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Old 06-24-2010, 12:56 AM   #1
jfreedan
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Default Help Support Indie American Tokusatsu!

Greetings fellow tokusatsu fans! My name is Carey Martell and I'm creating a tokusatsu-style film in the vein of Kamen Rider, called Deathfist Ninja GKaiser.

You can hear more about the project here

Basically I am looking for people who are interesting in helping support the production through Kickstarter, a fairly popular website for indie projects to obtain funding otherwise unavailable. At the above link I have a video uploaded that explains what I want to do, along with some test footage I shot so you can visually see what I am looking to achieve.

If you're interesting in hearing more about the project feel free to either post your questions here or send me a message. Thanks for your time!

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Old 06-24-2010, 01:02 AM   #2
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I remember that video test from years ago. Glad to see you're finally getting this started. I'll post this around on some of my websites I rate to. Hit me up with more details on Aim or something.
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Old 06-24-2010, 12:50 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jedibmoney View Post
I remember that video test from years ago. Glad to see you're finally getting this started. I'll post this around on some of my websites I rate to. Hit me up with more details on Aim or something.
I don't have AIM but if you let me know what information you'd like to know, I'm more than happy to answer.

It may not seem like a lot, but if enough people donate even a small amount it'll all add up. I really believe my team has the technical skills to achieve what I want and I can obtain the production equipment I don't have at an affordable rate.

The film is going to have a lot of stunt work and special effects, both practical and digital. I'm a special effects artist myself, so I can do digital effects for free and I can do practical effects (such as breaking through walls, windows, or anything suitmation) for almost nothing. One of the crew members is a Maya artist, so we'll have some 3D stuff as well, especially for the henshin sequence.

The locations are going to be really great. It's not going to be just in a park or someone's house. One of the locations is a theme park. We're going to close down a road and have a motorcycle chase / fight. There's gonna be a secret lab / base for the big bads. There's gonna be a martial art dojo. There's a couple famous locations in Houston we're gonna film at too, like the Houston Waterwall. The film is going to be HD but we're using a lens adapter so we can put actual film camera lenses on, letting us do some depth of field effects. It's gonna look amazing.

Everyone involved is contributing their time and talents for free. We're just trying to make a great movie that will be able to go out and get seen, and serve as a kind of calling card for crew members. Unless we get really fortunate and a big distributor picks it up, I think we'll be able to get arthouse theatres to show it, or at least get it into festivals like Tromadance. We also really want to make a web series (re-using a lot of the props we make for this film), or if the film really finds a big audience, a television show (so we can have a nice big budget to splurge on sets, props and location rentals; and hire some SAG actors. I would really like to get some Power Ranger cameos into the series. The IndieSAG contract is too one-sided to use on this small production we don't expect to make any money off anyway, since any profits are going right into the web series).

Again, if you have any questions feel free to ask me and I appreciate any plugs you're willing to give us! Thanks!

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Old 06-24-2010, 02:11 PM   #4
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BTW- Because of the way Kickstarter works, we have 38 days to raise funds. If we don't obtain $6,000, we won't get any money at all (no one's account is charged for donations, either).
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Old 06-24-2010, 02:22 PM   #5
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So tell me exactly where this $6000 is going. Is this something you already have planned out or are you just figuring you need $6000 to do whatever?
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Old 06-24-2010, 05:00 PM   #6
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I'm not at my Mac right now but I have the budget calculated. Off the top of my head, half of the budget covers the purchase / lease of actual production equipment, such as the HD camera with lens adapter, light kit, an electrical generator (some locations will need to be lit but aren't near outlets or we can't use those outlets) and some lavalier microphones. It also covers the construction and purchase of props, costumes, makeup, etc. I also need to store the recorded video, and that'll be done on 1-2 TR portable hard-drives (all the film shots and especially all the special effect shots consumes a huge amount of data space).

I also have to purchase food, which is going to consist of spaghetti, with crackers, day-old bagels and discount soda for the craft table-- you might think feeding your cast and crew is a luxury but not on a set where you need people to remain on set for multiple days in a row while living and breathing your movie. I mean if they go "out to lunch" they may never come back, or at least not when I need them to be at a location we've only rented for a short time. We will not be eating like kings.

We have access to a van for transporting materials but gas is still costly and if I ask people to carpool to Houston I want to reimburse their gas.

I need good sound recording, because sound makes or breaks a film. We can have awesome picture but if it sounds like crap people will hate it. Music is going to be created by a local band but we still need a good way to record it. The cheapest way to do it is to construct a booth. Fortunately I already have a mike, but soundproofing will still require wood and carpet. There's the egg carton trick but I doubt I'll find enough egg cartons to layer a whole booth.

We're going to have stunt work that includes breaking down walls. That means we have to construct some sets. Finding free scrap wood is one thing, but not everything is going to be free. I also don't currently have any warehouse space I can use to do this (or even know anyone who has so much as an empty barn), so I'll likely need to rent it.

Fortunately there are a number of vacant warehouses in San Antonio and I can work out a lease agreement for a few days so we can build those sets and do those stunts. That means also getting the electricity turned on so we can light the sets and paying the subsequent bill.

We'll also need a filming permit to shoot at some locations. You can see some basic info on what that costs here. If I find the right town and make the right promises, I believe I can get a road closed for free so we can do the chase scene but we'll likely still need to pay a permit fee.

I hope that answers your question.

Also: the funding also covers the full feature documentary on the making of the film, from concept to screen debut. It'll be like American Movie, only it won't be about the making of a horror film. So it's really two films for the price of one.

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Old 06-24-2010, 06:37 PM   #7
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And aside from that test footage, what else have you done? Can I see it? What do you consider your best work to date and how does it compare with your ambitions for this project?
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Old 06-24-2010, 07:36 PM   #8
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I have two Youtube accounts. One is a Partner account and the other is for my videogame reviews.

Partner Account

shows some of the digital special effects work I've done. The video is a break down for how I created
.

. It was a proof of concept; I wanted to prove to myself I could make a "Sin City" style B- movie horror film. This was a class assignment so I had one week to complete the film (which quite honestly wasn't enough time to shoot and edit it to perfection) but it served its purpose by improving my skill level and proving I could do the Pleasantville effect on Standard Video. I think I put about $100 into the video, mostly for set dressing / props but also to feed the crew. I directed and edited the film myself, and did almost all the digital effects except a flame and glass shatter (some of the effects kinda blow though; really didn't have the time to do a good job, but live and learn).

I have another Youtube account where I review computer rpg games. I've been using the reviews as a way to hone my editing skills, but I also throw in some digital special effect works.

My best reviews (in terms of the production quality) are probably
and
. These videos are created with no budget at all and on Standard Video, and my audio recording isn't the best (I have wooden floors and tall ceilings in my apartment; if it was a real movie I'd be padding the floors and walls and have a boom mike over the actors' heads, not strapped to the camera several feet away). I also kinda churn them out a'bit fast and don't spend as much time trying to perfect them as I could, mostly due to time constraints from other things I had going on.

I have a documentary film called Cosplayers: The Movie. This was the first complete film I ever made, originally created as a class project. It has some issues due to my inexperience at the time of recording (namely I wasn't prepared for our portable light to burn out in 5 minutes or the sound guy to forget to keep the mike batteries fresh-- I'm now a battery nazi when it comes to the mike) but I think it tells a complete story. The documentary is about anime fandom in the US and is streaming on Crunchyroll.com, who I have an agreement with.

I've learned a considerable amount from the productions I've done and I'm ready to create a full feature narrative. Because of my experience I know what I really need to get the quality I want. I can't shoot this film on a Canon GL2 with a glitchy tape deck, so I'm upgrading to HD and shooting with real film lenses. I'm also going to ensure we have quality sound by having a real set with sound proofing, and I have someone really passionate and knowledgeable about sound on the crew.

Basically, everything I've done up to this point has been in preparation for this film. I tried to do it a few years ago (which is where the test footage comes from) but I just didn't have the experience, skill or crew to do it. But now I do.

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Old 06-26-2010, 01:30 PM   #9
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1% down, 99% to go!

We have 36 more days to go until the deadline.

Does anyone feel they can spare a $5-10 pledge to help make this film a reality, and if not, what are the reasons why? Maybe it's something I can fix.
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Old 06-26-2010, 01:41 PM   #10
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Well all of my money is going toward my own project and otherwise, to be perfectly honest, based on the stuff you have to show I'm not convinced that $6000 is what you need. My opinion is that you should try and scale your ambitions back and focus on being as creative as possible within the limits of a considerably smaller budget.

Those are my thoughts, at least.
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