What We Do In The Shadows

cheeseandachallenge

cheeseandachallenge

What We Do In The Shadows is a mockumentary about Vampires that came out last year by New Zealand filmmakers Taika Waititi ("Two Cars, One Night", "Boy," currently writing "Moana" for Disney) and Jemaine Clement ("Eagle Vs Shark", one half and writer of "Flight of the Conchords").

Without doing anything particularly new, they managed to make tired and cliched genre of mockumentary pretty hilarious. I read about 90% of the film is 'improvised' (though I believe they had a plot outline, and were imrpovising the dialogue). It was hugely popular in New Zealand, and has been reviewed incredibly well overseas. They've got distribution in a number of overseas markets, but been struggling to do so in the US.

Anyway, check out the trailer, if you like it, maybe you US folk can donate a little to their kickstarter? :) I know most of us can barely afford to give to crowd funding campaigns, but I think I feel some nationalistic obligation to share it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv568AzZ-i8

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1423546688/what-we-do-in-the-shadows-the-american-release/
 
I actually posted about this recently in the "what have you watched" thread

SkyCopeland said:
What We Do in the Shadows - 9/10

This was absolutely hilarious. I'm not sure why they are doing a Kickstarter right now to get into American theatres... with Funny or Die behind them that shouldn't really be an issue. However, I bought the New Zealand edition of this to watch. Absolutely hilarious "documentary" that I can't recommend enough. It's a true art in terms of lighting and holding the documentary film style even though it's a comedy mockumentary kind of film. Would I back them on KS? No. Rewards are overpriced. Would I recommend buying the digital New Zealand edition? Yes.
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I still feel the same... the kickstarter is overpriced... but great film.
 
Admittedly I agree that the kickstarter rewards are a little overpriced (but all crowd funding rewards are, as to actually make decent profit from them). But I'm not surprised they can't find distribution in the US, given the number of great films that do well in overseas markets yet never find distribution in America. Several New Zealand films have smashed local box office records, done really well in Australia, Asia and Europe, yet never received distribution (or much distribution) in the US. It's not a new phenomenon.
 
I hope they meet their goal. It looks like a blast of a film. I would like to. I might. But, you know, the cost of living, 'n' all.

So, have you two donated? Hmmmmmmmm? :hmm:
 
so donate 10 bucks to support the artist then rip it online later and don't feel bad about it!

KS isn't meant for us to get stuff, i mean, i understand we'd like to have the movie or whatever, but really it's about supporting the art you like and you want to see. too many people get bogged down with the rewards of the thing
 
samwagner1000 said:
so donate 10 bucks to support the artist then rip it online later and don't feel bad about it!

KS isn't meant for us to get stuff, i mean, i understand we'd like to have the movie or whatever, but really it's about supporting the art you like and you want to see. too many people get bogged down with the rewards of the thing
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There is a standard among most Kickstarter supporters. That's to have the digital copy of the product on one of the lower tiers. Somewhere between 10-20, possibly 25.

Also... KS is meant for us to get stuff. We want to have what we helped fund, it's the one and only reason that Kickstarter even functions.
 
richy said:
I hope they meet their goal. It looks like a blast of a film. I would like to. I might. But, you know, the cost of living, 'n' all.

So, have you two donated? Hmmmmmmmm? :hmm:
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Yeah gave em a tenner. I'd already seen the film in theatres and bought the DVD as a present for someone when it came out here.

As SC said, the rewards are a bit overpriced. I would probably have given more if they had better rewards (I don't even care about my $10 reward, it was just to support them). But then I guess they'd have to have a higher kickstarter goal to fund their rewards as they'd be making less profit per reward. It's a difficult balance.
 
Well a digital copy of the film for 20$ wouldn't have costed them anymore money. And they'd have reached the goal already most likely.
 
SkyCopeland said:
Well a digital copy of the film for 20$ wouldn't have costed them anymore money. And they'd have reached the goal already most likely.
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I'm not sure how they're doing their digital distribution, but there are obviously costs involved. Still, you're right it does seem like the sort of thing that'd have lower production costs.
 
dahwws said:
I'm not sure if they met their goal or not, but today it was on the front page of the metacritic website, so does that mean a wider release?
http://www.metacritic.com/
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Well it's been released in Asia, Australia, the UK (I think) as well as lots of European countries. Plus they have self distributed into a number of US cinemas, but those are only small/short runs in those cinemas. They were also on the front page of Rotten Tomatoes a while back.

Does Metacritic only deal with US releases? I don't really use the website, so I don't know what that indicates.
 
SkyCopeland said:
KS is meant for us to get stuff.
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do you donate to PBS or NPR because you will get the coffee mug at 120/year? no. the prize is seeing it on the air. the KS prize is getting to see what we support created. yes, it's important that the creators make it easy for us to see it, downloads, physical copies, and other goodies, but the real stuff that we get out of donating to watch something we want succeed. i agree that the goodies are important, ESPECIALLY making the film easily accessible to those who donate, but in an ideal world it's more about helping out other creatives, not getting stuff for ourselves.
 
Exactly what does it mean for them to get distribution in the U.S? Does it mean it gets shown in theaters?

But isn't it already a bit late for that? I mean, I see that I can already buy the DVD from Amazon. Well, I can pre-order it for May. Isn't that backwards?

What does it mean exactly?
 
Not quite sure what you're question is Richy. Distribution means that it gets shown in cinemas across the nation, yes.

Though I do find it amusing that you find the DVD-cinema thing backwards. By the time most movies come to cinemas here, the DVD has been out for months! But I guess we're a small mostly irrelevant territory to US studios :)
 
Awwww. Long live NZ! :)

Right. I don't mean to be a party pooper. Godbless 'em, and I hope they get distribution. It's just that, isn't the battle already sort of lost...in the U.S. market, I mean. If you're rolling out your video on DVD, and maybe on demand then too?, how many people are going to be interested in paying to see it in the cinema in the U.S when you can get it for a very reasonable price on Amazon, and probably elsewhere?

Without looking at their Kickstarter page again, 'cause maybe this is really what it's all about, maybe it should be not so much about getting distribution, but instead about raising funds for a marketing campaign to promote the video release to an American audience?

Or yeah, by distribution are we also talking about getting the video out there?
 
Oh right, I getcha. I haven't really followed the kickstarter closely, but from skimming, that's what they're fundraising for - i.e. they're self distributing and using the funds for marketing, trailers, posters, etc. So yeah you're right - sorry, I was a little misleading when I said they were raising money for distribution :)
 
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