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Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on December 1.
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Receive a copy of the limited edition CD of Hal's original music for Meanwhile.
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Receive a copy of the DVD & CD, autographed by Hal.
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Receive the autographed DVD, CD, and lobby card and be listed in the end credits under "director's friends."
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Receive the autographed DVD, CD, and lobby card and be listed in the end credits under "associate producers." Attend the New York City premiere screening of Meanwhile.
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Receive the autographed DVD, CD, and lobby card and be listed in the end credits, packaging, and paid advertising under "co-producers." (In paid advertising, your name will appear where ever Hal is listed as Producer.) Attend the New York City premiere screening of Meanwhile and join us at the after party.
Project By
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I'm 51 years old and have written, produced, and directed 12 feature films since 1990, all of which have been distributed internationally. (You can learn about those at www.possiblefilms.com). I've won awards at the international film festivals in Cannes (Henry Fool, 1998), Tokyo (Amateur, 1994), and Sundance (Trust, 1991). I have also staged theater and opera. I taught filmmaking at Harvard University for three years (2001 - 2004). In 1996 I was made a Chevalier of arts and letters of the Republic of France and was awarded a fellowship at the American Academy in Berlin in 2004. Since 1990 I have run my company, Possible Films.
Thanks Hal, DVD/CD arrived today (UK) watched it straight away, absolutely loved it, DJ Mendel is Brilliant! Soundtrack is fantastic, thanks so much and loved the packaging of the DVD and CD and Menu etc, fantastic design...... icing on the cake for me was that personal touch - the Hal Hartley/Possible Films stamp on the shipping envelope, I'll treasure it.
All the best, hope you use Kickstarter again...really soon, thanks.
Thanks Hal - DVD+CD arrived today (UK). Looking forward to screening at the weekend!
Thank you! I am dreaming up the next campaign. Stay tuned!
Best,
Hal
Just FYI - I am far away overseas, and got the DVD yesterday. Saw it today. Twice. Do let us help again, as soon as you feel like it. We'll be doing ourselves a favor. Thanks for everything.
Screened the DVD yesterday. It looks and sounds great. And I'm thrilled with the film itself. I enjoy all your films, but Meanwhile is my favorite thing you've done since Henry Fool. I love the character of Joe and the vision of New York that following him for a day creates. There are so many films about the cruelty and coldness of the city. It's hard to make something honest about the everyday humanity of people living there. Great work. Can't wait to see what you're going to make next.
Hey Hal no worries on the lateness of the DVDs and CDs, it's great enough to just be a part of this :)
Yeah, well, we tried to avoid that. But the best laid plans sometimes fall short of expectations. We'll try harder next time. The overseas packages are on their way too.
Hal
Thanks Hal - how about the international orders? (I'm in UK)
Also annoying that it's now on sale before most of the backers have seen it!
Sorry about that, Paul. I had a small misunderstanding with the US Postal Service which has been resolved. It put us behind a week. The last of the domestic packages are going out tomorrow, Friday, March 9.
Best,
Hal
The premiere has come and gone but I've still not received anything. Would have been nice to receive an advance copy.
such a wonderful premiere, hal. that one struck very close to home. beautifully poetic. and dj mendel was simply amazing in this role. thanks!
All the best for 29th February. I'm in Oz, so far away, but will be there in spirit - I'll pour a glass of wine on the stroke of midnight. I too have happy memories of your previous films, and Trust and the Unbelievable Truth remain among my favourites of all time.
Hello All...
Right now we aim to have the master DVD sent to the manufacturer on February 9. They say it'll be a ten to twelve day turn-around. Then our pal Mister Matt Flynn will oversee the shipping. We want everything shipped out to our backers before February 29, the night of the NYC Premiere.
The CD's will be done sooner. we just received the proofs of the artwork today. Manufacturing of those will probably be under way before Friday.
Best,
Hal
Hi hi! Any word on when DVDs will be sent out? I'm really looking forward to it!
It's great we made it! I was about 15 the first time I've seen Trust, Amateur, Flirt, The Unbelivable Truth, etc. and then Henry Fool in Cannes...such an incredible memory! You really changed my way to watch movies. You made me love cinema. I've missed you these last years - couldn't see Fay Grim and Girl from Monday in France. Thank you for everything and keep making films! I'm so excited to see Meanwhile!
Hi there,
Hal -you're my favorite director. Keep it up, and don't be afraid to come back here and ask for more money. And on the subject of HD; whilst a bluray may be expensive to make, surely -putting a HD file on your website is perhaps possible?
b
The excitement of Meanwhile has made me revisit the back catalogue (which I tend to do annually, anyway). I've just worked out the book (the non-Karazamov one) Jude reads from in Surviving Desire - The Gods Will Have Blood by Anatole France! That's bugged me for nearly 20 years! Can't wait for the DVD. Hopefully, this direct access will see a spurt of activity from Hal's pen/camera. Good luck.
Hey Hal greetings from Canada, long time fan here, really excited about this. Hope all is going well. Keep up the great and inspirational work :D
Tim de Christopher - I'm Matt Flynn, The Campaign Manager for MEANWHILE. The last Update was not a video. It's a song from the Meanwhile soundtrack titled "Midtown." It will be on the CD. In the Update, the song is accompanied by a picture.
Please email me directly if you have any questions or are unable to view or listen to any Updates. I'm more than happy to help. - matt@possiblefilms.com
Thanks - Matt Flynn
Hal, great idea to get your fans involved! At last we can pay a little bit back to such an amazing film maker. TRUST was the film that changed everything for me and impacted on my career path. MEANWHILE looks amazing - roll on February!
Robin
Hal, I haven't been able to play the last couple of update videos from your Update email notices, just FYI.
The trailer looks great! Blows my mind how quickly you hit your goal. I hope you guys end up getting 300%+ of your goal at least! I've been just starting to develop a campaign to market my latest film, CALLERS and your campaign is quite inspiring. I wrote a blog pitching your campaign on my website & facebook. Keep going. Really like your work. Looking forward to seeing your film...
Thanks a lot! Can't wait to watch the film when it's out !
Thanks, Pamela. We've figured in international shipping to our budget. We're manufacturing both NTSC (North America and Japan) and PAL (EU and other places) DVDs. You'll be hearing from Matt Flynn, our manager, in December who will be overseeing getting the products to everyone. If there is anything unusual about the Singapore postal system, he'll figure it out. No worries.
Best,
Hal
Hi Hal, I just chanced upon your project on Kickstarter and was really interested in it. The trailer is just beautiful and made me miss New York already (I'm a student and was there for my last summer). Just wondering though, do we need to pledge extra for shipping? Because I'm currently in Singapore, and I'd gladly pay extra for the international shipping to watch your short film. (I hope the format will work for Singapore DVD players too!)
Thank you, Hal and Kyle, for the response on the Blu-Ray. What about a second Kickstarter for a Blu-Ray copy of the film? I'd immediately kick in my $70. Actually, I'll give $100. And if not enough people pledge, no harm, no foul.
Hi Hal, love the films and your music, Trust probably my favourite film of all time. I saw it in the late nighties and a day later bumped into Martin Donovan in New Zealand! Chatted to him about it while he gave me his autograph, nice guy.
This kickstarter project for meanwhile is a fantastic idea.
Also you should look into iTunes, the US store has an "Advance Screening" section where you could potentially make this available for rental in HD for $6.99-$9.99 and also have an option to sell/Pre-order it for $19.99 in HD which seems to be the norm, iTunes takes their 30% which isn't too bad for them covering that HD Bandwidth of 3GB per download.
It's “iTunes Connect” you would need to contact, there's also some middle men aggregator services for video I think “tunecore” is one, or maybe they just handle music, I'm sure you would have no problems dealing direct with iTunes Connect there's bound to be fans within Apple, your music is there (I bought it) but you may need to wait 3 months to see that first iTunes payout which might be a hassle, unless video revenue is handled differently to music.
“For Lovers Only” a film also shot on the Canon 5DMKII has made close to 300k on iTunes, I know there was a real interest in the film in the DSLR filmmaker community and I'd say it peeked their interest enough to rent it.
I'd also gladly pledge $70 or more for Blu maybe even as an extra “Special Features” on the disc some nice high rez versions of the accompanying soundtrack to the film (24bit/96kHz). I realize Blu is an expensive hassle of a format which is probably going to obsolete in a few years but a Hal Hartley film in HD especially one shot on a 5d Mark II could be very cool to own especially with your soundtrack in a lossless format.
If people haven’t already download Hals song Book Of Life on iTunes, if you’re feeling a little blue and need some hope that song always seems to do the trick http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/hal-hartley/id81879303…
Thanks Hal, can’t wait for Meanwhile.
Dear John, Hal, et al...
I still think it's worth considering Blu-Ray too.
Blu-Ray is currently the best way to watch movies, but it's a smaller market than DVDs. Of disc-based movie purchases, Blu-Ray is around 20%. If that percentage holds true with our Kickstarter backers, that would be around 85 people who would want a Blu-Ray. If 85 of those people pledged $50 for a Blu-Ray, that would cover the cost of creating 1000 copies. That doesn't include package design and authoring. It does include taxes and shipping.
My estimate is, all-in we'd need about 70 people to pledge $70 or more to cover the cost of creating 1000 Blu-Rays.
Kyle
Dear John,
Thanks for the note and for your enthusiasm. In fact, me and my editor and all around technologist pal, Kyle Gilman, are discussing Blu-Ray all the time. Our concern has been that the cost of creating Blu-Rays is too high for films like mine which—though they have a dedicated fan base—are not widely popular enough to justify the expense. However, notes like yours and similar questions from other backers has made us revisit the issue again. Kyle's done a new analysis and will post his thoughts here a little later today.
Thanks again. Stay tuned...
Hal
I've been a fan since I first saw Trust in the mid-'90s and have all of your available films on DVD. I'll also be supporting anything else you do on Kickstarter. But I wanted to ask why you're not also releasing Meanwhile on Blu-Ray? The trailer looks gorgeous and I'd love to have the film (all your films, really) in the best format available. I'd even kick in more money to have that happen. Just curious.
Dear Adam, Meanwhile was shot in HD on a Canon 5D dslr camera. We had a matt box and used various contrast and neutral density filters. Thank you, Andrew, for the FLIRT subtitling offer. But in fact, I have the original translations and the "spotted dialogue list." So it's just a matter of adding them to the film, probably in Final Cut Pro HD.
Thanks to all of you for your supportive attitude and comments. It gives me a lot of confidence in—for instance—moving ahead with the re-release of FLIRT.
More soon...
Best,
Hal
Hi Hal, I just want to ask - what camera did you shoot the film on? The trailer looks beautiful
I love your films, and forever grateful for your casting Andrienne Shelley, who still brings me such a kick in those early films. Your casting is always great and this DJ Mendel trailer catches that spirit! Can't wait. Well done with the campaign. Yikes!
I'm a first time backer. I enjoyed your pitch and just wanted to see how the process works. Good luck with everything.
I just read here that you are looking for someone to do the subtitles for Flirt. I'd be happy to offer my services gratis for the Berlin segment.
This is very heartening to see. Your work has meant so much to me over the years. As Kevin suggested, I do hope you use this method to get more of your films financed or released on DVD in the US. Until the Criterion Collection takes notice, this seems to be the best possible venue for you to fund these kind of projects. I'll back anything you put up.
-Nick
Thank you everyone! It's been a busy day. Now I'm off to my cousin's wedding. I'm looking forward to keeping this going! — Hal
Congratulations - really looking forward to watching the film
11-11-11 was bound to be an important day. Great that it was for Meanwhile!
19 days is a drop in the proverbial bucket
for you ~ DVDs etc ... get er done !!!
First thing : great news u woke up this morn'n!! LOL
Second thing : Kudos 2 u & Kickstart making this accessible
to us Jane/John Does who want filmmakers like yourself making
history
Thirdly: CONGRATS !
Hal, as one of your financial backers, I have some notes on your script, and wish to discuss some re-shoots.
I'm kidding! Congratulations! Thanks for this opportunity for us to help out!
-Mike
People!
I woke up this morning to discover we had reached—and surpassed—our Kickstarter goal of $40,000.
THANK YOU to all of you who have pledged! This is great.
But we still have 19 days to go, so tell your friends! I might be able to pre-sell enough DVDs to earn back the cost of the film. That would make me what is called in the biz a "profitable filmmaker." Not a very glamorous designation but it helps get professionals to return your calls.
Me and the gang here are anxious to start designing and manufacturing the DVD, CD, and lobby card. Also, on the agenda for December is the final audio mix and the mastering of the music.
It's a good feeling to make work when you know it has somewhere to go!
So far, this has been a fascinating experience. As I've already written to some of you, I have never had such a direct line to my audience. Though I don't try to make work for any specific audience, it is good to know—generally—who is watching and—critically—that there are people who want to see more.
Wherever you are, WHOEVER you are… THANKS!
Hal
Ladies, Gentlemen, Others...
I'm very jazzed. All you people who are pledging, I wish I could write you all personally. I will later. But right now, it's a long list and a lot of other stuff to do. As you can see, we've been pretty successful so far thanks to your interest and confidence in me and my work. But it's just a few of us working around the clock, editing videos, doing rough mixes of music, writing emails, attending soirees (really!), etc. It's actually a lot of fun. But sleep is needed... And I just want to thank you all so far for telling us to go for it. This is making me re-think how I can be a creative person in the commercial world.
Goodnight, sweet dreams...
Mister Hartley
Lisa and I are so excited for this project and for you using Kickstarter to help fund it. Can't wait!
I'm with Kevin- please please re-release FLIRT worldwide! My DVD collection is missing it along with AMATEUR... And thank you so much for doing this, your audience is definitely having fun as well:)
Oh that's incredible news! I've been dying for a dvd of Flirt, it's such a wonderful film!
I find this all incredibly exciting, and i look forward to helping with future projects. Thanks!
Dear Kevin,
Yes, I think so. If this succeeds, I will continue to use Kickstarter as a regular resource for my business. I've never had such a direct and uncomplicated line to my audience. My film, FLIRT (1996), for instance, is ready to be re-released in North America and I might be able to finance the creation of subtitles, closed captioning, etc, in a similar way. Not to mention this is also just incredibly fun! — Hal
I can hardly contain my excitement! Any chance that if (when!) this succeeds similar measures will be attempted for the release of some of your films?
Good luck, can't wait!
Hal, MICA and Mel sent me. Looking forward to the film!