Production Diary: The Kohlman Files

Gonzo_Entertainment

Gonzo_Entertainment

I'm sure I've referred to it multiple times, but I've been in pre-production off and on for a couple of months (as time allowed around day job, a commercial, and a music video shoot) on a horror web series.

The script (which is linked in the Premiere member area) has gone through 3 revisions, with probably one more before we actually shoot. It's 12 pages that I expect to run about 15 minutes. Very long for a web series I now.

My intention is to finance the pilot through a kickstarter campaign (my first). The bottom line budget for the pilot is $2K. I have used up most of my supply of freebies, plus the guilt (bad trait for a producer) is starting to get to me. I have a hard time anymore telling an actress, "OK, so I'm going to hang you naked in a very uncomfortable position from a wall off and on for 6 hours, but I can't even pay you $100".

In the event we overfund (which I REALLY hope we do), the additional funds would be used to either up the budget on the pilot or be set aside for funding additional episodes.

We're going to explore some options to license it as exclusive content based off the pilot and if that fails we'll release it on youtube and go back into fund raising mode for the episodes.

We shot a one minute teaser last weekend that I just got the first rough cut of. I'll be posting that soon.

Lead actor is cast
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1063262/

As is one of the main supporting roles. This guy is what counts as the tiny bit of star power I have.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1252668/

Version 1 Poster completed yesterday.

6805051379_466e98c9a6_b.jpg




I'll update with more over the next few days. Feel free to ask any questions or give any advice you may have.
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
We're $72 from being 33% funded in the first 7 days (which ends about 9:00 tonight). A very good sign of eventual success.

Lucky to be in a position where I can partially float us for a while. $200 going out the door on a couple more "cultist" robes tomorrow night and a couple hundred more this weekend on some various props like science lab gear (beakers, test tubes, bunsen burners, etc....).

Edit: Make that $47 dollars, just got another $25 pledge.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
If you can Dready. It will of course be much appreciated. I know we all have our own projects going. I also remember being you guys age (you whipper snapppers!) and how much tighter money was then.

One of the may blogs I read before I fired this off indicated that 30% in the first week or so was a very good indicator of eventual success. I have at least one more big money donor that should should pop this weekend. The bar owner I made that commercial for (basically for free). Hoping for a several hundred dollar bump from him. I also have my first roller derby bout of the season in a couple weeks. Part of my "Sponsorship" I get as the announcer bought me a half page ad in the bout program.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Heavy pre-production right now as we have to shoot a half day on 3/31 with Jim O'Rear. He portrays Professor Flagg (a nod to The Stand) who runs a local theater where he does a magic/illusion show (Nod to Blood Sucking Freaks). He's also a sadist, an alchemist, a Cthulhu worshiper and the main antagonist in later episodes.

This half day is gonna cost me about $500 by the time I buy all the props and pay crew and actors. I'm actually financing it myself, not taking it out of the kickstarter funds to save them for the remainder of shooting. I'll have some stills from it that next week I'll post here. My set Photog is coming.

We're in the mid campaign lull right now, so if you have even $5 to help us ought, it will be much appreciated.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gonzoentertainment/the-kohlman-files-pilot-episode
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
A couple of quick shots from Set Construction this past weekend.

We started here.

6871764450_6d216080f1_z.jpg



About $300 and quite a few hours later we wound up here.

7017870333_fa33f4b86a_z.jpg



6871764608_e2d50579f7_z.jpg





This isn't fully dressed by any means, the lab gear is just there, not set up, more books needed, quite a few things to add, but you get the idea.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I'll have some better production stills Monday. The short basement scene is this Saturday. Really excited about having a full 8 hour day (which in my world is a half day really) To shoot about 1 page. That kind of time should really let us dial everything in and not settle for less than perfect.

About to head to the rental house for the rest of the grip. Baby stands, flags, apple boxes, etc...

Mid campaign lull has been mentally tough on the kickstarter. We crossed over $1000 which was big. I do have a couple of large donors I feel pretty solid about that should be popping first of the week, but still need some more small donations. Keeping the faith.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top