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watch Check out our new Proof of Concept trailer for The Unknown!

K

knuckles

Hi everyone! This is the new proof of concept trailer we made for our Indiegogo campaign:

http://vimeo.com/32951703

The trailer was shot primarily with the 5D mkII using several lenses but mostly a Zeiss ZE 50mm f/1.4, edited in Final Cut Pro, exported into After Effects using Automatic Duck and was color graded using a combination of Colorista II and Looks, with a nice couple of shots using Twitch.

Any feedback, questions or thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

The link to the campaign can be found below, and even if you can't help support a fellow indie filmmaker, if you even remotely like the trailer please share the Indidgogo link so we can spread the word. Thank you!

http://www.indiegogo.com/The-Unknown
 
Looks cool,
your pitch is kinda cold and too long for the intro. I would have split it up. The quick intro and synopsis of the trailer, then show the trailer, then pitch it. But thats just me

This next bit is my PERSONAL reaction, dont take it as a critical analysis, just my gut talking..
Asking for $300,000 in donations seems way too much. Based on that alone I think you will NOT raise enough money to make this film, and hence any donation I give will be wasted, so I will not donate anything.
 
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The trailer looks nice. But I think the number in the text portions would have more impact if you spelled out the words. ie: instead of 7,000,000,000 write 7 billion; instead of 312,000,000 write 312 million etc.
 
wheatgrinder said:
Looks cool,
your pitch is kinda cold and too long for the intro. I would have split it up. The quick intro and synopsis of the trailer, then show the trailer, then pitch it. But thats just me

This next bit is my PERSONAL reaction, dont take it as a critical analysis, just my gut talking..
Asking for $300,000 in donations seems way too much. Based on that alone I think you will NOT raise enough money to make this film, and hence any donation I give will be wasted, so I will not donate anything.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback :)

We're asking for $300,000 because we want to make a film with not only a great storyline, acting and emotion, but also to have the highest production value possible, so that if with $0 we can make what you saw, imagine what we could do with a real budget! And no donation is wasted, ever. Thanks!
 
knuckles said:
Thanks for the feedback :)

We're asking for $300,000 because we want to make a film with not only a great storyline, acting and emotion, but also to have the highest production value possible, so that if with $0 we can make what you saw, imagine what we could do with a real budget! And no donation is wasted, ever. Thanks!
Click to expand...

But I think wheat's point was that since it's Indiegogo and you get to keep whatever you raise, even if you don't reach your goal, 300,000 is so high is seems impossible that you'll reach it. Which could make potential donors less inclined to throw their money into a project that won't be made. And I agree.

Switching your campaign over to kickstarter will fix that particular issue :)
 
Dreadylocks said:
But I think wheat's point was that since it's Indiegogo and you get to keep whatever you raise, even if you don't reach your goal, 300,000 is so high is seems impossible that you'll reach it. Which could make potential donors less inclined to throw their money into a project that won't be made. And I agree.

Switching your campaign over to kickstarter will fix that particular issue :)
Click to expand...

IF you read through the campaign info, you can see what we will do if we do not make the full goal :)

rayw said:
Kickstarter does "all or nothing, whereas Indiegogo you get to keep whatever you shake out of the tree?
Click to expand...

Yep, although they do have an 'all or nothing' option if you want to do that kind of campaign as well ;)
 
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Good points.. NEITHER system has any way of ENFORCING how the money is spent. There is no contract, its all your word. I think Idiegogo is more honest, kickstarter though has that all or nothing approach so you FEEL like theirs more security.

I did not know that idiegogo has an all or nothing method as well.

Good luck!
 
Trailer does look good, but ditto what everyone else said. $300,000 is a crazy high amount for a crowd funding campaign. There have been people that raised it, but they've been national best-selling authors and what not, not the (no offense intended) unknown filmmaker like you and I still are.Even the best known guys on YouTube with hundreds of million video views raise $60-150k.

I've given to productions and crowd funding campaigns, but not ones that buy gear. You could knock your budget down 30-50% by renting most likely.

Trailer does look good man, but yeah, $300k in 30 days feels a little pie in the sky. I really hope you make it though! If you do, it's another succes story and helps the odds for the rest of us!
 
I thought the trailer looked real good. I was impressed. The pitch before it was way too long shorten that so people can see the trailer sooner. I would think with long pitch you have currently people may leave before the trailer starts.

I would recommend a behind the scenes video also or a get to know the film makers and cast video. The video should be about the dream to make the movie and how excited every one is to do the movie if funding can be raised. I would talk briefly about the story and characters.

The pitch you have before the trailer lacks enthusiasm and some of the actors seem bored. I would shorten this pitch and maybe reshoot it to be more upbeat and positive. This intro lacks the quality I would expect to match the quality of the trailer. Work hard on it so people know you mean business and are super professional. I think if you put major effort in to the pitch people will think your project is worth investment.
 
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I've re-edited the intro into a much shorter outro, and will be shooting some additional pitch stuff this week. I've gotten enough feedback that I felt it warranted being reworked. Now it starts off with the trailer right away, which will hopefully get people more excited. I've gotten tons of positive feedback about the trailer itself, which is great. The majority of issues people have are with the intro, which is being worked on. Essentially, those 3 people aren't actors, but the producers and myself, the director. We are (obviously) not as comfortable on camera as an actor would be, and that's something we'll have to work on for the next set of videos. I am definitely not an actor haha!

As for the "pie in the sky" dreams of raising $300k, well lol, that they may be, but I want to make a great film, not an "okay" indie film. There's enough of those out there, and they don't go anywhere. To make a truly great film, you need to be able to have a budget that allows you to do everything you want to creatively to make the film as close to your vision as possible. I've shot and directed a seriously ($3000) micro budget feature already. I know how that turns out. I don't want to be so severely restricted this time. And from the people that have contacted me already, I know that if I can crowdfund raise $30-50k, I will get my $300k budget, so my goal may have been high, but I've definitely attracted the right people. :)

Our dream may be high, but I don't know any other way to dream!

Thank you all for the feedback!
 
I thought the trailer looked really good. I agree with the 300,000 comment and also what dreadylocks said about 'billion.'

I'm wondering who you think will be donating. Maybe you can gear your 'pitch' part to that audience.

But hey man, you guys did a great job on the trailer. Good Luck!!
 
Really liked it. Really excellent production, very intriguing (if not brilliantly original) story. I'd watch it! Sorry though, I barely have enough money for my own projects-can't exactly donate... I'll share on Facebook though! Good luck!
 
Thanks trueindie and FormerDominator!

@trueindie, that's a good point as to who do we think will be donating. Our target audience will be men and women between 18-45, who liked films such as Se7en, the original Saw, Silence of the Lambs and Untraceable. The film is definitely a dramatic psychological thriller, and if you're a fan of 'down' endings, you'll love it.
 
I do wish you luck, and look forward to seeing more of your work. Please contribute here as much as you can, your a talented filmmaker and we would benefit from your participation.
 
I like how in the trailer the guys voice sounds real cool he makes a great bad guy voice. For some reason I think of Diehard when The bad guy talks to Bruce on phone or cb. It also reminds me of Silence of the Lambs.

I disagee about changing the part where people are suggesting you spell out million versus just the number. I think it looks great the way you currently have it. I think showing the numbers will look nicer artistically then spelling it out. But that is my opinion.

When you say 'down' ending I was not sure what you meant. Does that mean everyone dies or are you referring to a movie named Down and a similar ending. I am not familiar with the movie down if that is what you are referring to.
 
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Not to be Debbie Downer but....

You won't get 10% of that budget via crowd funding unless a veritable miracle happens. There is ambition and there is complete detachment from reality.

As was hinted at , if you were ALREADY pretty famous (an actor, a well known author, some other public figure) you MIGHT get in the 100K zip code, but even then $300K would pretty close to a pipe dream.
 
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Trailer looks very professional. Great Work! To be honest, not really my type of movie, But best of luck. 300K is a lot so you will be quite a success story. Hope you get your miracle!
 
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