Production Diary: The Kohlman Files

Gonzo_Entertainment

Gonzo_Entertainment

I'm sure I've referred to it multiple times, but I've been in pre-production off and on for a couple of months (as time allowed around day job, a commercial, and a music video shoot) on a horror web series.

The script (which is linked in the Premiere member area) has gone through 3 revisions, with probably one more before we actually shoot. It's 12 pages that I expect to run about 15 minutes. Very long for a web series I now.

My intention is to finance the pilot through a kickstarter campaign (my first). The bottom line budget for the pilot is $2K. I have used up most of my supply of freebies, plus the guilt (bad trait for a producer) is starting to get to me. I have a hard time anymore telling an actress, "OK, so I'm going to hang you naked in a very uncomfortable position from a wall off and on for 6 hours, but I can't even pay you $100".

In the event we overfund (which I REALLY hope we do), the additional funds would be used to either up the budget on the pilot or be set aside for funding additional episodes.

We're going to explore some options to license it as exclusive content based off the pilot and if that fails we'll release it on youtube and go back into fund raising mode for the episodes.

We shot a one minute teaser last weekend that I just got the first rough cut of. I'll be posting that soon.

Lead actor is cast
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1063262/

As is one of the main supporting roles. This guy is what counts as the tiny bit of star power I have.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1252668/

Version 1 Poster completed yesterday.

6805051379_466e98c9a6_b.jpg




I'll update with more over the next few days. Feel free to ask any questions or give any advice you may have.
 
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Gonzo_Entertainment said:
It is, belongs to my DP. we have several variations. That's the "tight spaces" one. We also have a 6' and an 8' that are similar, but built of speed rail.
Click to expand...

The only disadvantage I can see is that I'd have to use a REALLY long lens, if I want to do any dollying-in or out (which I like to do). Otherwise, I really like the design, and I can definitely see how I'd want that in my arsenal.
 
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We did it!

We hit our $2500 goal thanks to a big push from my Roller Derby friends today.
The miserable, somewhat degrading experience of crowd funding is done (though with 36 hours to go I'd certainly take a few more bucks).

Now to start spending it on things like pricey FX prosthetics.
 
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YAY!!!!



When life has settled down and you've had some time to bake your crowd source take-aways will you please share your initial expectations vs experiences and how your next campaign would be different? :yes: Please please please?!
 
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Sweet man, glad to hear!

Was crowdfunding really that painful? For the sake of everyone contemplating and planning their own (*cough*me*cough*) could you go into a little more behind the scenes about the campaign and what you did and why it was painful and why it was successful?
 
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I'll do a long write up on it at some point soon.

I think the pain for me came from how hard it is for me personally to ask (beg) for help. I'm a pretty old school, proud guy in that respect. Asking for help is very, very, very hard. Especially as hardcore as you have to do it to be successful at crowd funding.

It was even more painful for my partner. He had a really hard time. Nobody, not even his immediate family would contribute. He has some regular drinking buddies he was counting on for at least $10 or so each, but he was met with a lot of "Why would I do that?", "It's a waste of money", etc... uh... because you're supposed to be my friend and I asked you to...

I think he and I came to view it as separating those who took us seriously and believed in us from those who thought we were destined to fail and/or weren't "serious" about this whole thing. I have friends I KNOW are broke ass (including some folks here, no offense) who scraped up $10 to just say "I believe in you". We also have "friends" who could have given way more than that without blinking an eye who totally stonewalled us.

It was a somewhat eye opening experience in that respect.

Edit for clarification:
I know some of the folks on this board (who have their own projects to fund) had to scrape to come up with that $10 or $15, it means a lot. Whereas some people I know in 'real life" who spend that on Starbucks every day didn't have enough faith in me to do it.
 
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Just a bump for some updates.

We completed principal two weeks ago, but were left with what will amount to two more days of pickups and re-shoots. On the longest day, as we neared the end of the night, my lead plugged in a blow dryer and it proceeded to shoot flames 4' out of the wall at him. The prong broke off inside the outlet we believe. Not an electrician and didn't have a real gaffer on set, so we collected ourselves, figured it was a fluke and got ready to continue (after pulling that outlet and putting wire nuts on the wires). We plug a 200 into a different outlet and BAM! The breaker goes. As all of this is going on, my lead actress is in prosthetics, drenched in fake blood, spread eagled semi-nude on a bed with a mask covering her face. She remained there for 90 minutes without saying a word. We literally walked in and she scared the crap out of us. She just laid there motionless, never complained, never a peep out of her.

SO, we have one of the most critical scenes left shoot and are scared to plug in an electric toothbrush at a location we will never get back (and have already established).... As the grips are loading us out. My DP throws the camera on his shoulder, I get a Mag light, and we shoot the whole thing from the lead's POV as I walked around shining the light on stuff. It turned out amazing and creepy as hell. We have to partially fake the location and get a few reaction shots and closeups, but the bulk of the footage is going to work.

So that's how my weekend went.
 
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It's not what I went in wanting, but in hindsight it may be a happy accident. I had already broken the "rules" by doing some killer POV stuff with the actress looking directly into the camera. It gives a very weird "stag film", old school porn kind of feel that is very very unsettling.
Most of the re-shooting is reaction shots and a bit of the car stuff we just didn't have time to finish.
 
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