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2005 Independent Film Project

M

magnumone

Hello all,

A friend of mine and I are working on an independent film with the charcater of Batman. I own a small modeling agency in Kentucky that also belongs to onemodelplace.com and we have several people available to work in this film. However this is more of an ifilm.com type project where publicity is generated more than revenue. So how do we get someone convinced that being a part of this is a good idea when we are putting up a lot of money and people, but need more money to complete the project and make it look reallty good. Is there anyway of convincing someone that publicity for them could generate some bigger returns in the long run? I also wondered if maybe we could present the facts that the models at www.magnummodels.com could possibly do a trade out such as doing some commerical work for an investor who would get their use for advertising in film, print and other formats to invest in the movie? Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated as we are still in the getting it together process.

Sincerely

James Magnum Cook
 
Well, I'm sure that the "Batman" is protected as well as everything that goes with it. With the big possibility of being sued, I don't know if an investor would want to invest... that is unless you are going for negative press. " And in national news... A local Kentucky filmmaker has made his Own Batman film. He is being sued for a record breaking $14.2 Million. A spokesman from the studio that owns the "Batman" empire stated: "Yea, well with the release of the next Batman movie, these types of filmmakers always pop up to ride our coattails. This time we're not going to take it. We're taking a stand and this filmmaker will be the example. We intend to punish him to the full extent of the law, both civilly and criminally." The spokesman went on to say that he's sorry to do this to an indie filmmaker but a message has to be sent to the rest of the indies, and unfortunately for Mr. Cook, he's the message."

Negative press get's more press sometimes because everyone wants to report it.
If you're looking for local investors, I'm sure Car dealerships would like to invest. 1. because they can use the models in their commercials or for sales events, and 2. You'd produce 1 commercial for them free for their investment in the film.
Write up a proposal and go knock on some doors.
 
RE: Batman

magnumone said:
Hello all,

A friend of mine and I are working on an independent film with the charcater of Batman. I own a small modeling agency in Kentucky that also belongs to onemodelplace.com and we have several people available to work in this film. However this is more of an ifilm.com type project where publicity is generated more than revenue. So how do we get someone convinced that being a part of this is a good idea when we are putting up a lot of money and people, but need more money to complete the project and make it look reallty good. Is there anyway of convincing someone that publicity for them could generate some bigger returns in the long run? I also wondered if maybe we could present the facts that the models at www.magnummodels.com could possibly do a trade out such as doing some commerical work for an investor who would get their use for advertising in film, print and other formats to invest in the movie? Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated as we are still in the getting it together process.

Sincerely

James Magnum Cook
Click to expand...

CootDog makes an outstanding point...

I seriously doubt anyone would make a monetary investment in your project unless you can show them some kind of releases that allow you to use the Batman character. Even fan films have to be really careful these days... Fan films that show the character are not typically legal unless they have been given permission to use the characters by the copyright and trademark owners which, I might add are not always the same entity.

I doubt that a web site like ifilm.com would even run such a film on their web site unless you could convince them that you have the rights to portray the characters, use the name, etc. because they won't want to get sued either...

As far as getting others to help work on the project... I for one (not that I'm anyone) wouldn't get invloved with a project like this unless the filmmakers could prove to me that they have permission to use protected characters... I'm positive that lots of others would think this way as well...

Good luck with it though...

filmy
 
About the 2005 Independent Batman Film

First apparently there is a mistunderstanding here. The money back from anything is not from the film iteself as its an independent fan film. Check out Ifilm.com and you will see the fact that if we are sued, then all of those people would be sued. You have totally mistunderstood what the film is or what the offer back is. The models are appearing in the film and if someone helps us out, our modeling agency could offer them models to use in other projects or even promotions to make their investment back. In other words its kind of a trade off.
Independent fan films that make no money as far as for the film itself are perfectly legal to produce under the way. If a person makes money off of the film itself directly, then and only th en can it be sued for copyright infrigment. Furthermore we have an Attorney for the www.magnummodels.com company that own and believe me that we go over everything before we do it with our own Attorney.
Also, if we had to go another route and wanted to make money, we could have made a parody which is protected by the United States Supreme Court.
So all I was asking is some help with production cost etc and would gladly work out a deal from the magnummodels.com models for which I own all the contracts of the models etc. I am sure there is an investor out there somewhere that might have a project that we could trade off with some of our very beautiful female models. I believe strongly that someone out there has a need and the fact our models on average make around $25.00 hour for just basic projects would make me believe that we could surely come to some kind of agreement with someone willing to help us with the film project.
So please understand that we are not trying to make a large amount of money off this project or are we trying to interefere with Warner Brothers or DC Comics as both my friend who will be playing Batman in the movie and I are true fans of the Batman character. We are even going to see the other movie which proves we are fans in the fact we would be willing to pay out to see Batman Begins.
So hopefully this clears all of this up and you will also check our www.ifilm.com to see that this is truly what we are doing.
 
[/I] I might also add that I am sure there are a lot of film projects on here that also need models and/or actresses and we have them. So trade offs could be a lot easier if people start opening their minds a little more. Also, we will not release the independent film until Warner Bros has finished the Batman Begins run. Why? Out of true fan respect.
 
fan films are great.

CootDog said:
If you're looking for local investors, I'm sure Car dealerships would like to invest. 1. because they can use the models in their commercials or for sales events, and 2. You'd produce 1 commercial for them free for their investment in the film.
Write up a proposal and go knock on some doors.
Click to expand...


I understood exactly what you are offering. I was just cautioning you on the thin line you are treading on. Also, I suggested an avenue to go down to look for investment. Did you try that? I would make your proposal to those that could use your models. 1 would be Indie filmmakers, another would be car dealers, others would be fashion designers, and the list goes on and on. Target your market. Target those that could use your models.. hell another production company that does music videos and such...

Yes, fanfilms are great. In fact I've written half a feature length script with Star Wars characters. I think the film would be great and could get distribution but that can't happen because it's a fan film. Lucas would own me and everything I do until the day I die.


back to targeting your market.. these would be customers of yours anyway... perhaps aproaching these businesses with this and them using your models, they will pay more next time. So if i want to invest $1000. How many hours of models do I get? 100 hours? 80 hours?
how much do you need anyway?
Do you need equipment or somehting like that?
Perhaps an indie producer can trade services for services... that's B2B at its best. :D

Are all of your models still in High School? Your star model just turned 18 this year!
 
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cootdog thanks for the advice

Dear Cootdog,

When I am wrong, I say I am and I kind of misunderstood your comments first made. My apologies to you sir. We are going out of our way to check into many things regaurding the copyright and trademarks prior to even beginning the production. We have also talked to a few people who have used the copyrighted characters already on ifilm.com and all have indicated that it is a must that you make no direct funds on the movie as if you do, then they will have you dead to rights to sue you.
One person who contact us that made an independent film using these charcters actually got a release from Warner Bros with some limitations placed on them in regard to making the film and when and what they could use, but they got to do a little more than normal on other aspects thanks to getting a release which they told us was two years in getting but they said it was worth the wait in the end.
From their standpoint they said a lot of what Warner Bros wants to do is preserve their franchise without it being compromised by the independent films of the charcters and if you can clearly show respect in regards to those issues they are willing to at least talk with you, but they will not just give in overnight and these guys said be respectful and patient with them. If you go that route with them and just decide because they are dragging their feet in your own personal opinions they will not even discuss it with you.
So I believe there are a lot of routes to go in regards to the project.
Also only my Barbie White homepage covergirl on magnummodels.com is still in high school, but she is on home school for her last year. That is why she was able to go to New York and attend onemodelplace.com model fusion with me in October.
Also, I have recently found a way to fund a large part of the film come spring without a lot of money from other investors and that is the latest news which means I will be putting up a lot of funds for the film now. If I did not believe in the actor and friend who is playing Batman or my models merely on a publicity level, I assure you I too would not consider putting that money up. I however after reviewing a lot of the super hero fan films on www.ifilm.com now believe that the publicity alone generated for fan film makers at comic book conventions and other film conventions are far worth more than any mere money back on a feature film is. Its taken a lot to convince me of that, but perhaps the best fan film on ifilm was made by a film maker of other revenue generating films and with actors who have appeared in other things. That film was Batman Dead End which also had the charcters from Alien and Preadtor in the film which was a very unique combination of the three franchises. Doubtful we could even come close to something like that, because the people associated with that were not only fans but also connected to the larger motion picture and television industry including the man who played the Joker was the son of the actor who played a charcter on the original Star Trek TV series.

Sincerely

James Magnum Cook
 
Re: Fan Films

I can't get enough of these fan films. As far as the legal hurdles.... the dirty little secret that none of those studio suits will admit is that if it hadn't been for a fan film callled: "Batman: Dead End" ,












"Batman Begins" would have sucked! The lawsuits threats aren't to protect intellectual properties. they are done solely to avoid giving the consumer a bases for comparison. This way we don't see a briliant piece of film making like "Dead End" and ask ourselves : How come they spent 60 times the money on "Batman and Robin" and it was a piece of crap?
 
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