A Legit Way To Fund Raise

[EuropeanDistributor]

Originally Posted by Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC

Update!

My friend who is a music composer replied. He likes the idea of the music video. He is watching the 22 minute production for ideas for a song. He will send me a rough of the song when he has something together.

My prop master is working on silver demon hunter dolls. He will also work on cyborg dolls.

I am still scripting IC3 and layering a subplot to IC4 - Earth Rebooted into IC3. It may take time to start on e-books. But, I will look for my original hand written manuscripts for I, Creator and its' prequel Future Pioneers. Having the manuscripts should make writing e-books easier.

It's great to hear that you are expanding the "IC Universe" But are you looking at these things as possible ways to make money?
Because if you don't have a fanbase or an audience who is demanding these products I don't see how they're going to help you raise equity for your production.

If you can get those guys to do all that for free, then that's great, but I certainly wouldn't put any money in producing music videos or action figures if there is no demand for them.

You said that you have invested $20,000 of your own money towards the 22-minute production, in this case I would personally advise you to not invest another dollar in it, not because I think that the production is worthless or anything, I wouldn't know enough about it to form a personal opinion, but simply because there is no money to be made with short films.
Even though you are doing this as a pilot, but because there is no TV channel or production company involved, it's technically a short film and you can't make any money with short films.

I understand that it is a passion project, but I would suggest that in the future you learn how to budget things more tightly.
Even though I haven't seen the 22 minute version, but from the material I've seen there isn't anything on the screen that would require a $20,000 budget.

I understand that the costs add up as you go along, but with a $20,000 budget and a tight schedule and budget you could have done so much more.
If you aren't going to make any money with it, you can't expect others to make money either.
A good DP I would invest in, all the others, actors and crew should be working for basically gas money.
I don't know who you have been paying and how much, but there are plenty of hungry actors and aspiring filmmakers who would love the chance to work on a sci-fi production like yours, even for very little money.

And before I get a bunch of guys grabbing my throat for saying this, I don't suggest that you don't pay professional crew members decent wages, I'm just saying that when you are doing a very low budget independent production that you are paying out of pocket, you HAVE TO get people working for free or for very little money, and there are plenty of people who will.

In the past you have talked about how you are going to hire TWO professional stunt coordinators to work on this production, I would suggest against it.
It will not bring any additional value to the production and it will probably end up costing you a whole lot of money.

My opinion on what you should do is to finish this current production, whatever you have in the can you use that, and if you have to shoot some more material you should do that with basically no extra money.

You can then use that as your "reel". You won't make any money with it but you can use that to go on to bigger things.

You have talked earlier on how you would like to produce content for SYFY. Look at their programming and see what you could do. A show is out of the question at this point.
They just announced their new line-up/pilots/projects in development, every single one of them is run by a veteran showrunner, written by veteran writers and starring veteran tv-actors, either that or they are some cheap reality show.

One thing that they still do buy from independent production companies is movies, mainly horror and creature feature.
Look at the writers who are writing these movies, contact them and show them your 22 minute production and tell them you want to make a creature feature movie, you won't pay him/her any money at this point, but if they trust you they will work with you.

Come up with a bunch of titles and loglines and present them to the honchos at SYFY. You should be able to get a meeting with the help of that writer who has worked with them before.
If they bite at anything, then good, if not ask them what they are buying at the moment, then go prepare another slate of titles and loglines based on their notes.

If all else fails you can take the $10,000 you were going to spend on IC2 and invest that into a microbudget feature, and you can produce the creature feature/horror/whatever movie on your own, or if you really wanna risk it you come up with a movie idea with the writer from SYFY and you put the ten grand towards producing a trailer for the project or an opening scene, one or two day shoot with professional DP and RED cameras and the whole deal, that should warrant you another meeting at SYFY at least.

[NickClapper]

Originally Posted by EuropeanDistributor

It's great to hear that you are expanding the "IC Universe" But are you looking at these things as possible ways to make money?
Because if you don't have a fanbase or an audience who is demanding these products I don't see how they're going to help you raise equity for your production.

If you can get those guys to do all that for free, then that's great, but I certainly wouldn't put any money in producing music videos or action figures if there is no demand for them.

You said that you have invested $20,000 of your own money towards the 22-minute production, in this case I would personally advise you to not invest another dollar in it, not because I think that the production is worthless or anything, I wouldn't know enough about it to form a personal opinion, but simply because there is no money to be made with short films.
Even though you are doing this as a pilot, but because there is no TV channel or production company involved, it's technically a short film and you can't make any money with short films.

I understand that it is a passion project, but I would suggest that in the future you learn how to budget things more tightly.
Even though I haven't seen the 22 minute version, but from the material I've seen there isn't anything on the screen that would require a $20,000 budget.

I understand that the costs add up as you go along, but with a $20,000 budget and a tight schedule and budget you could have done so much more.
If you aren't going to make any money with it, you can't expect others to make money either.
A good DP I would invest in, all the others, actors and crew should be working for basically gas money.
I don't know who you have been paying and how much, but there are plenty of hungry actors and aspiring filmmakers who would love the chance to work on a sci-fi production like yours, even for very little money.

And before I get a bunch of guys grabbing my throat for saying this, I don't suggest that you don't pay professional crew members decent wages, I'm just saying that when you are doing a very low budget independent production that you are paying out of pocket, you HAVE TO get people working for free or for very little money, and there are plenty of people who will.

In the past you have talked about how you are going to hire TWO professional stunt coordinators to work on this production, I would suggest against it.
It will not bring any additional value to the production and it will probably end up costing you a whole lot of money.

My opinion on what you should do is to finish this current production, whatever you have in the can you use that, and if you have to shoot some more material you should do that with basically no extra money.

You can then use that as your "reel". You won't make any money with it but you can use that to go on to bigger things.

You have talked earlier on how you would like to produce content for SYFY. Look at their programming and see what you could do. A show is out of the question at this point.
They just announced their new line-up/pilots/projects in development, every single one of them is run by a veteran showrunner, written by veteran writers and starring veteran tv-actors, either that or they are some cheap reality show.

One thing that they still do buy from independent production companies is movies, mainly horror and creature feature.
Look at the writers who are writing these movies, contact them and show them your 22 minute production and tell them you want to make a creature feature movie, you won't pay him/her any money at this point, but if they trust you they will work with you.

Come up with a bunch of titles and loglines and present them to the honchos at SYFY. You should be able to get a meeting with the help of that writer who has worked with them before.
If they bite at anything, then good, if not ask them what they are buying at the moment, then go prepare another slate of titles and loglines based on their notes.

If all else fails you can take the $10,000 you were going to spend on IC2 and invest that into a microbudget feature, and you can produce the creature feature/horror/whatever movie on your own, or if you really wanna risk it you come up with a movie idea with the writer from SYFY and you put the ten grand towards producing a trailer for the project or an opening scene, one or two day shoot with professional DP and RED cameras and the whole deal, that should warrant you another meeting at SYFY at least.

+1

Congratulations ED (I'm not sure if that's the best acronym) on very quickly becoming one of the top contributors here. Great advice, time after time.

Let's hope it's heeded.

[Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC]

Originally Posted by EuropeanDistributor

It's great to hear that you are expanding the "IC Universe" But are you looking at these things as possible ways to make money?
Because if you don't have a fanbase or an audience who is demanding these products I don't see how they're going to help you raise equity for your production.

If you can get those guys to do all that for free, then that's great, but I certainly wouldn't put any money in producing music videos or action figures if there is no demand for them.

You said that you have invested $20,000 of your own money towards the 22-minute production, in this case I would personally advise you to not invest another dollar in it, not because I think that the production is worthless or anything, I wouldn't know enough about it to form a personal opinion, but simply because there is no money to be made with short films.
Even though you are doing this as a pilot, but because there is no TV channel or production company involved, it's technically a short film and you can't make any money with short films.

I understand that it is a passion project, but I would suggest that in the future you learn how to budget things more tightly.
Even though I haven't seen the 22 minute version, but from the material I've seen there isn't anything on the screen that would require a $20,000 budget.

I understand that the costs add up as you go along, but with a $20,000 budget and a tight schedule and budget you could have done so much more.
If you aren't going to make any money with it, you can't expect others to make money either.
A good DP I would invest in, all the others, actors and crew should be working for basically gas money.
I don't know who you have been paying and how much, but there are plenty of hungry actors and aspiring filmmakers who would love the chance to work on a sci-fi production like yours, even for very little money.

And before I get a bunch of guys grabbing my throat for saying this, I don't suggest that you don't pay professional crew members decent wages, I'm just saying that when you are doing a very low budget independent production that you are paying out of pocket, you HAVE TO get people working for free or for very little money, and there are plenty of people who will.

In the past you have talked about how you are going to hire TWO professional stunt coordinators to work on this production, I would suggest against it.
It will not bring any additional value to the production and it will probably end up costing you a whole lot of money.

My opinion on what you should do is to finish this current production, whatever you have in the can you use that, and if you have to shoot some more material you should do that with basically no extra money.

You can then use that as your "reel". You won't make any money with it but you can use that to go on to bigger things.

You have talked earlier on how you would like to produce content for SYFY. Look at their programming and see what you could do. A show is out of the question at this point.
They just announced their new line-up/pilots/projects in development, every single one of them is run by a veteran showrunner, written by veteran writers and starring veteran tv-actors, either that or they are some cheap reality show.

One thing that they still do buy from independent production companies is movies, mainly horror and creature feature.
Look at the writers who are writing these movies, contact them and show them your 22 minute production and tell them you want to make a creature feature movie, you won't pay him/her any money at this point, but if they trust you they will work with you.

Come up with a bunch of titles and loglines and present them to the honchos at SYFY. You should be able to get a meeting with the help of that writer who has worked with them before.
If they bite at anything, then good, if not ask them what they are buying at the moment, then go prepare another slate of titles and loglines based on their notes.

If all else fails you can take the $10,000 you were going to spend on IC2 and invest that into a microbudget feature, and you can produce the creature feature/horror/whatever movie on your own, or if you really wanna risk it you come up with a movie idea with the writer from SYFY and you put the ten grand towards producing a trailer for the project or an opening scene, one or two day shoot with professional DP and RED cameras and the whole deal, that should warrant you another meeting at SYFY at least.

I do appreciate your advice.

The writer I know writes for bigger TV networks than SyFy. He wrote and produced science fiction series on Fox TV. He wrote episodes for Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Forever Knight, Star Trek Voyager, and many other science fiction shows.

I don't do monster movies, however.

I'm too stubborn NOT to complete the 40 minute version of IC2. And, I'm hammering away at the script for IC3. There will be plenty for die hard sci-fi fans to love in the story of IC3.

I'm getting excellent feedback on e-books from science fiction writers on different boards I'm on with them. They are all saying, go for it. A novel will sell better than short stories. But, even short stories will bring back more money than the investment to write the stories. Every little bit brings me closer to reaching the mark.

I may be crazy, but I've even emailed query letters to small local newspapers who I've seen review independent films.

Stunt coordinators.

I threw away money on a non union stunt coordinator I had to fire before every actress in the production quit. He is the second non union stunt coordinator I had to fire for making the cast's lives miserable.

For IC3, we will be going union. And, I'm bringing in top of the line in the industry. The cast already saw action clips of studio productions of what their new stunt coordinator worked on. And, they are thrilled to have a chance to work with someone of such high caliber. I know this person over ten years and this person wants to help and told me what contracts I will need to make it happen.

But, IC3 will have to be funded by sources other than me. That is where NATPE comes in.

Believe it or not, IC2 is attracting film sales agents. I've been contacted by 2 of them from different countries. One in the UK and one in India. So, things are looking up.

[EuropeanDistributor]

Originally Posted by Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC

The writer I know writes for bigger TV networks than SyFy. He wrote and produced science fiction series on Fox TV. He wrote episodes for Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Forever Knight, Star Trek Voyager, and many other science fiction shows.

Has the writer promised to come on your project as a writer?

He will most likely be WGA so you would have to become a WGA signatory production and you would have to pay him WGA minimum rates, though most writers of that caliber won't work for minimum rates, but of course that is always negotiated.

Originally Posted by Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC

I don't do monster movies, however.

Regarding monster movies. I'm not sure if all of the people involved in these productions necessarily like doing them, it's just that those are hot right now, those movies are what sells.
There are very few people in the entertainment business who are in a position where they have the absolute freedom to choose what they do, the rest have to produce movies and tv shows that sell, and what sells and what doesn't sell changes all the time.

Of course passion projects are a different thing, and I know that IC is a passion project for you, and there is nothing wrong with that, but if there isn't a market for these projects, it's not a very wise business decision to invest money in them.

I know a couple of guys, one a director and the other a producer, they are fairly succesfull and have a decent track record behind them, but they both still have a "dream project" that they one day would like to do, but they know that they are very unmarketable projects and they are not in a position yet where they would be able to finance them, so they keep working on projects that are more suitable for today's market and hope that they can someday direct or produce their dream project.

Originally Posted by Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC

I'm too stubborn NOT to complete the 40 minute version of IC2. And, I'm hammering away at the script for IC3. There will be plenty for die hard sci-fi fans to love in the story of IC3.

I respect your passion and drive to complete the 40 minute production.

Is there a way you could finish it without spending ten grand on it?
What is the $10,000 going to be spend on exactly?

Originally Posted by Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC

I'm getting excellent feedback on e-books from science fiction writers on different boards I'm on with them. They are all saying, go for it. A novel will sell better than short stories. But, even short stories will bring back more money than the investment to write the stories. Every little bit brings me closer to reaching the mark.

Of course writing short stories yourself is basically free, but can you really sell these stories enough where you would see a significant profit?

Originally Posted by Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC

Stunt coordinators.

I threw away money on a non union stunt coordinator I had to fire before every actress in the production quit. He is the second non union stunt coordinator I had to fire for making the cast's lives miserable.

For IC3, we will be going union. And, I'm bringing in top of the line in the industry. The cast already saw action clips of studio productions of what their new stunt coordinator worked on. And, they are thrilled to have a chance to work with someone of such high caliber. I know this person over ten years and this person wants to help and told me what contracts I will need to make it happen.

Well my opinion on SAG is, if you aren't going to hire some name actors to your production, then I wouldn't really deal with them at all, certainly not just so I could bring in a stunt coordinator who is union.

I would bet that there are plenty of perfectly fine non-union stunt coordinators out there, or those who are SAG but will work on a non-SAG gig anyway.

Of course it should be said that the stunt scenes you see in a movie where this stunt coordinator has worked on is a combination of professional stunt coordinators, fight coreographers, stunt doubles, fight doubles, cinematographers, camera operators, special FX people, editors, sound designers and composers working together to create that scene.

Originally Posted by Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC

But, IC3 will have to be funded by sources other than me. That is where NATPE comes in.

This is where I get lost. I understand that IC2 is a 22/40 minute pilot you are hoping a network would pick up and produce as a series?
Is IC3 a full length movie you are hoping to sell to a network?

Originally Posted by Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC

Believe it or not, IC2 is attracting film sales agents. I've been contacted by 2 of them from different countries. One in the UK and one in India. So, things are looking up.

When you say sales agents, these are companies that sell mainly feature films?
Are they interested in selling IC2 even though it's not a full length movie?

[Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC]

This is where I get lost. I understand that IC2 is a 22/40 minute pilot you are hoping a network would pick up and produce as a series?
Is IC3 a full length movie you are hoping to sell to a network?

Yes! A 2 hour TV movie.

When you say sales agents, these are companies that sell mainly feature films?
Are they interested in selling IC2 even though it's not a full length movie?

They are on TV professional boards. So, why would they be looking for to sell just feature films?


Well my opinion on SAG is, if you aren't going to hire some name actors to your production, then I wouldn't really deal with them at all, certainly not just so I could bring in a stunt coordinator who is union.

I would bet that there are plenty of perfectly fine non-union stunt coordinators out there, or those who are SAG but will work on a non-SAG gig anyway.

Of course it should be said that the stunt scenes you see in a movie where this stunt coordinator has worked on is a combination of professional stunt coordinators, fight coreographers, stunt doubles, fight doubles, cinematographers, camera operators, special FX people, editors, sound designers and composers working together to create that scene.

You'd bet wrong, especially on the east coast where I'm alone working on science fiction productions. SAG people are the only ones with the right experience for science fiction, especially my friend who has made a career out of it. With the SAG/AFTRA merger more and more of my cast is turning SAG. So, it pays to continue to work with them. Plus, we can get names attached like The Vampire Effect did with Jackie Chan, if we need to go that way.

SAG, British Equity, and Eastern European Union actors are much higher caliber than non union actors names or not. They take their acting more serious and snap at the non union people who hold the production back from their laziness.

We had an actress born and raised in the USA non union who made up her own hours and when the shooting days came, she kept getting lost finding the shooting locations. Our Eastern European Union actress found every location and was always on time. She snapped off at the non union actors with all the excuses who could not find the shooting locations and trying to reinvent the shooting schedule. I ended up firing the American born actress for bad attendance. We had another American born actress who gained 40 pounds from the time we got her costume measurements. She could not fit into her costume and was too sick and over weight to do stunts. As my friend from the Hollywood studios advised me, go union and watch these problems vanish.


Has the writer promised to come on your project as a writer?

He will most likely be WGA so you would have to become a WGA signatory production and you would have to pay him WGA minimum rates, though most writers of that caliber won't work for minimum rates, but of course that is always negotiated.

As I've stated, the investors will have to pay his price if they want him to make the deal go through. The investors I've talked to said his company feels someone like him guarantees success. In that case, they have to pay for that guarantee.

[EuropeanDistributor]

Originally Posted by Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC

They are on TV professional boards. So, why would they be looking for to sell just feature films?

Because sales agents usually only sell features or tv movies.

Have they talked to you about where they would be selling IC2 to?

Originally Posted by Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC

You'd bet wrong, especially on the east coast where I'm alone working on science fiction productions. SAG people are the only ones with the right experience for science fiction, especially my friend who has made a career out of it. With the SAG/AFTRA merger more and more of my cast is turning SAG. So, it pays to continue to work with them. Plus, we can get names attached like The Vampire Effect did with Jackie Chan, if we need to go that way.

SAG, British Equity, and Eastern European Union actors are much higher caliber than non union actors names or not. They take their acting more serious and snap at the non union people who hold the production back from their laziness.

We had an actress born and raised in the USA non union who made up her own hours and when the shooting days came, she kept getting lost finding the shooting locations. Our Eastern European Union actress found every location and was always on time. She snapped off at the non union actors with all the excuses who could not find the shooting locations and trying to reinvent the shooting schedule. I ended up firing the American born actress for bad attendance. We had another American born actress who gained 40 pounds from the time we got her costume measurements. She could not fit into her costume and was too sick and over weight to do stunts. As my friend from the Hollywood studios advised me, go union and watch these problems vanish.

Well certainly if you feel that going SAG and hiring professional stunt guys is the way to go and you can afford it, go for it.

Originally Posted by Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC

As I've stated, the investors will have to pay his price if they want him to make the deal go through. The investors I've talked to said his company feels someone like him guarantees success. In that case, they have to pay for that guarantee.

So this investor is hoping that if you can get that certain writer and if a network or a production company offers to buy it, he will finance the production?
Or is he willing to finance it even without a pre-sale to a network or a prod. co.?

[Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC]

Actors and Stunt.Coordinators

When I do the math with the thousands of dollars wasted recasting roles every week for four months, SAG actors and a stunt coordinator work out as money savers.

Name Writer

Are you familiar with negative pickup money ?

The investor wants as many attachments as possible to build the equity for the series.

I am also giving the Roger Coreman business model a try of how he got his company to produce Black Scorpion for SyFy. He sold 2 tv movies to ShowTime for a

[Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC]

Actors and Stunt.Coordinators

When I do the math with the thousands of dollars wasted recasting roles every week for four months, SAG actors and a stunt coordinator work out as money savers.

Name Writer

Are you familiar with negative pickup money ?

The investor wants as many attachments as possible to build the equity for the series.

I am also giving the Roger Coreman business model a try of how he got his company to produce Black Scorpion for SyFy. He sold 2 tv movies to ShowTime for a

[directorik]

Originally Posted by Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC

I am also giving the Roger Coreman business model a try of how he got his company to produce Black Scorpion for SyFy. He sold 2 tv movies to ShowTime for a

Just a suggestion (that I know you will dismiss):

Since you do not have the track record Corman had when he
sold two TV movies to Showtime you might want to look at his
business model when he was where you are now rather than
his business model after 60 years in the business.

[Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC]

I am also putting out notices on TV professionals boards that I'm looking for a business partner to make a series for tv. That is another way in.

[DeJager]

Originally Posted by Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC

SAG, British Equity, and Eastern European Union actors are much higher caliber than non union actors names or not. They take their acting more serious and snap at the non union people who hold the production back from their laziness.

I would not want my actors snapping at other actors on the set. I do not care who they think they are. An actors job is not to verbally attack their co-workers. That will certainly not create an environment that fosters creativity and communication.

[Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC]

Originally Posted by DeJager

I would not want my actors snapping at other actors on the set. I do not care who they think they are. An actors job is not to verbally attack their co-workers. That will certainly not create an environment that fosters creativity and communication.

They had every right to snap at them for disrupting the set with lateness and expecting everyone to stop the show when they decided to show up more than half a day late and other actors in scenes with them were losing scenes with dialogue.

The self centered diva kept calling me every 5 seconds when we were filming with no concern for anyone else in the production.

[DeJager]

That is YOUR job to talk to them. Not the other actors.

[Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC]

She could not clean up her act, so I fired her.

That's the same day I had to fire the stunt coordinator.

That happens more than you think with actors. The cop we had on set said he sees actors clashing every week.