Getting Popolo Off The Ground

Hi everyone,

Last time I introduce myself through a post - so now I decided to take the time to share the story how I able to do and finish my first feature film.

So it started after I came back from Afghanistan and I am hungry to do any type of work related to directing theater or film. And it happens that a small theater company in Honolulu called The Actor's Group is looking for an assistant director. I got the job and I met Quantae Love (the lead star for Popolo). I told Quantae about my journey and dream as director. Touched by my story, he decided to help me get my dream. And that is when it begins...

We started off with writing the script, just like every other production. If it's not on the page, it's not on the screen they said. So while we are writing the script - together with James Harber and Richard Braunskill - both of us decided that it will be a good idea to create a mock poster. The idea is hopefully by creating the concept poster it's easier for us to pitch it to various investors and convincing cast and crew that our idea was a great idea. Here is some of the pictures during the photoshoot:

And here is the poster concept we come up with - that eventually end up becoming our official film release posters.

However, posters was not enough to convince anyone to fund a feature film. Yet we able to raise enough money to create a concept trailer. Again it's to reinforce the idea that we know what we are doing and our movie idea is actually great and achievable. With three day shoot and U$D 1,000 budget, we able to produce this trailer:

We premiered this trailer at one of the hottest club in Honolulu followed with a crowdfunding video. This is the crowdfunding video we had:

We use Indiegogo first then followed by Kickstarter. Although we are unable to reach our goals during the crowd funding but by miracles we able to get what we need to start the production. And so Popolo begins its production by August 2014.

That's my post for now - next one we will go on what happens during the production. Ciao