is that he feels he needs quite a bit of money for the budget. My suggestion to him - since the very beginning, 5 years ago - was to revisit that feeling and that budget; I suggested that he not wait for yet another backer or yet another producer to come through, instead, see if he can't fit his vision into a budget he himself can finance... all he'd be limited by would be his imagination. We've had the same argument over and over again, and I've watched him get his hopes up and his hopes dashed repeatedly. This year's Thanksgiving, he finally said "OK", and he's restructured the entire concept of his film. He's shooting February 2013, on a near-zero budget, and I will be helping him to the best of my ability. I wish he did this 5 years ago - we'd all be 5 years younger.

I don't mean to hijack the thread - just some thoughts in response to what seems your obvious frustration... meant as points of departure for some musing, not as any kind of prescription or lecture. Best of luck!
 
To me it seems clear that the ONLY way this project will ever happen is if you finance it all yourself. The subject matter makes it a bad financial investment. The lack of control you're willing to give makes it a bad investment. Your audience for this type of project is small. I'd be really skeptical that you could raise very much via Kickstarter/IndieGoGo given the subject matter unless you have a large following already.

If this is a passion project then you need to make it happen yourself. If the actors have the passion you do for the project I bet you can get them to work for free (with a token contract). Make it clear to them that the chance of them making anything from the project is so slim they shouldn't just assume they won't. Be up front and honest with them. If they can't commit to the project because of their passion for the story they simply shouldn't be involved.

The same goes for crew. If you can't find out-of-work professionals that love the material and will work for free because they want to be associated with the project, then you get inexperienced people who are working to gain experience, and the final result will show that fact. If you really have to make this project happen then you need to call in favors and just make it happen. Nobody can help you. Ultimately the project won't be what you thought you'd get if you had a pile of money, but it never will be that anyway.

I'm not trying to negative or critical. I'm just finally responding to a huge number of posts I've seen from you about this project. Looking at your IMDB profile it looks like you have a body of work. Hopefully with that work you have a fan base you can tap into.
 
There would be so many problems with that approach. If you could at least have a live hi-res camera feed to the director that would help, but all of the on-set direction when the camera isn't rolling would be impossible to pull off. Reminds me of the episodes of Arrested Development when the father has his "proxy" running around wearing a head mounted camera.
 
As opposed to a good financial investment. There will always be projects that aren't good financial gambles to invest (time and/or money) in. Those are made because of the passion of the filmmaker, not their financial resources.
 
Nothing is 100% true, and different people invest money/time for different reasons. Some will to gain experience. Some people work on passion projects to return a favor. Some are motivated by the story and want to see it happen. I've worked on numerous "passion projects" and shot a few of my own.

Clearly to a lot of people your project would be a waste of time for them, but that's nothing unique to your project or any indicator of your project's potential quality. You just need to find people who have something to gain from it.
 
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