Hey all,

I concluded the previous "No updates" update with "hopefully I’ll have bigger news to share soon." And sure enough, soon after I wrote that the Tribeca Film Institute announced their 2012 All Access Grantees, and Man Child is among the ten projects selected! There's an initial grant of $15,000, and then I'll be participating in a career development workshop in April (as part of the Tribeca Film Festival) where I'll have an opportunity to meet more producers and make other valuable connections. The $15k should help with the ongoing budgetary challenges... and both the grant and the connections should make the film even better, and give me more fuel for the rewriting fire!

Some more details and a couple of other things (I guess this is an "actual updates" update):

• According to The Hollywood Reporter, there were 690 submissions for 10 slots (this marks not only my first appearance in THR, but also my first appearance in a story alongside the multi-talented James Franco). I’m extremely grateful to the folks at Tribeca for believing in me and I can’t wait to participate in the program in April (and beyond). When the selection committee called, all I could say was “yes, I accept!”
  
• For the people have asked whether it's possible to back the project even though the Kickstarter campaign is officially over: first of all, thanks for asking! And second, yes, I've created a Paypal page at Koo.co that allows new backers to come on board for the same rewards -- minus the unique frames that only those of you who participated in the Kickstarter campaign will be getting. Feel free to forward this link to anyone who wants to support the project -- and thank them for me!
• I mentioned in the last update that I'd invested in a new camera, with which I plan on shooting Man Child. We put the camera to use on a test short recently, and though it has nothing to do with MC storywise and was more of a test than a proper short, I thought you might be interested. It was a dialogue-free exercise (I termed it a "tone piece" for my collaborators) used to familiarize ourselves with the new camera... after all, I want to ensure Man Child film looks as good as possible. More details at NoFilmSchool. Here it is:

Thanks as always for your support! Back to the script! All best,

Koo

Hey everyone,

It's been a couple of months since the Man Child campaign ended, and I've been itching to do an update. I was waiting until I had something big to relay, but despite a lack of earth-shattering news, I figure it's been long enough that I should check in with a progress report... just to let you know that I'm hard at work on the project and have not escaped to the caribbean with the funds! (that sounds fun though)

So, what's new? 

I've been getting notes from producers and others, and it's been a new challenge as a screenwriter to get this much input. Everyone has a different version of the finished film in their head, and what matters most is your own vision... but you have to be cognizant of good notes, while simultaneously casting aside notes that could damage or take the story in an unintended direction. For a project that's lived in my head for a year, it's ultimately very helpful to hear from others... but deciding which notes to incorporate is a very different challenge from staring at the blank page by yourself.

With that in mind, I've been working on a new draft of the script, and I have not lost any of the excitement over the project. In fact, I'm more excited than ever about it, but there are a number of new challenges. First off is finding the right producer -- it's a passion project, and despite the size of the Kickstarter campaign, it's still a very small budget as far as sports films are concerned. I've heard numerous concerns about whether we can make it for the Kickstarter funds or whether we should try to raise additional private investment. At this point I'm 100% focused on the script, but real-world logistics are starting to creep up -- for example, basketball is a winter sport, can we really shoot it in the summer and fake it? Time will tell... ultimately we're going to make this one way or another, it's just a matter of when and how.

Here are some other things that have happened with the project since the (amazingly successful!) conclusion of the Kickstarter campaign.

• The project participated in the Emerging Narrative and Emerging Visions programs put on by IFP and the Film Society of Lincoln Center. I met a lot of producers as a result of these (amazingly helpful) programs, and I had an opportunity at the latter to meet with director Doug Liman (Swingers, The Bourne Identity, Fair Game) to chat about Man Child. Doug famously made Swingers for $200k, and amazingly shot it on film for that amount -- today's digital tools bring production costs down even further. His experiences were very instructive, as he talked about the most important aspect of making your first feature: finding your personal voice as a filmmaker. In many cases, having a smaller budget can make for a better environment for this, as you have less cooks in the kitchen. Noted!
• I've made a slight revision to the title, going from Man-child to Man Child. One concern I've heard from folks is that the title makes people think of an immature grown man (living at home, playing videogames, not getting a job, etc.) instead of a young athlete who's bigger and stronger than his peers. The term "manchild" can mean either one, of course, but I think separating the two words will make it more thematically relevant to the maturity and growth of our protagonist, TJ. That's my thinking at present, at least. This isn't an earth-shattering change, but that's why I called this the "no updates update!"
• If you're ever thinking about running your own Kickstarter campaign, I wrote a post on my website that may be helpful about how I raised $125,000. There is no "right" or "wrong" way to approach a fundraising campaign -- the magic and uncertainty of a creative pursuit is what makes these projects special, in my opinion -- but I certainly did a lot of research before running my own campaign, and in that light perhaps this post could be interesting or helpful.
• There was a minor controversy on my website over my decision to purchase a RED camera to use on Man Child. As a backer you may recall that I'd sketched out a rough budget that included $15k to rent a RED camera, but after the campaign ended RED announced a newer, cheaper camera called the SCARLET that sells for about the same amount. If you're a filmmaker who plans on making more than one movie in your life, if the prices are the same it makes sense to buy rather than rent a camera, so you can use the camera on future productions... but the whole controversy was startling to me because I didn't use any of the Kickstarter funds to buy the camera! My idea is I can use the camera for many productions and write it off over several years, and "rent" it to Man Child for free, thereby spending more of the Kickstarter funds on actors, locations, etc., enabling us to put more of your money on screen. Some people apparently did not understand this -- nor do they understand the concept of putting something on a credit card and paying it off over the time -- but... water under the bridge. I'll be using the camera over the next several months to prepare to make MC, and it's already very nice to be able to test something ahead of time and work out the kinks, thereby helping to make a better film.

I'm sure there are plenty of other minor updates to share, but these are just the first things that come to mind. I find it difficult to share anything interesting about the writing process -- it's just you, your notes, and the script spending some quality time together. Hours stretch into days, days into weeks, new lines are added, entire scenes are thrown out, and all that matters is you end up with the best possible script. How you get there is a murky process that is sometimes teeth-gnashing and sometimes triumphant. When writer's block sets in, however, I've found that the absolute best motivator has been the success of the Kickstarter campaign. You are all responsible for the outpouring of support that gets me past the speedbumps along the way! Thank you again and again, and hopefully I'll have bigger news to share soon!

Koo

Hello friends,

I'm still recovering from the wonderful Man-child campaign and the concluding party. The live stream of the last three hours is archived here, and it was great to have so many of you join us from around the world (turns out there were over 1,300 live views!).

While I can't wait to get back to working on a new draft of the script, I still feel that I could sleep for a week. But I first wanted to reach out and say that, yes, I know I owe some of you surveys (if you backed the project at a level including a consultation or blog post, for example), and I'll be getting those out ASAP. And if I haven't responded to a message of yours, I'll be getting to it soon! I'm a bit flooded right now -- in a good way.

In the meantime, thank you all again. To contextualize this project, I wanted to share this video of all 10,000 successful projects in Kickstarter history, arranged from least- to most-funded. To see how far we've come, fast forward to where you think the Man-child campaign would fit in. Though this video was made in July (before our campaign launched), it does a great job of the conveying the enormity of this undertaking:

Man-child is in some rarified air, thanks to you.

Also, to share a lot more behind-the-scenes details of how we made it this far, I just wrote this detailed post at NoFilmSchool.

Finally, going forward I'll be issuing periodic updates through Kickstarter to keep you guys informed. It's going to be a long time before we're in production, much less before we have finished DVDs to ship, but rest assured that I will not forget about the rewards I owe each and every one of you! Plus, I'm easy to reach; you can always email me at koo@nofilmschool.com.

Where else to follow the film going forward

First, I will be sharing behind-the-scenes details of the film's production on my website NoFilmSchool. If you're a filmmaker yourself or you're the kind of person who watches the behind-the-scenes features of a DVD, that's where I'll be talking about a lot of technical and artistic issues in the months and years to come.

Second, if you're a basketball fan, please like Man-child on Facebook. This is a brand new page that I just launched, so there's not much there now, but the topic of the Facebook page will be focused more on the topic of basketball. So, if you're a film fan: NoFilmSchool. If you're a basketball fan: Facebook. 

This way I can limit the Kickstarter updates to the important stuff, given this is going to be a multi-year journey we're embarking on together (I want to keep the updates meaningful!).

Thank you again and again for your support, and you'll be hearing from me soon. I can't wait to make this movie!

Koo

Hey guys,

Thank you!!!

I'm typing this from Indie Screen, the bar/lounge/theater in Brooklyn, NYC where we hosted the last three hours of the Man-child campaign live. It was a lot of fun, we had over 600 people tune in over the course of the night, and ended the campaign with a final tally of 2,336 backers for a total of $125,100! This means after Kickstarter and Amazon Payments take their fees that the campaign will have raised the full $115,000. We hit 108% funded!

If you want to see the archived stream of the last 3 hours -- minus the last 3 minutes, because Ustream cut off the recording early! -- it is available here. It was great fun chatting with backers from around the world and wrapping up the campaign live.

Thank you to all of you who tuned in. And thank you to all of you who backed the project -- it has been inspiring and humbling and I can't thank you enough.

I'll have many more updates for you over the course of the months and years to follow, but for now: I am going to work my absolute hardest to make a movie that makes you proud.

Talk to you soon and once again, thank you for your support, it has been the most amazing experience of my life!

All the best,

Koo

Hey backers!

I haven't had a chance to gather my thoughts so I'll keep this brief -- for now -- but we just hit 100% funded! The Man-child campaign is a success and I get to make my first feature film -- because of you!

There are several hours left and pledges are still coming in. The support from everyone has been truly amazing.

I'd like to propose a toast to you tonight, whether that be in person in Brooklyn or live over a videostream (the link will be posted on the Kickstarter page). The party starts at 8pm and the videostream should go up around 9pm EDT (convert that to local time here).

Thank you so much, and I'll see you tonight!

Koo