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on January 24
Lucas McNelly
Posted project update #31Help?
Post CommentRight now, I'm at Sundance, which has been pretty productive. I've been hanging out a little with Jonny Mars, who's in a short (HELLION) that's playing, and talking to a bunch of people about a bunch of things, all while covering Slamdance for Filmmaker Magazine.
UP COUNTRY is picture locked, and we're chipping away at the color correction and sound mixes, but we also got a little bit of press.
IndieWire named us "Project of the Day" a couple of days ago, which is pretty cool. More importantly, we're in the running now for Project of the Week. The winner gets
a digital distribution consultation from SnagFilms, which is pretty awesome.
Thing is, we're losing. So VOTE. It cost you nothing but a few seconds. You'll feel good. Also, we're losing, so now's the time to do it.
GO HERE. VOTE FOR US. (please?)
lucas
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on December 22
Lucas McNelly
Posted project update #30Music
Post CommentI know we've been a little light on the updates lately, but rest assured, we're working.
We're pretty close to picture lock (I'm kind of finicky with picture lock), and with it has come the beginnings of all the small things in the film--figuring out the simplest way to streamline the exchange of stuff like audio files for mixing, for example--and music.
We thought we had a composer, but now we don't (long story). Anyway, we figure this gives us an opportunity.
We're putting the first 1:45 of the film online and asking composers to pitch us on what their score of the film would sound like. And hopefully we can do something cool with that.
And [insert holiday greeting of your choice]!
-Lucas
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on October 31
Lucas McNelly
Posted project update #36That other thing...
Post CommentDepending on how much of your time to spend on ye olde internet, you may have gotten wind of some Thankgiving AYWR campaign floating around Kickstarter. It's a real thing, and before I get 243 confused emails from backers, I thought I should explain what the hell it is.
As I understand it, the original plan was to keep this a secret from me, to somehow do it while I wasn't paying attention, but I think they figured out that would be pretty much impossible. Over/under on how long it would take before I heard about it would be 10 minutes. I know too many people.
Plus, they kind of needed my digital rolodex to contact everyone.
So here's my involvement in the whole thing:
1. Victoria Westcott, who came up with the idea, ran it by me to make sure it had my blessing. It does, of course. Otherwise you wouldn't be reading about it.
The fact that AYWR faces long odds of survival has been well-documented. Anyone with half a brain knows that $12,000 isn't a lot of money to travel the country world. I'm grateful for all the help I can get.
2. I then gave her contact information and made some introductions with filmmakers she doesn't know.
3. I answered a couple of questions about AYWR, stuff like number of projects, miles travelled. Things like that. Also, I provided that graphic on the front, because I guess it's easier to just get it from me than re-create it.
Which is to say that if you have questions about the campaign, I probably don't know the answer. In fact, I probably know just as much as you do. That doesn't mean I'm not insanely thankful that people have taken up this initiative. The idea that people would do this pretty much blows my mind. I'll be obsessively refreshing the Kickstarter page, as I know there's almost no chance that I'll be able to resist.
It's kind of bizarre, to be sweating a campaign that's effectively yours, but at the same time isn't. There's this detached feeling to it.
More importantly, I don't want anyone to feel like there's any obligation to pony up $$ again. Your support in getting us this far has been nothing short of Herculean. I just wanted to make sure there wasn't any confusion about what this new thing was. I didn't want to go back to you, the backers, because I didn't feel right about double-dipping, but I also don't want this thing to happen without you hearing about it from me. You deserve that, at minimum. All this will do is make it easier for me to finish what I set out to do.
But, if nothing else, you should go check out the video. It's pretty sweet. I'm not going to say I didn't get a tiny bit choked up when I saw it.
The whole idea of this blows my mind.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/victoriawestcott/a-year-without-rent-thanksgiving
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on September 30
Lucas McNelly
Posted project update #35Shirts!
For backers only
Post Comment
If you’re a backer of this project, please
log in
to read this post.
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on September 10
Lucas McNelly
Posted project update #2978:45
For backers only
Post Comment
If you’re a backer of this project, please
log in
to read this post.
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on August 13
Lucas McNelly
Posted project update #34A Year Without Rent: Europe
Post CommentI've often joked that A Year Without Rent would turn into A Year Without Rent 2: Europe. Well...that happened sooner rather than later.
I've been in the UK for a little bit and now I'm writing this from Berlin, where I'm going to speak to a German audience about crowdfunding(!)
Better yet, we're streaming it LIVE (also via tape). The whole thing should start around 8am East Coast time today (Saturday), but I'm pretty late in the program.
You can watch the feed HERE. And the twitter hashtag is #aywrEU.
Join in!
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on July 18, 2011
Lucas McNelly
Posted project update #33And I Would Drive 500 Miles...
Post CommentAnd by 500 miles, I mean 5,000. And then some.
While nobody was paying attention, we crossed 10,000 miles of travel in this bizarre road trip. 10,000! Only that was a while ago. We're now at over 13,400 miles in 5 months. That's a lot. Yes, I'm exhausted.
But that number's is going to go up fast.
After I'm done on this current film (Matthew Lillard's FAT KID RULES THE WORLD) up in Seattle, I'm getting on a plane for the UK to work on James DeMarco's THE STAGG DO. Then I'm going to Germany to do something (apparently, they want me to do some sort of keynote speech on crowdfunding. I put the over/under on my WW2 jokes at 3.)
After that, I'll be taking at least a week off (probably 2), then headed back to the west coast to get my car.
It's a dizzying pace here on the ground. The t-shirts are supposed to be shipped very soon. Adam tells me they're in the queue. Sorry for the delays. He's doing them for us at cost and has been slammed with work. Hopefully I'll get mine in time to wear it to Europe.
Someone asked me the other day what was the best way to follow the project, as they admitted to getting kind of overwhelmed by the scope of the whole thing. I told them what I'd do if I were them:
1. Follow me on Twitter. It sounds self-serving and stupid, but that's where I post the most stuff. All the new articles, etc, get posted there. Plus, I chime in while on set with commentary and cell phone photos that aren't necessarily official, but still fun and cool. Like this one of a PA doing some pretty vital work on FAT KID.
2. "Like" on Facebook. That's where all the good photos go (when Facebook is functioning).
3. Go to the webpage. It's super fun. Honest. Hey, we've even recently started adding guest posts which expand the AYWR brand beyond just me in a car. (In related news, there's a film in Sarasota I can't get to that's filming, if anyone wants to pick up the torch.)
Finally, in our quest for indie film domination (and by that I mean, sponsorships), we've added another producer to the team. YAY!! So welcome Jaime N. Christley. He's good people.
Ok, back to work.
-Lucas
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on June 14, 2011
Lucas McNelly
backed a project
THE SUMMER HOME: finishing funds for a short film on the RED by Wonder Russell
Blood drives a desperate homeless couple to break into a summer home on the water, and blood forces them to flee.
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148% funded $6,235 pledged
- 116 backers
- Funded Jul 20, 2011
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on June 11, 2011
Lucas McNelly
backed a project
MOTHER'S RED DRESS (a social issue feature film) by John Paul Rice
A young man suffering from amnesia tries to piece together his past after seeing his mother kill her abusive boyfriend.
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103% funded $20,678 pledged
- 205 backers
- Funded Jun 18, 2011
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on June 8, 2011
Lucas McNelly
backed a project
Get GOOD NIGHT to the finish line! by Winston, Leigh and the Cast & Crew
This is the story of a group of twenty-somethings who reunite at a dinner party celebrating a mutual friend’s 29th birthday.
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101% funded $11,256 pledged
- 140 backers
- Funded Jul 02, 2011
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Lucas McNelly
Lucas McNelly is the award-winning filmmaker behind such feel-good movies as A YEAR WITHOUT RENT, UP COUNTRY, BLANC DE BLANC and GRAVIDA. He writes for Filmmaker Magazine, Film Threat, Film Courage, and a bunch of other places. Maybe you've heard of him, maybe you haven't.
