.jpg)
Team Snowflake
Kristen Lucas has been working on her movie Snowflake for awhile now. She has a cast, she has done some promotional videos and held events. Still, in the movie game, as in any business, when it comes down to it, you need moolah. To that end, Kristen has taken up a variation of the method we wrote about here.
Below, is the plan in a press release:
GOLDILOCKS TEAM USING INTERNET “CROWDFUNDING” TO FINANCE FILM
WORCESTER, MA - Ever since she wrote the first draft of her gritty hip-hop drama “Snowflake” in 2003, local filmmaker Kristen Lucas of Goldilocks Productions has set her sights on seeing her first full-length film up on the big screen. After courting the Hollywood establishment for the last two years, she has now embarked on a 90-day fundraising effort to bring the project to Worcester as an independent production to be shot this May and is using the innovative new Internet crowdfunding incubator Kickstarter.com to help finance the film.
In between raising a young son and working fulltime at the corporate headquarters of a large area retailer, Lucas has pursued her Hollywood dream both locally, producing short films in Massachusetts and Rhode Island and attending a screenwriting program at Boston’s Emerson College, and nationally in cities like Miami and Los Angeles where she promoted the “Snowflake” project and generated some interest from the mainstream film community. Each film brought her one step closer to making “Snowflake,” the underdog story of a young white woman from the suburbs struggling to make it in the underground hip-hop scene, a reality.
Despite attention and encouragement from people both inside and outside Hollywood, Lucas was unable to secure the funding necessary to do the full blown production she had originally hoped to shoot in Worcester this summer. In the present economy, she kept hearing, raising money would be harder than ever. Then she found herself joining the ranks of millions of other Americans when, after 23 years with her employer, a series of cutbacks eliminated her job last fall.
Looking at examples like the success of “Paranormal Activity,” shot on a $15,000 budget and now nearing a gross of $170 million, and the music industry where artists eschewing the major labels are finding success recording and selling their own music, Lucas saw the loss of her job after more than two decades as the perfect time to take control of her own future.
Like many others who are discovering new doors opening as they face disruptions in their careers due to the current recession, Lucas saw opportunity in what many might consider a setback. Instead of walking away from the project, she redoubled her efforts to film “Snowflake” and decided to shoot it guerilla style in the spirit of true independent filmmaking.
After meeting with the cast and crew she had gathered so far, Lucas decided she would reach out to the online and artistic communities that have supported her from the beginning. It was a familiar path: Kristen made short films under her production company, Goldilocks Productions, by drawing from resources and connections she developed through Emerson College and Internet sites such as Craigslist. She will now use the same resources to make her first full-length feature film.
The plan is to shoot “Snowflake” using a team built around the Goldilocks family of trusted talents who worked on Lucas’ short films and now are volunteering their services to help bring “Snowflake” to the big screen. Among the other local team members are Worcester native and Co-Producer Amy Devlin and Associate Producer Barbara Guertin, a city resident and SAG actor who worked on the local AA Films production of “Boyband.”
But money is still needed for cameras, lights, and everything else needed to shoot a film so Lucas is utilizing Brooklyn-based Kickstarter.com, a website where artists and creative entrepreneurs of all types post the details of their projects with a proposed budget.
Supporters pledge online and if the artists reach or, as is often the case, exceed their goal they receive the funds. To sweeten the pot for the pool of donors, incentives are offered at different levels, much like the fundraising drives on public television. Depending on the dollar amount, the “Snowflake” incentives range from bumper stickers and cookies to consideration for a role in the film, a producer’s credit, or a day on the set complete with your own personal director’s chair.
The minimum fundraising goal for “Snowflake” is $5,000 which needs to be raised by 5 p.m. on April 30. Once the team raises the capital for equipment and supplies, the Goldilocks team will kick into action and the film will be shot in and around Worcester in May.
For more information visit www.kickstarter.com/projects/goldilocks/snowflake
Contact Kristen directly at 774-253-6045
Comments