About this project
Stakeout Part 1
G.A.R.E. PSA
VID Agents Promo #1
LINKS:
- Website: www.vid-agents.com
- Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/NewPhilms
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thevidagents
- Twitter: @VidAgents
'Vid Agents' is a feature length action-comedy web series. The succinct 110 page script will be divided into 16 episodes and each episode will be roughly 10 minutes in length.
The project is greatly influenced by many other great action-comedy films and television series, such as 'Beverly Hills Cop', 'Miami Vice', and 'Lethal Weapon’—just to name a few.
We love video games and think it is important that the show be fun and relevant to the modern gamer. So as an added bonus, we plan to sprinkle the episodes with friends from the video games world. FOR EXAMPLE: Jon St. John - AKA: ‘Duke Nukem’ was able to lend his voice for our trailer in our Kickstarter video!
In an alternate reality, video games have been federally outlawed by the United States government. The rationale for this law comes from the belief that the alluring power of video games (and more importantly, violent video games) drives people to commit violent acts. But now that they're illegal, the trade of games has become the most violent and profitable portion of the black market—and that’s where the 'VID Agents' come in.
The story follows Gabe Wolfe and Ethan Fox, two police officers who are promoted to become the inaugural agents for the brand new 'Video Game Investigations Division' in the Greater Los Angeles Area. Quickly Gabe and Ethan, as 'VID Agents', uncover that the game trafficking ring is bigger than they originally thought, and soon find themselves on the hunt for the biggest distributor in all of LA—and the closer they get to finding this illusive criminal, the more dangerous it gets.
With an underground game trade ring threatening to tear Los Angeles apart, it's up to Gabe and Ethan to rid the city from these vile and deadly crimes as the 'VID Agents'!
Any gamer knows that it is!
It’s still a major topic every year for both politicians and the media. You can search on the internet for the debate about the link between violence and video games and never see the light of day, because there is no end to the articles and studies that have been written. And just to bring it all home, just last year in 2013 President Obama asked Congress to allocate $10,000,000 for a study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) looking at the relationship between video games, violence in the media, and gun violence.
Philip Bache is a writer/director/producer living in Los Angeles and the creator of 'VID Agents'. Some of his works include independent features, shorts, music videos, web shows, and video games.
Currently, he voice directs on AAA titles that have large Hollywood casts (sometimes over 100 actors) and expansive production schedules. Many of these games have gone on to win numerous awards, including 'Game of the Year'.
Want to know he can produce and direct?
Here's a link to the short film 'Cage Shift' that Philip and his talented team made for under $1,000, in less than 3 days, that got into numerous film festivals. It has recently been released online to help show the 'VID Agent' Kickstarters what we can accomplish.
Want to know if he can write?
You can check out the fan 'spec' Ghostbusters 3 script he wrote, where he had top voice over actors read it live in a 360 seat theater on Sunset Blvd. The attending audience was able to listen to the script, while watching the story unfold on the screen with over 150 images. This one-night-only event gained some press around the world, especially among Ghostbusters' fans. That script is now available for free online.
"Remember that awesome live read [of a Ghostbusters3 spec script] we talked about way back in June?...there’s still no videos from the event, but on the flip side the script is now available to download and enjoy...I’m about fifteen pages in and I’m VERY impressed!" -Jason Fitzsimmons, 'Ghostbustersnews' (article)
Check out more of the music featured in our Kickstarter video on BESTRACK's soundcloud page! He's an extremely talented musician on the rise. Without his 'soundtrack', 'VID Agents' would not be as fully realized. BESTRACK ROCKS!
As soon as we get the money to create this project, we are ready to complete pre-production and immediately head into production.
Much of the preproduction for 'VID Agents' has already been completed. Many of the actors have been cast, most of the locations have been scouted, and tons of props have been secured. The music has been licensed, and we have amazing talents assisting with the special effects required for the production.
The script was created with the mentality of being a project that can be produced on an indie budget before a single page was written. Having a true understanding of how to create great stories with very little is something that we excel at. Many people try to do this and fail, because they don't really know what things cost or how to get things done well on small budgets.
We do.
Many friends and individuals who work in television, feature films, and even video games are ready to assist us with this show. It has always been the goal of 'New Philms' to bring you fun and great content no matter the medium. We're going to do just that with this project in our biggest endeavor to date.
We will put the money you donate directly into the show. Most of the funding will go towards feeding the crew and paying the actors a daily minimum. Since this is the first project that we are putting out to the crowdfunding public, we feel a need to prove ourselves to you at this level first, and that means working extra hard!
We want to release this as a web show that stands out amongst its competition. We always designed it to be a great indie feature, but web show distribution allows us to get 'Vid Agents' directly to the fans.
Our hopes are to go directly into production as soon as our Kickstarter goal is met.
We will release 'Vid Agents' online for free for a limited time, but we may not have all the episodes available that way forever. As a 4th tier backer (and above) you’ll be getting digital downloads and/or physical copies of the series, so that you will always have access to the complete show/episodes. To put it simply, your reward means something: you buy the show, you get the show. We might leave a few episodes up to keep it accessible and build an audience, but we also want the people who back our project to be part of something special.
REWARDS ARE LAID OUT IN FURTHER DETAIL IN THE RIGHT SIDE OF THIS KICKSTARTER PAGE.
The more money we get from this Kickstarter campaign, the more flexibility we will have to make this project. By gaining extra funding, we hope to hire bigger names for the cast, buy essential equipment, and possibly even shoot this show on a better camera than we were planning to. However, better cameras means more storage space, bigger actors means more hoops to jump through, and bigger action means bigger stunts… And all of these things mean more money. We want 'VID Agents' to be the biggest and best it can be. Reaching stretch goals would allow us to create a better production and final product.
Hitting any of these stretch goals will benefit ALL OF YOU!
We put these other stretch goals on here in case this project goes crazy viral based on its concept.
If we reach:
$200,000 - We will create our show in a way that is not as limited as we're originally planning this to be. This stretch goal would allow us to do what we originally set out to do and not limit the production. This means extra cameras (for coverage), more production hands (which we could really use), extra film equipment (like jibs and dollies), and a bigger overall production value that we can bring to the show.
$400,000 - We will get Hollywood talent to come out and play bit parts in this series and secure a 'secret' talent that will come out to play the main villain!
$600,000 - We have always hoped that we could reach out and get this show professionally translated into other languages so others could enjoy it around the world. If we reach this goal, we will make this happen. (Spanish, Italian, French, German, Korean, Japanese, and more)
$1,000,000 - We will take this project, some of its crew and stars - on the road! We will plan on going to major cities / colleges around the United States and screen 'Vid Agents'. There, you will be able to meet us first hand. Hitting this amount will also allow us to begin preproduction on a possible second season of 'VID Agents' that we already have big plans for. And when we say big… we mean BIG!! FURTHERMORE - WE WILL ALSO MAKE AN 8-BIT VID AGENTS VIDEO GAME! Every backer will be allowed to get a downloadable version of this game. We already know some game designers who have said they would help make this happen.
HELP SPREAD THE WORD!
If you'd like to see this project completed as much as we do, but can't donate (or have already), please share this with everyone you know! Spread the word via facebook / twitter / videogame forums / blogs / news outlets or any other place you can think of. Kickstarter has "share" options right under the video, so check them out and help spread the word!
THANKS for your time!
LINKS:
- Website: www.vid-agents.com
- Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/NewPhilms
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thevidagents
- Twitter: @VidAgents
Risks and challenges
The challenges for us have always been the same:
Getting funding.
This has been true for all of our projects.
For as ambitious as 'Vid Agents' may be, we believe it is a relatively low risk production, because we've planned 'Vid Agents' carefully before one page was written - from props to locations, from actors to special effects, and everything else that is involved in its creation.
More money will always mean a bigger production, but we know how to create projects with very few resources and have done so for years. We have big plans not only for this production, but for many other great shows and features, but it starts here. If we reach our goal, you're letting us know that we're on the right track.
We waited for the right project to share with you guys and asked for a realistic amount of money to create a truly independent production.
This is a true passion project. No matter what the funding outcome is, we will work long, hard, and possibly for free to make sure we fulfill our vision for 'Vid Agents'.
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Funding period
- (45 days)