Kickstarter

Eighth Street has reached 100%!

Well team, we're making a movie!  Thank you all for your generous contributions as well as the time and effort spent in sharing this project.  I am humbled and deeply encouraged by the networking effort, financial support, and interest in the film.  Production is gearing up: lots of decisions to make and parts to assemble.  Shooting will begin next week!

Above and Beyond

Having gone a little past 100% this morning (currently 103%) I have decided to donate half of the proceeds from the surplus to World Impact, the NGO whose West Oakland building is receiving the mural.  The other half will go directly to adding shooting days to the production.  Essentially, every $200 in the budget translates to one extra day on location with two cameras and there are some tremendous possibilities for the added time.  We have one hour left in the campaign, one last chance to share the link.

Thank you, backers...  Sound? Camera A rolling? Camera B rolling?... Action!

~Matt

producer & director

Less than 24 hours left in this campaign - Thank you for your contribution to Eighth Street!

As the fundraising stage of this project nears its end, it looks like we might just make it to 100%.  As of this writing, the campaign is at 91%.  Please consider sharing the link one last time and mentioning the effort to folks who might be interested in supporting, or just learning about a short film like this.

The Crane in the Living Room

In other news, I've been pushing ahead with pre-production meetings and arrangements.  The finished film is moving towards both looking and sounding more like West Oakland.  One of the sequences on our shooting schedule includes a live recording of a uniquely-Oakland hip hop group.  I've also arranged for both crane shots and unique high-angle b-roll images to add context to our street-level shooting (in fact, there is a huge camera crane sitting on the living room floor at the house, thanks to the *shout out* awesome multimedia team at a nearby physics lab).

Soundtrack Contributions

A number of contributors have communicated interest in contributing to the soundtrack for the film.  To you all, thank you very much for your interest in this project.  Please send along thoughts (and MP3s!) of how you hear this sounding in the end.  I've been auditioning tracks and searching for just the right fit for weeks.  The ideal track will blend the jazzy vibe of Dave Young Kim's planned mural with the street beats of our town's contemporary sound.

Color and Grading

Besides the sound, the color of the film will be unique.  I've been working up custom grading presets for the footage ("grading" being the processes of tinting or coloring film footage).  For those interested, we're shooting on Canon 5D MkII and MkIII cameras using Technicolor's awesomely-film-like Cinestyle picture profile and Zeiss ZE primes.  The flat footage from that combo feeds beautifully into Red Giant's Magic Bullet Looks 2 software, which is what I'm using for color correction and grading. The first chapter has a warm tone with cool highlights, vignetting, and a touch of bleach bypass filtering (actually a blend of 11 filters, my poor GPU!)  With a background in still photography, I'm especially curious about using color to help communicate a theme.  I look forward to giving Eighth Street a strong look in grading.

Timing

So, with one more evening's shove from you guys, I think we'll have the funding in place and I'll be able to lock down permits, rental reservations, crew hours, etc. and get down to work.  I anticipate completing shooting by mid May and having a cut ready for initial screening before June.

In Conclusion

I'm very excited and hugely grateful to you and everyone who has contributed towards the completing of this piece.  Dave Young Kim is an activist for peace and hope in Oakland (as many of you well know) and this little story stands to serve as inspiration for many of us.  I believe everyone has at least something to contribute to the lifting up of his or her community and to see someone like Dave go 100% for the cause is a beautiful thing.

I'm humbled and and deeply encouraged by your contributions that have brought funding to 91% on the eve of this campaign's finale.  Let's finish it tonight!

in gratitude,

Matt

producer & director

Today, with 11 days left in this exciting campaign, we are at 42%

I'm optimistic Eighth Street funding will come together, but it's going to take a little networking.  Thank you all for sharing the link and the video with friends, coworkers, and family.  It is encouraging and exciting to see the interest in this project!

As a quick update, planning for production is going well.  Here are the highlights:

The Artist, Dave Young Kim, is back from a European/NYC expedition and working out the timing details of the mural creation.

I've been auditioning countless tracks for the soundtrack as well as communicating with West Oakland labels about supplying original music.  A portion of the Kickstarter budget will go to this effort, which is an exciting opportunity for a unique sound for Eighth Street.

Since the launch of this campaign, Canon has released a new version of the cameras I used for the initial filming.  The new Canon 5D3 has driven down the rental costs of the 5D2, which will allow for slight restructuring of my budget.  My plan is to rent a couple motion control tools with the new funds.  A small crane and camera slider combo will allow a few unique shots and overall higher production value.

I've received a few leads on interesting people in the 8th St. neighborhood for interviews once production resumes.  We'll have opportunities to capture some unique footage.

Thank you all for your support of this project.  Each contribution is greatly appreciated and should certainly be considered a small donation towards an uplifting effort in West Oakland.

Please share the video with someone this week - I'm working hard to spread the word!

Matt

producer & director