About this project

This Kickstarter project will fund the first phase of shooting for the feature film KUNG FU RED.

Two students, Shawn and Samona, are paired on a creative writing assignment and immediately start butting heads. When they settle on writing a kung fu tale, their conflicts come to life in the story's martial arts action. But as their real-life relationship begins to change, the story takes on a life of its own, and the line between fact and fiction begins to blur...

Similar to THE PRINCESS BRIDE and THE FALL, the film will alternate between the real world of Shawn and Samona, and the kung fu fantasy world they are creating.

The production of the film is scheduled in three phases. In phase one, we will shoot the "real world" portion of the film. This phase of production will occur during the weekends of May and June, to take advantage of location and equipment discounts.

Phase two will constitute training for the cast. Each actor plays dual roles in the film -- one in the real world, and the other the "Kung Fu Red" version of them. Nearly every conflict or conversation in the kung fu story ends up in a martial arts fight scene, and we want these fights to be eye-popping and jaw-dropping. Most films -- even big feature films -- spend only a few weeks, an hour or two a day, practicing for fight scenes. We intend to train full-time for several months, and make the best fight scenes in a low-budget film this side of Hong Kong.

Phase three will be the shooting of the fight scenes, currently scheduled over the course of six weeks in autumn.

Phases two and three will be significantly expensive, but phase one -- which will comprise about 60-70% of the finished film -- can be produced on an extremely low-budget. That is what we hope to achieve with this Kickstarter project.

The money from this fundraising drive will go toward:

-Location permits. Although most of the locations are easily obtainable, several scenes that take place in, for example, a school classroom or hallway can be very expensive to secure in Los Angeles. Finding a non-local location may be cheaper, but then transportation and housing must be provided for cast and crew. Either way, a non-trivial expense.

-Equipment rentals. My collaborators and I have between us a very good collection of filmmaking equipment, but special equipment such as car mounts or cranes, and lighting equipment for nighttime scenes, will have to be rented on an as-needed basis.

-Food. A hungry cast and crew is an unhappy cast and crew. We will be shooting long days for no pay, and asking that people sacrifice their weekends to make this project happen. We will be casting and crewing with people who believe in the project, but there is only so much you can ask them to sacrifice and expect them to stay enthusiastic. If there is one thing I have learned from nearly a decade of making short films, it's that whether people are getting paid or not, it is important that they're getting fed. While we aren't going to be ordering from expensive restaurants, 2-3 meals for 10-12 people over 17 shooting days adds up.

-Insurance. As careful and conscientious as we will be, unforeseen circumstances can always arise. While we hope nothing will go wrong, it's important to ensure that any possible liability is covered and any accidents or injuries will not result in our financial inability to complete the film.

In the unlikely but fortunate event that we surpass our funding goal, the additional funds will be put toward the next phase of production.

Whether you can contribute $5 or $500, every contribution is important and valuable, and makes all the difference between whether we can shoot this project or not. My previous projects (http://www.youtube.com/DorkmanScott) and my writing partner/lead actor's work (http://www.youtube.com/jabykoay) show what we can do with little to no money. We are looking forward to showing what we can do with more.

This project will truly be a kickstart to get a quirky and unique feature film off the ground when the movie studios are afraid to take a chance on anything original. We hope you will join us in our journey of making a funny, heartfelt, and action-packed feature film, and we look forward to building a relationship with all of our supporters that will last through production of this film and beyond.