Sam Bailey and Conscious Filmmaking

This week, I've had a great many discussions with other filmmakers about what social media can do for the film industry... and the one common conclusion we all seem to arrive at is the ability of the filmmaker to relate to their audience on an entirely new level.

Creatively, Sam Bailey is not revolutionary. While we're all very excited by our blue-collar approach to modern fantasy, and while this certainly isn't a movie anyone has seen before now, we're basically making a mystery buddy movie with a supernatural twist. Our story is the hook that keeps us all working so hard, and it's the core of what we can offer our audience. At the same time, it's not what defines us as leaders in the film industry.

In terms of the long-lasting impact we can have on this business, Sam Bailey's real contribution is our relationship with you. When has mass media been able to create and sustain a community, rather than a product? Since the decline of theater, media artists have come to see branding as a substitute for relating to the audience in real-time. Now that technology has caught up, those trends are reversing... and our film is helping to define one approach to navigating those changes and restoring the community element in cultural exchange. Repertory film is what Sam Bailey and our other projects can give the industry.

At the same time, this week has taught me that our approach is not the only one that works. Crowdsourcing press and documentary filmmaking is changing the way people look at news and current events. Fan-based production, like the work currently being done in the Star Wars universe, is allowing community to step in and reclaim pre-branded products. Personal relationships between development teams and prospective audience members, like that between the Wayward Sons team and their followers, is allowing for focused feedback in realtime. Some of these ideas are being implemented with more success than others, but all are valid approaches.

When they work, these approaches focus on the core principle of community. Like Homer and Shakespeare, today's media creators are responsible for building - and relating to - the audience that supports their efforts. By providing a viable model for that relationship, Sam Bailey and 8 Sided Films is, we hope, making things easier for future storytellers and our culture at large.

This is something that's been on my mind of late, and I just wanted to bring it up as an aspect of what we're creating.

If you're wondering how you can help, there are two things in particular that make a big difference right now:

First, please click THIS LINK. Demanding Sam Bailey on Eventful brings us one step closer to theaters.

Secondly, please join us on the 8 Sided Forum. Every new community member is another voice, and another reason for even more people to rally around our cause.

Now that our community has grown large enough to attract the attention of our media contemporaries, we can finally begin sharing the myths and stories that truly define our community. Thank you for making our dreams come true. We're excited and proud to be returning the favor!

Yours truly,

T

The Sam Bailey Pitch

How is it that I've gotten this far in my career? That's a question everybody asks.

Today I was working up a Sam Bailey pitch with Kat, and found myself pretty much explaining the process of how I got to be where I am. Prior to pulling in folks like Gerard, Dave, Aimee, Sheila, and so on... that anchor of production value that allowed me to reach out to those people was based on my relationships with the production companies for whom I've done cold-calling as a financier.

From there, here's how we put Sam Bailey together:

Movies like Twilight and The DaVinci Code (and even Ink) have made modern fantasy the one genre where dramatic performances are consistently yielding blockbusters. This genre is the one place where a filmmaker can provide the performers and the investors with an equally compelling motivation. Our market shares a space with the superhero films and the horror genre, without the demand for effects work. With that in mind:

Sam Bailey has a vital, unique, beautiful script that plays directly to the strengths of today’s marketplace. Until now, no filmmaker has taken modern fantasy out of that huge, operatic scope and closely observed the characters and lives of the people who actually live in these worlds. Most films gloss over the paradoxes inherent in an immortal life, and Sam Bailey embraces them. Thanks to our unique, compelling script:

Sam Bailey has the Oscar-Winning production value of a theatrically successful independent film. Our Director of Photography has shot some of the most beautiful commercial footage of the last ten years, and is providing Sam Bailey with rich, elegant visuals. Our composer is providing the production with a classic, European-style concerto to enhance the flavor of the film. Our relationships in post-production are enabling us to get expensive editing and sound fascilities on an equity basis. Boston is a film-friendly city location-wise, and we are able to find locations that resonate the rich, antiquated tones of modern fantasy – simultaneous to expressing our down-to-earth approach – on a budget that does not express the true value of the film. With the production we've already assembled and the value of our equity incentives, we've found Oscar-Winning talent excited to work with us on the production team. Our budget for Sam Bailey is a realistic appraisal of what an excellent, dramatic, tonally rich film will cost below-the-line. Because we can provide such a high degree of creative excellence:

We have an extremely dedicated, tight-knit, talented and tireless production team at the core of this film. Having this production value at our disposal has enabled us to pull together a group of extraordinary people, from the line producer to our 8 Sided ensemble performers. This team has already been working relentlessly for over a year to lay the infrastructure for Sam Bailey’s success, from the script to the budget and business plan. During that time, our team has also been working on another objective, essential to our success:

On the internet, we’re already building our audience! From viral marketing to our social media network, Sam Bailey’s cast and crew have already built a following of thousands of people. On twitter, we broadcast daily to an audience spread across several social and viral accounts. Our Eventful campaign is underway, our Facebook is growing daily, and we have a fully interactive online social network of our own at www.8sidedforum.com, where budding filmmakers and curious audience members are getting to know our artists and craftsmen personally! What’s more, viral campaigns like www.whoissambailey.com allow our audience to live in a world where it’s possible for a man to live 600 years. Our work has proven that social media can give a small group of dedicated producers the tools to successfully market an independent platform release. In turn, that success has led us to:

Sam Bailey is already in negotiations with exhibitors for a platform release! All our social media efforts have given us the ability to enter a dialogue with the arthouse cinema chains, and now we are presented with a favorable set of terms and an achievable set of conditions. We’re well on our way to opening Sam Bailey in 5 screens, with a concrete and viable plan for expansion based on social networking, viral marketing, and festival-based awareness. Thanks to our audience, production value, and exit strategies:

Sam Bailey is earning the attention of larger financing institutions and a-list performers. When we began this journey, our plan for financing revolved around the experience our producers have with private equity. Because we’ve made the most of our own creative strengths and the financial strengths of today’s film marketplace, Sam Bailey is attracting the attention of people like you. On the one hand, the creative mission we are realizing is very, very rewarding. This is a challenging film, and we are very careful to provide our creators with the support they need to meet that challenge head on. On the other hand, we have systematically mitigated and addressed every risk of film production – while opening ourselves to the tremendous upside that independent theatrical releases can offer. With that in mind, consider that:

This films only costs $500,000! I’m not saying it’s easy to produce an excellent, successful, theatrically competitive independent film on a microbudget. It’s not. At the same time, all this value is the direct result of our relentless insistence on doing exactly that. At this point, our success has earned the trust of Oscar-Winning talent, of nationally known cinema chains, of well-known production and post-production companies, and most importantly of our audience. In turn, having that global collaboration makes it even easier to create the production value we set out to create. Our employees and collaborators have the experience to ensure and guide our success, and we have the vision – and frankly, the impulsiveness – to pull something like this together in the first place. We’re in a perfect position to use the wisdom of our senior team members (and the breadth of our audience), to leverage and temper the valuable recklessness of our own youth to create something… worthy.

This film is worthy. Going back to the beginning, this is a movie that leverages the market trends, at shockingly little expense, to open ourselves to the likelihood of creating a beautiful, meaningful, important movie that affects it’s audience and delivers a fantastic ROI. In the process, we get to take advantage of marketing opportunities in social media that the competition is only beginning to understand. This team is made up of grounded, creative leaders hell-bent on excellence, and we’ve put together something better even than the sum of its parts. Sam Bailey is happening because it is worthy.

Stone Soup

When asked about getting films into production, I usually find myself referring to a children's book called "Stone Soup". While everyone from New England seems to know this book, I consistently find folks from other parts of the country who are unfamiliar with it.

For those sad unfortunates, I paraphrase it here:

As the chill of winter begins to set over colonial New England, a travelling stranger passes through a small town along the road. With no money to his name, he begs for his dinner - and is turned away by every house he finds.

"Winter is coming, you know."

"Our harvest was small this year."

"We're all poor, here. Who can afford it?"

With the cold evening right on his heels, the stranger decides not to travel to the next town on the road. Instead, he heads to the creek... where he selects two stones. As he picks through the mud, washing and appraising the stones of the riverbed, the stranger is careful to be seen by a family of villagers.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm making stone soup", says the stranger.

"Is it good?"

"It's very good. In fact, it's my favorite food."

"May I try some?"

"You may try some, if you'd be so good as to lend me your cauldron. Mine is too heavy to carry on the road."

Quickly agreeing, the family runs off to fetch their cauldron. Building a fire in the center of town, the stranger hangs the cauldron and fills it with water. As the water begins to boil, he drops in the two stones.

"What are you doing?" A second family has come out from their house, and is watching the stranger curiously.

"I'm making stone soup," says the stranger.

"Is it good?"

"It's delicious!", exclaims the first family.

"May we have some?"

For a moment, the stranger considers.

"Do you have any squash?"

"Sure, we have squash."

"Well, stone soup is always better with squash. If you'd be willing to share your squash, I'd be happy to let you have some."

With that, the second family runs off to get some squash.

When the third family comes out to see what's cooking, the stranger convinces them to lend him some onions. The fourth family brings salt. The fifth brings salted meat, and soon the whole village is in the center of town, gathered around the cauldron to share in the feast.

When everyone finally sits down to eat, everyone agrees - stone soup is by far the best thing they've tasted in a long, long time!

To make a film, there are basically three things you need. First and foremost, you need a fantastic script. Having a story worth telling gives you the stones - forgive the pun - to pull together everything else the movie requires. Second, you need to be good with people. When someone tells you "Winter is coming," you'd better have the tools to find out what they really mean by that. Lastly, you need to know how to make a fantastic stew. Without knowing which ingredients you need and how to use them, you're going to wind up with a terrible movie and a mob of very angry villagers.

If anyone out there is wondering why their career hasn't taken off yet, I'd suggest looking long and hard at the lesson behind Stone Soup. Are you asking people for dinner and getting turned away? Is the winter long and cold?

If so, you will probably find the very same problems in the next village down the road. Lord knows, you found those problems at the last five villages you've visited. Am I right?

At the risk of being flip, maybe it's time to find your stones!

Celtic Ruin (A Poem)

I keep a bawn the ivy rends,

Pulls my stones into the earth and turns them,

Turns them into soil.

She’s standing in my green gates then,

Regards my wall in all its worth and turns me,

Turns me from my toil.

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