The Tunnel Movie - Premiere at Screamfest

[Ace]

I posted a while ago about a film that I executive produced, called "The Tunnel", A low budget feature we had sought to crowd-fund online by asking punters online to buy each of the 135,000 frames of the film for a Dollar each before the film was made (There are 135,000 frames in a 90 minute feature, so the budget of the film was $135,000).

When we first started The Tunnel project, our distribution strategy was somewhat, Redspired: "The more options, the better". Our aim was to redefine the paradigm of independent film distribution, releasing the film on as many platforms imaginable, to the widest audience possible. Options and FREE Options. Now with the launch of the finished film, we have managed to do what many doubted. The Tunnel has now since broken ground as being the first commercially successful feature film to be distributed and released via Bit Torrent.

Since our launch in May, we've had over 2,000,000 downloads, during which the film was made available simultanously through DVD via Paramount Pictures, iPad App, Cable (Showtime), Inflight (Qantas, Virgin) and many more VOD outlets. (And you can still legally download it Free via Bit Torrent)


It's been a fun experiment, and in many respects inspired by the spirit of RED. I would love for fellow Redusers in LA, who have nothing better to do on a Saturday night, come along and check it out as we make our US premiere this Saturday. The Tunnel is screening at Mann's Chinese Theater. Tickets are ten bucks through Scream-fest.


I unfortunately wont be able to make it being stuck down under - but there will be a Q&A with fellow producers and director on the night.

For those that are interested in knowing more about the project and its process, I'll be posting more about it shortly.


Ace

 

[Zeb B]

Blair Witch underground! Looks cool

 

[Stelios Kokotos]

I've seen the movie...Really creepy!!

I recommend this to anybody who likes first person genre movies.

Congratulations Ace and the Tunnel team!

 

[Ace]

Cheers Stelios, glad you enjoyed it

 

[Tim Hole]

Congrats! Looks great. Won't be able to make it to a screening but will def download it and spread the word around the community here. Pity I missed it when it was being crowd sourced. Did you end up making it for the amount that you sourced through that one method? Haven't heard of the fund a frame method before, did they take money through paypal or something?

Torrent distribution is interesting as well.

 

[Tim Hole]

Was just checking out the blog and the site. So you can still buy frames, as the films been made now they just want to pay everyone and help to make the next project, tak?

 

[Ace]

Cheers Tim, thanks for the support

Frames are still for sale. About 50,000 frames have been bought, so you haven't missed out on owning a piece of the film. Now that the film is made, you can instantly recieve your frames, whereas before you were simply allocated a bunch of numbers representing a future promise of your frames :laugh:

We chose to custom develop an original funding platform rather than go with an existing setup like kickstarter. For us, this was as much an audience building exercise as it was a fundraising one, so it was important we kept it tied into the narrative of the project. Its a bit of a Transmedia exercise if you will. The checkout process is through Paypal. You checkout, and you instantly get a link to a Zip file with your allocated frame(s) in 2K, each embedded with your name.

The 135K budget covered hard costs as well as actors/crew fees. The latter were mostly deferred, so we were able to scrape by through production. We also shot on real locations, so there was very little to spend in the way of sets. It wasn't easy. The rest of the money raised will go towards paying the actors / crew. I'm quite proud of what our Director Carlo Ledesma, Producers Enzo & Julian and the entire crew have accomplished with so little - the finished product looks and feels well into the 2M+ Budget range.