After an initial flurry of interest, things have been a bit slow on the fundraising front, but I have some exciting news today, as I have commissioned a local artist named Michelle Estrada to design the movie poster for "Checkmate." Rather than extol her virtues via word, I will let some of her other projects speak for themselves:
This watercolor hangs in my office.
This is spray paint and cardboard.
One of my favorites.
I happen to know Michelle personally, but that doesn't mean I'm any less excited about bringing her onto this project, and I am curious to see what direction she takes from my script. Hopefully all of you are excited about what you see here as well.
Hi! This is going to be a somewhat discordant blog post, because I am going to be talking to two audiences. Some of you know me, either personally or from the cooking blog that I wrote for just over two years. But another group--hopefully soon to be the larger group--got here from Kickstarter.
You see, I enjoyed writing about food, I truly did. Might even pick it back up down the road. Yet I want something more. I want to make a movie. Now, if I had grown up in a different era, this could well be a pipe dream. I'm married with two kids and a full-time job. I can't drop everything and go to Hollywood, or even to film school. But in the internet age, that isn't as much of an issue.
It's not hard to find resources to teach you about the manufacture of gore; lighting; camera placement. Those of you who have met me know that I've been playing with fake blood for years. Distribution isn't much of an issue any more either, another thing that we have the internet to thank. Youtube and other sites long for good, short content. Take for instance "Cargo," the amazing seven-minute zombie film made in Australia for a short video contest. (If you haven't seen it, you really ought to.) The people who made this movie are everything we are aiming to be.
The great thing about this model is that I know Ryan (my partner on this project) and I can do it. We've had some luck meeting good people in the Boise community who are willing to act on this thing for a pittance, and--while I don't want to spoil it yet--the original theme we had composed for the credit sequence is quite impressive. All we need is the money to put it together. Christopher Nolan made a feature for only $6,000 ("Following"), so our fundraising goal of $2,500 should help us get the tools we need to make a pretty entertaining short film.
So here's where my narrative splits:
If you came here from Kickstarter, I thank you for your interest in our project. I will continue to update this site with details on the project as they develop. I know the resources I have provided for you to view are thin at present, but we will not disappoint you.
If you got here from Facebook, Twitter, my cooking blog, or any other source, please check out my Kickstarter. Anything helps, and I don't just mean your money. Sharing the project, talking about it with your friends, even donating a box of 2XL flannel shirts that we can soak in fake blood if we don't make our funding goal (because we will make this happen, even if it takes years of old fashioned scraping things together) will get us closer to making "Checkmate" into something you can watch.
