Help Save a Bay Area Indie Film on Kickstarter!

[Alexander Thomson]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...res/death-pact

Rewards updated! Some of the new, WAY better priced rewards.

$2) Cast & Crew postcard sent to your house

$5) SD/iPod digital download

$15) HD download & Behind the scenes

$20) Death Pact DVD (down from $50)

$25) Death Pact Blu-Ray (didn't exist)

$60) Death Pact Deluxe Blu-Ray/It'll Happen/Spyware Triple pack (we're throwing in our last two films in with the mega exclusive deluxe Blu-ray)



Hi everyone, I'm working on a Bay Area feature film called Death Pact, it's based on the true stories of the serial killers, Leonard Lake and Charles Ng.

Anyway, we need help. The director, Grant Richards, put up a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the last quarter of the budget. He's been going insane for the past two weeks (as Kickstarter projects usually tend to do that to you) wondering why we've got nearly 100 likes on facebook but only a handful of backers. I tried telling him that Kickstarter projects don't really take off until it gets really down to the wire, but he's still concerned.

On a different note, he just sold his Canon XL-H1 to buy a Scarlet. He's had that 1080i Mini DV...camcorder...for a little over 6 years. He's shot much of his recent work with it, including his past two feature films It'll Happen and Spyware. Both films were really well made except for one fatal flaw. They both look like a 60i daytime soap opera. ​ After six years of becoming frustrated over how "mickey mouse" his features looked, he set out raising money so he could do his third feature film with no compromises. He was planning on buying a Panasonic AF-100 to replace his aging Canon, yet after showing him the versatility, upgradeability, and performance per dollar that RED offers, he agreed it was a better investment to spend the big bucks and get into the RED system.

I feel like this film is an example of what RED wanted to acheive with the Scarlet. RED didn't want to make a DSLR killer. Canon already takes care of DSLR killing it's own DSLRs—rather—whereas EPIC and R1 were aimed at capturing the big budget market, Scarlet was aimed at bringing that same quality, resolution, and R3DCODE RAW down to the independent, sub-$1M level (not the youtube level, as some 3K for $3K complainers might argue). This is where we're at: $100,000k budget, most of it's covered, but there's still $25,000 left to be raised. We could film it for less, sure, but then it wouldn't have the production value we're aiming for.

So whether you support indie thrillers that don't shove gore and blood in your face, or perhaps if you support a feature being shot in NorCal, or maybe you just want the whole world to be SHOT ON RED, then I hope you could pledge a few bucks we'd really appreciate it!

[Jaakko Rinne]

You might want to think about making a more interesting pitch video and changing the rewards to more sensible levels. Kickstarter projects that are essentially pre-orders for a product work best and this one only offers something tangible at the $25 level, and even then it's just an SD digital download. To make backing the project something people might do on a whim, the SD download should be the reward at the $5 level, HD at $10 and throw in the DVD at $25. People (at least people who aren't your close friends) aren't likely to contribute just to see the project happen, they want something in return.

[Alexander Thomson]

You might want to think about making a more interesting pitch video and changing the rewards to more sensible levels.

That's what i've been feeling, I totally agree. When the project went online, I was shocked by how expensive the first few rewards were, and, that there was no Blu-Ray option in the tangible rewards category. One of the conflicts i'm trying to overcome is convincing them that a DVD is not enough, and that nowadays, people want to be able to have an HD hardcopy of the film. Also, this pitch video, (as well as the video it replaced) were both directed by Grant's co-worker Teresa (Digital Moon Studios) so the Kickstarter pitch was less of an engagement with the Kickstarter community and more like a bland interview.

What if the rewards were structured as:

$5 - SD copy of the film
$10 - Behind the Scenes
$15 - HD & Behind the Scenes
$25 - DVD of the movie
$30 - Blu-Ray of the movie
$50 - DVD with Behind the Scenes, commentary, other goodies
$60 - Blu-Ray with same
$75 - Blu-Ray of Death Pact + copies of the past two feature films, It'll Happen and Spyware?

I could ask to get the rewards structured like this, what do you think of the pricing? Would any REDUSERS throw in $5 for a film shot on RED?

[Terry VerHaar]

Ask yourself why you would support thIs effort over any other if you didn't personally know tHe people involved. Everyone thinks their script is great and that they will make the best movie ever; if they didn't they wouldn't bother making it. But why should anyone else care. If you come up with a solid answer to that question, it might lead you to a good campaign and the appropriate pitch. If not, it'll go nowhere.

I think people are often unrealistic with Kickstarter and don' t realize that they are competing with every other thing in a person's life that they could spend money on. Why should I spend money on a stranger's personal pet project? Not trying to diss you - just bring a little reality check into the mix. Good luck!!

[Alexander Thomson]

Why should I spend money on a stranger's personal pet project?

You're right and what I feel we're missing right now is a reason why this film is worth supporting over every other project out there on Kickstarter. I tried suggesting talking about how the director of the film is a production teacher that invites his students to work with him outside of class. And, that the film is based on a true story, and isn't like the millions of other indie films that try to shock and awe with gore or blood or massive killing. All my ideas kept getting shot down by the director of the first promo video, she just wanted to push the "THIS IS THE BEST MOVIE EVARRRRR" approach, against what me and Grant Richards truly wanted.

Such are the troubles of being a young aspiring cinematographer in a room full of 30 or 40 year olds. It's that personality clash when I try to suggest pricing the rewards for value, not for profit, or that the pitch video should be upbeat and energetic, not stoic and confrontational. It's hard to get taken seriously when there are pessimistic, stubborn personalities on set. That's to be expected though; it's just that this is my first time collaborating with people I didn't have a prior relationship with.

We're going for critical acclaim, not capatalism. But things like a $25 SD download of an indie movie.....works against that idea.

[Jaakko Rinne]

What if the rewards were structured as:

$5 - SD copy of the film
$10 - Behind the Scenes
$15 - HD & Behind the Scenes
$25 - DVD of the movie
$30 - Blu-Ray of the movie
$50 - DVD with Behind the Scenes, commentary, other goodies
$60 - Blu-Ray with same
$75 - Blu-Ray of Death Pact + copies of the past two feature films, It'll Happen and Spyware?

I think a structure like that would be a better proposition to a potential backer.

And like Terry said, the pitch needs a reason for people to support this project over others. I hope you guys find the perfect pitch for your audience and get your backing.

[Alexander Thomson]

Rewards updated! Some of the new, WAY better priced rewards.

$2) Cast & Crew postcard sent to your house

$5) SD/iPod digital download

$15) HD download & Behind the scenes

$20) Death Pact DVD

$25) Death Pact Blu-Ray

$60) Death Pact Deluxe Blu-Ray/It'll Happen/Spyware Triple pack (we're throwing in our last two films in with the mega exclusive deluxe Blu-ray)

Thank's Jaakko and Terry for your comments, with this new pricing scheme, I think the getting the momentum going will be a lot easier. After all, 9 out of every 10 Kickstarter projects that make 30% of their goal succeed :)