Funded? Really?

Brian_Rice said:
Okay, I know they were only asking for $10,000, but still, really?

Really?
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Actually they only asked for $8,200... they've raised over 10K now.
I'm not about to begrudge anyone that is able to raise a budget to get their project off the ground.
People love Superman, apparently.

Good for them.
 
Agreed -- GREAT for them. It's just...confusing somehow. lol

Or maybe it isn't confusing at all? I mean, it's Superman...maybe that's enough.

I've always loved fan films -- I just assumed most people shrug them off. I certainly never thought people would collectively pay 10K (or more) for one to be made by some random person.

Like, if it was a crew that had done a few Star Wars fan films and were making consistently good stuff, I'd understand. People could back the brand and the filmmaker. But just some random person raising their hand and saying, "Hey, I wanna make a Superman movie!" I mean, I read an interview the guy did and it (premise, script) sounds just kind of awful (e.g. 90% of fan films).

But hey, maybe a kick-ass poster is all you need. Because that is a kick-ass poster.
 
LOL Gary

I think when you actually look at fan FILMS (Black Mesa, City of Scars, a couple of the Call of Duty flicks), the percentage is marginally better. The problem is that any 12 year old who runs around in his backyard with his little sister and calls it Elektra vs Daredevil Movie! is put into the same category as something like Troops.

I looked more into this Superman movie. Looks like the guy has a ton of producer credits, so the visual quality (but, again, probably not the script) might actually be decent.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2295474/

I'd been thinking about doing an Xmen fan film forever just because there's never been even a marginally decent one online, and while I probably wouldn't go the fundraising route like this guy, the fact that people have seemed to start paying even more attention to fan films, IMO, can only be a good thing for the indie filmmaker looking to put together a reel that people might actually be driven to watch.
 
I enjoy a good fan film now and then (Troops, Black Mesa, that Max Payne one which was way more entertaining than anything in the actual movie), but I would never make one. I find it to be a dead-end. I cannot think of one name who has ever moved on to directing/writing a funded feature of any note who got their notoriety from one.
 
Click on the "Funders" tab... that nearly $11,000 was raised by only 65 people. Two contributed $1,000, one contributed $700, and one contributed $465. The rest appear to be mostly under $100. That's actually kinda impressive if you ask me considering it's only a fan film.
 
Gary Huff said:
I enjoy a good fan film now and then (Troops, Black Mesa, that Max Payne one which was way more entertaining than anything in the actual movie), but I would never make one. I find it to be a dead-end. I cannot think of one name who has ever moved on to directing/writing a funded feature of any note who got their notoriety from one.
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I dunno, I think it might be kind of an unfair assessment, though.

I mean, pre-DSLR only two fan films were ever shot on film (Dead End and Grayson). Of those two, Collora (Dead End) made his first feature (Hunter Prey) and it was picked up for distribution (it's streaming on Netflix if you want to check it out). Troops writer/director Kevin Rubio turned his fan film "fame" into a job at Darkhorse comics.

I think we're talking about a niche within a niche. In order for someone to realistically move from fan films to features they have to first be a capable, micro-budget filmmaker (and possibly writer) shooting capable, unpaid talent. So we can nix 98% of all filmmakers right there. Most of the short films I see floating around aren't particularly good (but, of course, compared to fan films the percentage is staggering).

So out of the say, 20% of filmmakers on the planet who can actually make a decent short film, and then the 2% of them who can actually make a good no-budget short film, you're left with the .002% of folks who actually move on from there to make fully funded motion pictures.

To look at it another way, let's admit that there have only ever been 20 short fan films made by actual micro-budget filmmakers (as was stipulated above) in the last two decades. Out of those 20 (the Black Mesa and COD kids included who haven't actually had the time yet in their career to be at the level you're talking about), if we only use Collora as an example, that's still a 1 in 20 ratio. Now bring that same ratio into "actual micro-budget filmmakers" and apply it to short films in general. I think the ratio would probably be a third of that, at best -- and again, as camera tech and effects get easier and cheaper (and as fan films and their awards become more and more mainstream), I think the ratios will become even more dramatic in favor of the fan filmmaker.

I think the more serious issue is, What happens then? Do you care if you defined yourself as a fan filmmaker to get your reels seen?

Some people do some people don't. Personally I think the most important thing for any artist is to have your work be seen. I think about all the comic book writers and artists who wanted to be working on their creator-owned stuff who had to spend years drawing and writing Superman or Spiderman so that they could build an audience to sell their own stuff. And while they were actually being paid to do it, I mean, has anyone ever actually had a ROI for a short film that did much more than cover the cost of it?

I hope to do a fan film in the future because I think it will have the best chance of being seen by people. Whether or not it sends me on some rapid rise to massive film budgets isn't really as important as making something that people want to watch. I could make a hundred great short films that no one ever sees, or I could make a single short film based on Left 4 Dead and get a million views in a month. The key is the level of professionalism and creativity brought to the project, IMO.

Alex Ross is a great painter. He's one of the most successful working painters, though, because he paints comic book characters.
 
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Not that impressive. We haven't seen the final result yet (and the crashed set of something-or-other that they assemble out in the open field looks goofy)
 
Agreed -- I was only talking about the actual production work and apparent man hours going into the short film itself. Compared with most short films it felt fairly involved.
 
The problem with fan films is that what the fans get excited about the most is costumes, visual effects and the over-all production value. They almost ALWAYS lack any sense of direction or story.

A great example was Star Wars: Revelations, it had a huge production value, great costumes, the entire community helping it and backing it. Plus it was a feature (from what I remember). It seemed to really impress people... until it was released. To say the story, direction, acting, and script was awful, would be an understatement. It just didn't work.

But the fans only look at the production value. They see something with amazing costumes, amazing lightsaber effects, and that seems to be all their focus.

As for fame from Fan Films, another to add to the list is Ryan Weiber. He did Ryn vs Dorkman (two dudes fighting with lightsabers). The film got the attention of Lucas Arts and they hired him. Then he went on to do visual effects for Heroes and I think got nominated for an Emmy? Now he has dozens of TV shows under his name: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1482642/
 
More bizarre $$$ situations on the fan film side.

Here we have people selling their fan films as "gifts with donation"...

http://www.blinky-productions.com/index2.php

http://www.coreysosner.com/order_dvd.htm

(I actually give both these guys props for the actual work they've done, Blinky for sheer quantity and Sosner for making something decent, but still -- this seems a darker shade of gray, IMO. Let's see if the Superman folks end up doing something similar even after being funded)

I think the Browncoats Serenity fan film was the most interesting to date. They actually sold the DVDs and additional merchandise on the terms that the money would go to the original cast and creator's various charities.
 
Fan Films are awesome. If I knew I could raise 10 - 15K from fans of a video game franchise I'd roll on a Kickstarter THIS moment.

In fact, after seeing this, I think I'm going to consider it!
 
Well, I think what we've done is a parody fan film, merging two game genres together and making it a parody:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMrwNz24j_g

As for how successful this is, let's talk in a few years :) I can say WITHOUT question that this small series has been opening doors for us. And right now, we are having a lot of fun with doing them. More than anything, since they are short, they are HUGE learning experiences with each one pushing further than the last project. I think if you watch the whole series, you can see the production value increasing. And these are just productions we do on our spare time.

I agree that a lot of fan films are lacking in story. Our story is a play on real life situations in the game industry, which I think is one of the reasons it has gone over so well with the fans. For us, it's helped bring us a subscription base of people that like to follow our work. It also allowed us to pay homage to two game series that we are big fans of. I see a lot of fan films be just as bad as independent films when people are just starting out.

I think the difference now is that places like YouTube are making it so fan films up the production value since they immediately have a big audience. This is why we do them. We think the production model has the opportunity to change and that's our experiment. Fan films are a good foot in the door into peoples minds :)
 
Agreed. I mean, for all intents and purposes The Guild is simply a WOW fan series. They can't mention the name of the game for legal reasons (they actually want to profit off their efforts, weird), but they've made no issue off-screen that the game they're playing is supposed to be WOW.

I think five years from now we'll be hearing about more and more filmmakers who got their start in fan films. For director-only folks fan films can be especially helpful because you can literally use the printed material that already exists.

Here's a couple of perfect examples where people made fan films to enhance their portfolios

Stephen King's The Talisman: http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D9LHFRF0mVho&h=86132

Watchman page 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w14DoxRIXW4
 
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