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I very rarely ask for your help for any of my work buy I am turning to you today. I am shooting a TV Pilot that could be fleshed out into a feature film. It’s an action film and unlike anything I have ever worked on before. It’s being directed by my friend Brian Ramage who has spent the past 6 years trying to get this made.

I liked his short film taster “Severed” and I have been looking to do a project like this for some time. This seems like the perfect thing.

What is it and why kickstarter?

Well what it is is explained very well by Brian in the text below the video, but why kickstarter and why do we need to raise so much money?

This is a HUGELY ambitious venture. Yes Brian could put himself into debt for life and try and finance it himself, most likely ruining himself in the process… he has tried. Finding investors is next to impossible so that is why he has turned to kickstarter.

Brian and I met through twitter, through social networking and met for the first time at the Great LA DSLR meet up the year before last (even though he doesn’t use them!). It was great to connect with him and although we have difference of opinions on stuff what matters we agree on. This is where social networking comes in….

We are not asking for you to donate more than you can afford. Any small amount helps, even a dollar, but for just $35 you get access to in detail  BTS blogs, videos, live streams and so much more on the making of this that you will follow our journey and I hope learn a huge amount from this very professional production. This is going to be a fully documented BTS film. I will be looking for a BTS crew to document this (it’s shooting in LA) so if interested let me know!! This is a serious project which we aim to not only look as good as anything on HBO but be as well made and as riveting.

With a cast of 19, 33 extras, lots of crew, expensive locations with the asking funding of $48k pretty much most people are not even getting paid, I certainly am not. It’s an expensive business proposition this and to make it look good we cannot skimp on things. Even at that price pretty much every producer will go “how on earth can you make it for that?”

I know it’s a lot to ask but I hope you can see the value in helping us realise this great project! Thanks so much!

You can donate by clicking on the widget below the video or by clicking this link!

 

 

 

Phil

ABOUT THIS PROJECT

Riv-en [riv-uhn]

-adjective

1. Violently ripped in two.

RIVENtells of a troubled 13 yr old girl who is left to fend for herself after her special forces father doesn’t return home from a mission. Devon, the young girl, must balance her childhood with survival in the new violent world she has stumbled upon – contract killing.

From a feature film screenplay written in 2005 by Jean Miller and Brian Ramage,  RIVEN doesn’t take the comic book approach taken by recent films, but instead takes the story and the character seriously and realistically, focusing both on the action and the pain; showing the hurt and drama that leads to the action. There are many risks for a girl this age in the business she has fallen into, and Riven addresses the good and the bad, the highs and the lows, the deadly serious and the comedic. This isn’t a comic book superhero, this is areal teen girl.

RIVEN Premium Cable TV Series Pilot

While it started as the feature screenplay “RIVEN” and found life as a short film titled “SEVERED”, what we are pitching here is a55 minute pilot episode of the original story adapted to a 13 episode premium cable TV series format.

While I always only envisioned RIVEN as a feature film, SEVERED earned me well over a year of meetings in some top Hollywood producer’s offices, and while they loved the story and characters, I did what I could to sell the feature project, but it almost always kept coming back to adapting the screenplay to a premium cable TV series. Why premium cable? Three reasons. A) The feature is full of strong language and violence, so it’s likely “R” rating adapts better to premium cable; but B) More story and character freedom. Simply put – look atGame Of Thrones – you can do things on premium cable that you just cant do on basic cable; and C) premium cable original programming is exploding. Now is the time.

Finally, adapting a 90min feature script to a 13 episode premiere season offers far more room for development. It seems many shows struggle to just insert filler into their shows, completely ignoring the opportunity to use the extra screen time to further develop both the story and the characters. And to me, this was the selling point on adapting the feature to TV. I created these characters in 2005 and have worked tirelessly since then to bring them to screen. They have become living people and every action and reaction comes from the who they are – not to lazily progress a plotline, but because their character guides it.

WHAT WILL THE MONEY GO TOWARD?

The funds raised will go toward every step of the production process, including administration, cast/crew compensation, casting, fight training, props, wardrobe, locations, food, insurance and anything else I can’t think of at the moment. In fact the only thing that the money will not go to is me. Everyone on this project will be compensated for their time and effort, but my only reward will be a job well done.

My bio is below, so we’ll continue to:

PHILIP BLOOM – Cinematographer

Phil and I have been friends for just over two years now, having connected as filmmakers on Twitter, sharing lively discussion on every aspect of filmmaking and films. Making home in England, Philip lives most of the time out of in suitcase in hotels all around the world, in high demand working as a cinematographer and educator holding sold out workshops on DSLR cinematography as well as other emerging digital filmmaking technologies. I don’t travel so much, but Philip’s travels bring him through L.A. a few times a year allowing me to hang out and catch up with my friend.

For those that are not familiar with Philip and his work, Philip has been working in broadcast for almost 20 years. With clients ranging from BBC, SkyNews, FOX, Microsoft, Apple, Audio, and CBS, Philip has devoted his life to production and in the last 5 years or so, being on top of the cutting edge of digital technology – sometimes even before it emerges. As maybe the most knowledgeable cinematographer when it comes to DSLR filmmaking, Philip was brought in by George Lucas and Rick McCallum of Lucasfilm to teach them up at SkyWalker Ranch how to use these new cameras for their upcoming feature film Red Tails.

Wanting to take a bit of a break from his normal schedule, Philip and I discussed the new plan for Riven, and interested, he asked for a copy of the script. Already in pre-production for the RIVEN Pilot, and about to start looking for a Director of Photography that I not only get along well with, but can handle the demands of a short schedule as well as the desired visual aesthetic, Philip would be a perfect fit. He responded: “I love it. Let’s shoot it.”

So here we are.

WHAT WE ARE DOING

As explained, we are making a 55 minute TV pilot. Writing began over a year ago, pre-production began this past Spring, casting will begin in August, fight training will begin not long after that, and principal photography begins this Winter. Upon wrap, we will move to accelerated post-production with a final product within a few months.

Along the way, we will blog about everything. In fact I highly recommend checking out the $50 donation level as that will give you a behind the scenes look that no one else will have. You will get to see every step of the process. If you get in early enough, you can watch portions of the casting sessions being streamed LIVE on the web, available only to those at that level. From there you’ll witness fight training and choreography, lighting tests, rehearsals, table readings, and one thing that internet filmmakers will really enjoy – watch as we decide what camera we’ll shoot on. Almost anything is an option including the new Red Epic as well as the amazing Arri Alexa. But you will be the first to know.

Philip has dedicated the past few years to filmmaker education and this will be no departure. He sees this as a chance to teach and show the entire production process instead of just focusing on a single specific piece of gear or camera.

THE PLAN AFTER COMPLETION

While Hollywood is reluctant in the current market to just jump on an idea, I have several producers that are just waiting to see what we come up with, and considering what I am confident that I can deliver as well as what I know Philip can put on-screen, I am confident that the RIVEN Pilot will be met with far more enthusiasm than SEVERED has already seen.

Also, once we have the pilot episode in the can, it is about half of the feature film script, so with another concerted effort just like this, we can also finish the feature giving us another product to shop around and even enter into festivals.

 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 13th, 2011 at 01:53 and is filed under Projects. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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