Our progress so far

For those of you reading this, we thought we would update the status of the project as of today. It's been a bit of a hectic week, with launching the project on kickstarter to finishing up school for the semester. So here is the down low so far...

We have six backers, and we love each and every one of them! We are 2.5% (yes, I measure in 1/2 percents) towards our entire goal of $10,000 with fifty eight days to go. Currently we are sitting on the 4th page of "new and popular" projects under the film category.

We still have a long way to go to hit our goal, so we hope you will support us. Every dollar counts! (the more backers we get, the more popularity we get, and the more momentum the project carries) Kickstarter doesn't charge your card until we hit our funding goal and our funding time period ends, so if your poor now, but expect not to be in 58 days, we would love your support!

That's it basically. We will keep the blog updated more now that life has become a bit less busy.

Kickstarter is live!

So it's official. Our kickstarter page is now live

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1339280674/almost-there-stories-from-the-american-road

Thanks to everyone so far who has been following the project. We are excited to get out on the road and make this film happen!

- Anthony

Film Premier Tomorrow - Nightingale Theatre

I don't know why we didn't post this sooner, but chalk that up to being super involved in pre-production on "Almost There". Anyway...my current short film "Things We Did Last Thursday" (2011, 16mm, Color, Sound) will be premiering at the Nightingale Theatre tomorrow night.

Along with my film, Zachary Sala's film "Stateline" (2011, 16mm, B&W, Silent) will be showing as well. Zach is my collaborator on "Almost There", so it's cool to have a dual premier.

The Nightingale Theatre

1084 N. Milwaukee

Chicago, IL

 

$5 for a ticket. Come out and support local Chicago filmmakers.

- Anthony

Shot the final piece for the kickstarter proposal vid

So we finished shooting the last pieces of the launch video. We are hope to launch the actual Kickstarter project by Friday, but it may not be until Sunday. It's more important for us to get it right the first time, than to finish a few days early.

We aren't green screening anything into the frame. Just seemed like a decent enough setting to deliver the intro portion of the vid.

Check back soon for the Kickstarter page, and the completed launch video!

- Anthony (and yes, the soft light and ladder were supposed to be in the frame)

 

 

Gas prices

 This better not be the norm this summer. I better think of renting a car that runs on rainbows and prayers.

 

 

The car of our (within budget) dreams

 

This is the car we will hopefully be taking across the country. The definition of affordable luxury haha. It does have power steering after all!

- Anthony

"The Map" (or why my back will be broken at the end)

So after much deliberations, and conjecture as to just how much the price of gas could rise by summer...here is the final "itinerary" for our film. The destinations are not the most important part. We are just as interested in what we find in between each waypoint. Each episode of the web series will involve our trip from one place to another, and the people we find on the route.

It's a ton of miles, but considering I put over 100k miles on my VW Golf in four years, I think we can handle it. Thank god rental cars now all come with unlimited miles! (if they only knew how many of those "unlimited miles" I planned on putting on their car haha)

Screenshots from the Proposal Video

Just working (as usual...seems like I am busier and busier every day) in Final Cut, and thought I would take some screenshots straight out of the viewer window. Just a tiny taste of the "concept video" we are producing to sell the project.

They will make more sense when the video goes live, but for now...hope you enjoy them anyway

-Anthony

"Almost There" - Launching Soon on Kickstarter

So here it goes...our inaugural post. Considering the fact that were so close to launching our project on Kickstarter, it's probably about time we start to let the cat out of the bag on the film itself. 

To introduce the film, I should probably start by introducing myself first. I'm Anthony, and I will be your designated tour guide through the adventure that is making a film. (this film specifically) I've been a filmmaker for the last nine years, mostly in the documentary genre. Some of my films have gone onto distribution, and others are created for a smaller, more intimate audience. But no matter what I am doing, I am making films in one form or another.  That's the only true constant in my life. That and my girlfriend Adriane and our dog Pip.

So why the blog you ask? Simple...I am currently in Pre-Production on my next film, "Almost There - Stories from the American Road." It's a simple premise, but one I consider to be super important. We will be hitting the road this summer on a 6,500 mile travel odyssey, in search of the people of our country, and the stories they have to share. Everything shot on the trip will be edited into an episodic web series, which will then be turned into a feature length documentary. From there we will be entering it to documentary specific festivals and showing it to as many people as we can.

Our reason behind this? Simple. We are looking to reconnect to the art of vocal communication. We walk past thousands of people daily, yet we never actually stop and talk to anyone. We never ask them their stories. What do they love? What are their fears? Dreams? Desires? Successes? Failures? 

What is it that makes them "them"?

That's the entire film, summed up in the above paragraph. It may not be many words, but the ambition behind the project cannot be measured in word count. We are super excited to be able to potentially bring this project out into the world.

We will keep you updated on our progress, and when we go live on Kickstarter. The blog will consist of production updates, anecdotal info, fun stories, interesting photography, and tons of other content. We hope that you will subscribe and follow along on our project.

I should also introduce my collaborator on this project, Zachary Sala. A filmmaker / artist / sculptor / number of other artistic things, he will be my co-pilot on the entire project, from Pre-Production to the trip itself.  He is the Kato to my Green Hornet

Thanks for reading! We hope you keep checking back in for updates, and potentially support our project when it goes live on Kickstarter

-Anthony