On December 5th, our first attempt at fundraising came to a close. I had set a goal for $13,000, and we ended up bringing in a little over $500. My biggest takeaway from the experience was the realization that I really can’t do it all; as it is with MARK OF THE VEIL, I’m the writer, director, producer, editor, and composer. I’ve juggled those roles for years, and once I can find the right Key Grip/Camera Op to go with our Director of Photography and Assistant Director, we should be fine with that; but I can’t be the marketing and promotional guru, too.

So, my most immediate task is to build a team of folks who are excited about the project and can give some time to it on the front end. We’ve found a great team of actors to fill the cast, now we just have to find some equally awesome promotional wizards. We will be running another fundraising campaign, and I’m going to need them to make it happen.

The plan is to film the first 30 minutes (the first act) of the film on a shoe-string budget (if any) in March, and launch a second fundraiser with a local screening at a theater such as The Egyptian Theater, the Downtown Boise Edwards Cinemas, or The Flicks that provides the “Kick” to our Kickstarter a few months later. The idea is that we start getting an enticing taste of Act II as the screening winds up, and, suddenly, a PAINFUL cut to black creates a collective sigh of, “We wanted more!” from the audience. (That’s the hope, anyway.) Then comes the punchline: we need your help to finish the movie!

And yes, I do believe we will be moving away from IndieGoGo (the site we used for our first round) and checking out Kickstarter. The key difference between the two crowd-source fundraising sites is that IndieGoGo allows you to keep whatever earnings you make, regardless of your success or failure, whereas Kickstarter doesn’t give you anything until you meet your goal. Now, this difference originally swayed me towards IndieGoGo, but I’ve realized that there seems to be less of an emotional attachment to a project with less risk involved, and the prospect of losing everything or not getting anything provides quite an energy, not just with the fundraising team, but with the project’s supporters.

So, that’s where that’s at. More to come.

In the meantime, enjoy this new teaser trailer we produced last week. The beginning of many more snippets to come.

We are moving forward, regardless of the money. I am extremely proud of this cast and crew; they are quickly becoming a fellowship with a drive to see MARK OF THE VEIL succeed, and mark my words, you will be seeing these guys’ and gals’ faces everywhere in a short while.