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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

An Offer to Disgruntled Filmmakers Who Feel They Missed Out on a Cheap SCARLET....

What I get from 18 pages of reading this post tonight is less about making a film and more about your inspiration to give to others, to shoulder a bit of the load in our collaborative art form.

Our film partnership, Jumping Rock Pictures, has an epic stage 3 coming in less than a week. Nevada City, CA is a small place, but there is talent all over. Why not offer this same opportunity in my community? Spread the love and the possibilities. Certainly a consideration to us all. In a world that seems so much about money and having more, this post has been helpful in my humanitarian growth.

7 more pages to go.

Meryem Ersoz said:
I already do this all the time. In fact, my EPIC camera is out with a young filmmaker today, for a shoot in the next town - I'll drop in on them later today. Offering up my own services to help others isn't hard, and these opportunities are already abundant, locally - I didn't have to seek them out. In fact, I was only trying to make a point initially, as several people have already noted, but the enthusiastic response means that we can do more, potentially. And I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is, for a great experience....

But it is as Mohamed said, if I'm pulling along others into the process, it raises the stakes. And it is as you say, as well, that free offers are always trumped by paid work, so what is free or cheap one day can evaporate the next.

That's why I am staying the course of finding a good indie project first (if it is possible, nothing is guaranteed) and pulling along anyone who fits with the vision of that particular project - I find it considerably less likely that we form a vision of masses of volunteers and then pull together a project out of it. You'll find others on this thread who are considering that approach.

(Detlev is already building a website and Facebook page for it, which you can all join: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Film-Collaboration/295027483862574)

But I am always willing to be surprised.
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Meryem Ersoz said:
I wonder if Jarred would consider a SERVICES EXCHANGE section, to help indie filmmakers find ways to keep budgets under control by swapping services. It seems like a good option for helping to push projects forward.
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I think that is a great idea. I'd love to trade time with my camera for some good color work and a bit of AE compositing work. Or rent out my setup in exchange for an original score on a short film. Better yet, I trade my underwater housing for a few weeks for some time on your EPIC mounted Cesna 182 for some spectacular aerial photography of my area.

I'd be glad to toss a post up regarding this, but I'll hold for you to do it first. It is your idea. If in a few weeks, no SERVICES EXCHANGED posts come up. I'll go ahead and lead the charge.
 
Kristin Stewart said:
I think that, if you're a filmmaker who has already the script, the actors, the locations, most of the crew, insurance, business plan and distribution route, if you're in that case, you shouldn't have any problem finding a Red for a cheap price (by cheap I mean $2000 per month). And it would be more secured to pay a little bit.
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A RED for $2000 a month? Wow, where do you find this RED? Epics rent for over $1000/day. If I knew a place where I could rent a world class camera for a month at that price point, I'd never think about buying my own.
 
oh man, that's what happens when I get excited about an old post. Well page 26-27 is mine now :)

Any news on "Trade for Services" section? Did you try to PM Jarred or a forum mod?
 
Will Keir said:
oh man, that's what happens when I get excited about an old post. Well page 26-27 is mine now :)

Any news on "Trade for Services" section? Did you try to PM Jarred or a forum mod?
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Yes I did email Jarred and no, I never heard back.

I moderate at a different forum and my experience with forums is that change is slow, and the demand must be high and vocal, not just one person's initiative, because otherwise the leader ends up with a lot of little dead forums, which everyone says they want, but then don't gain traction. The way to get attention for it would probably be for a handful of you enterprising folk to start a thread making a request, maybe that links to this one and its 20K views at least in the initial post, and for everyone to chime in on it. Then Jarred would know that it is not just me who thinks this is a good idea. That's my suggestion for getting it done. I still think it would be great to have one place where redusers could find each other and help each other to get their films made. I've met some great people through these forums.


And now...I'm just going to re-post my announcement which I think just got buried in Will's enthusiasms!


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, to update this thread after a long and very, very busy hiatus - I signed up to work on Sean Jourdan's film project TEDDY BOY (http://www.teddyboythemovie.com/)...I strong urge any of you who wanted to participate in the chosen film to get in touch with Sean. I won't hold any of you to the offers - you are free to pursue participation in the film.

But I'm truly, truly amazed and impressed by the unexpected outpouring of support for an idea - the idea that films can indeed be built in the fertile soil of a community like this.

It seemed pretty logical for me to start locally, rather than globally, since I'm also a parent and not just a filmmaker....moreover, I can be more help on pre-production with someone who doesn't live halfway across the country, or even the world.

I've been working hard as a producer on his show, and I would invite any of you to check it out. If you're interested in jumping on board in any of the capacities you mentioned, I'm sure he would be thrilled. He is putting his heart and his soul and his savings into the project, and I think he will bring something unique and interesting to life. Sean has actually managed to get VOD distribution for one of his short films, and he has won plenty of festival awards for short films, but this is his first feature. I have high hopes for it. He is the man with the plan and the vision, the type of young filmmaker whom I hoped to support.

I'm going to throw this offer out again next year, since it has been an interesting experiment, and see who else is out there - I can't take on more than one free feature each year. It's a huge amount of work. I still wish we could initiate a "trade of services" forum of some sort. I think it could be quite popular and help to get more films made and relationships forged.

My goal simply has been to meet new people and make an interesting project. And, of course, to illustrate that projects get done by inspiring others and by delighting in our craft, not simply by owning a camera.

Here is his Kickstarter campaign. He launched it yesterday. It attracted 27 backers and $8,150 on its first day, which is a fantastic achievement. He managed to hit the 25% funded mark on Day One, and I believe is currently almost 30% funded. I think I picked a good project and an earnest, hard-working person to support. I shot the Kickstarter for him, and Sean edited it, with plenty of feedback from me. All concepts and storylines are his alone. If you can kick in a couple of bucks, it would be much appreciated - I must ask, because of course it is what we producers do...but check it out and see for yourself. The project is also in need of a production designer and a 1st AD, so if you know anyone who would like to pitch in on a promising project, get in touch with Sean, via the TEDDY BOY website. And if you want to offer him services, by all means, please do. I'm sure he could use a steadicam op, and perhaps even a 2nd cam, as long as you can bring along an AC. Keep in mind that we're in micro-budget territory here, so anything you would offer him would have to be voluntary or at least very close to it. He is looking to hire, but this is a passion project, purely.

He's a great collaborator, and Colorado is a beautiful place to spend May-June. The project has some strong visual elements, and we'll be spending some time shooting in the mountains.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...y-feature-film
 
Meryem,

When you put up another post for "Trade for Services" let us know what section and a link. I'll be glad to help you get a little traction, I believe it to be an important spot. Jarred is pretty good about user input.
 
As an update - the Kickstarter for the film which I chose from this thread is now 95% funded to the tune of just under $33,000 with 7 days still to go. We have a good chance of surpassing 100% funding success.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2141350807/teddy-boy-feature-film

I backed a good horse.

This is how it goes when you find a filmmaker with a vision, a great screenplay, and a plan to execute it all - and a whole lotta hustle. You receive at least as much as you give.

This is going great. I'll do it again next year, if there's interest.
 
It's funny how things workout sometimes. I was thinking of offering the same thing!
If you need help also. Look me up. Thanks!
 
I would encourage anyone and everyone to do exactly that, Rob. I did spend quite a few hours reading through all the submissions - it was definitely not a simple process. You have to be willing to put in the time, and, if you're like me, you can get easily obsessed by the project, which can make it a little hard to focus on the paid gigs as much! Those are the downsides.

There are many cameras, but good projects are hard to find - which was my point in the beginning of the thread - finding a camera to put to work isn't hard - it's all the other stuff which is hard!
 
Minus the disgruntled Scarlet Part for me, I'm going to offer up some free production/post time for A few projects. I used to do that in tv news to build a resume/reputation. I'll start a new thread offering it too. Pure coincidence! Scary good:)
 
Hi Meryem,

Is $33,333 the total budget for everything, all in? If not, how much $$$ will need to be raised later to complete the film before in can be handed off to a distributor?
 
no - additional funds have already been raised - I can't disclose someone else's budget, but there's a hint on the site, if you read it closely -

there's a lot of either donated or ultra cut-rate services going into the project, so the actual budget is not going to reflect the value on the screen, which is how the better micro-budget films get made...

I would add that there are two other films which made my short-list - this is the one which made the most sense for me personally -

but Jeremy Wiles and Andrew McCarrick both submitted interesting projects as well, and both seem like guys with great hustle and a vision. Their projects could not be more different - one has a Christian theme and the other one is a Christmas coming-out story - so you can see that "one project to rule them all" is very, very hard to find. We are a very diverse bunch. Though I looked for something big, that "something big" which would bring everyone together in harmony proved elusive.

Someone ambitious could probably write a screenplay which could make use of all of the offers on this thread - but really, I think to take full advantage, that is what would have to happen.
 
Thank you, James - and welcome aboard our team, as a backer of the film. I appreciate it. Our backers' barbecue is gonna be fun!

Good news - as of this moment, the Kickstarter campaign hit the fully funded mark. Greenlit, woo-hoo!

I learned a lot from this process, both from this thread and from seeing this project through to this point - I've never run a Kickstarter before. I'm in awe of the power of the crowd to push a project forward. I'll post some thoughts on the experience which some of you building smaller budget projects might benefit from, when I have a chance to formulate them. I may have to build a film from the ground up, using what I've learned, purely as an artisitic and social experiment.

The future is the crowd.

But you need a good leader to ride herd and you need a good story to tell. Those things will probably never change.
 
Meryem Ersoz said:
Good news - as of this moment, the Kickstarter campaign hit the fully funded mark. Greenlit, woo-hoo!
Click to expand...

This is terrific news! I was planning another small donation this week, since last email update I recall said you guys were still 10K (or so?) away with not long to go. Been so busy I hadn't checked back until today, but I'm really happy for you, Sean, and your team. I look forward to following the progress when shooting starts.:-)
 
It was so generous of you to donate to the Kickstarter, Elizabeth, especially since you have a big project of your own which will require all of your attention and resources. We're glad to have you on the team and you should try to make it to Colorado for the backers' barbecue, which I'll be throwing, probably at the premiere - we could even take our little EPICs out for a spin in the beautiful Colorado scenery.
 
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