Bill Nunn on the set of 'Regular Paintings'

Wrapped with ol' Radio Raheem today on the first day of shooting at Le Mardi Gras.

Lighting tests

'Regular Paintings' is in production

Greetings, frans (Francart + fans = frans). We wanted to let you all know that we have begun production on Regular Paintings! We shot for two days with our lead, Nathan Hollabaugh, and the lovely Jenny Lester.

We're shooting on the new Blackmagic Production Camera in 4K resolution (the more K's we have, the more pro we seem). Blackmagic released the new 4K RAW firmware just a few days before we started shooting. It's a good thing, because the compressed formats available on the camera don't handle underexposure well. RAW recording gives us the underexposure confidence we need for the look of this film. Not a big deal for the fairly bright domestic scenes we shot, but it's going to matter when we move to our dark little bar location. 

Below are some frame grabs from the shoot. They've been given a quick primary grade, nothing fancy or final.

Production resumes tentatively on August 18th. We'll be shooting in one of our favorite bars, Le Mardi Gras. Stay tuned!

'Meet Your Maker' at PGH Independent Film Fest

Meet Your Maker is an official selection at the Pittsburgh Independent Film Festival! It plays on Sunday, June 22 during the 3:20pm "Made in PA" shorts block at the Baverso Theater - 420 Chartiers Ave, McKees Rocks, PA.

Bring your friends - terrestrial or otherwise.

'Regular Paintings' - Thank You!

We want to thank everyone who contributed to Regular Paintings. We are so happy to have friends and family (and strangers!) who like our work enough to give us the means to do it. We hope you enjoy our new film!

Kickstarter and Coronaries - Our Crowdfunding Mistakes

If it weren't for just a few huge last-minute donations from our friends and family, the Kickstarter campaign for our short film Regular Paintings would have tanked big time.

Regular Paintings is the story of an aimless bartender suffering his midlife crisis in a haunted bar. It’s an old-fashioned ghost story cobbled together from Justin’s experiences working in the service industry and generally living like a vagabond.

We successfully crowdfunded our previous short, Meet Your Maker, last year. We succeeded mostly because of novelty. Justin and I hadn’t gone nuts and made a serious film before. All our family and friends wanted us to succeed. And that’s why we did.

When we launched the campaign for Regular Paintings, we made a bunch of the same mistakes we made on the last film, but this time we had no novelty, and the mistakes killed us.

Here are the mistakes we made and how you can avoid them:

Kickstarter and Coronaries - Our Crowdfunding Mistakes

1) We didn’t contact potential donors before launching.
We just finished up a Kickstarter campaign for our last film. Our backers got their rewards only four months before we launched Regular Paintings. Our audience was tapped out.

Contact people before you launch. Ask if they would be willing to donate to your campaign. Ask them to do so as soon as you launch. Ask those donors to help promote the campaign by telling their friends to donate as well.

This is also a way of gauging your final campaign goal. If you can’t lock down enough people to fund a good chunk of your campaign, re-evaluate your budget and start thinking about how to build your audience.

Kickstarter gives you the option of sending a “preview” version of your campaign to people before launching. Do this. Ask for input.

2) We didn’t make a list of media outlets before launching.
Lock down some blogs and publications that will feature your campaign to help raise awareness. Think about who your audience is and what they read. Contact these media outlets before you launch.

3) We relied solely on local media outlets.
If you don’t live in New York or LA, you need to think outside your region. Get in touch with publications that are unrelated to your city. Send press releases to websites like Film Courage and No Film School. Harrass blogs that are focused on your topic or genre (this is especially helpful for horror films).

4) We ignored print publications.
We had people come to the premiere of our last short film simply because it was listed in the newspaper. Somehow we didn’t get the hint. There’s a big, generalized audience out there reading newspapers. And don’t ignore small arts publications or local newsletters.

5) We didn’t outline our campaign or plan targeted posts when people were likely to see them.
We have a Facebook page for our production team. If you have a Facebook page, you get all kinds of stats on how many people see your posts. Figure out what kinds of posts draw attention and what time of day you post them. Target social media blasts about your crowdfunding campaign so they land in those sweet spots. Plan this ahead of time. We made a zillion little promotional videos for Regular Paintings but posted them haphazardly. The number of people seeing them varied too much. Posts before lunch and after rush hour work best on weekdays. Posts on Sunday work best on weekends.

Outlining is important. You can be aggressive without oversaturating and irritating your audience. Plan something new for each of these major posts - announcements, videos, etc.

6) We didn’t secure locations or all our actors before we launched.
Actors and locations make your campaign more tangible. You have something to present your audience with. When an actor, especially one who is well known, like John Amplas (Martin, Day of the Dead) who starred in our previous film, expresses confidence in you, it gives your audience confidence. Get actors to vouch for you in campaign videos. If the actors and locations are secured, then the project has inertia.

7) We didn’t plan fundraising events.
We just had a great fundraising event at Wigle Whiskey Distillery in Pittsburgh’s Strip District. We showed our previous short and cut in promotional videos for Regular Paintings as commercial breaks. We had a great turnout and people liked the film.

Trouble is, it was that same old audience. People we already knew. The event was neither a meaningful fundraiser nor a good networking event.

Plan these kinds of things before you launch. Better yet, plan to host one the day you launch. Invite those potential donors you contacted. Invite people you’d like to work with. Invite producers, other actors, other filmmakers. Invite people who contribute to theater and the arts.

It may feel funky to do this because you’re a small fish. Don’t worry about it. Pretend you’re the real deal and people will believe you.

8) We launched the campaign in the spring.
No one is sitting in front of their damn computer in May.

9) We spread ourselves too thin.
We have a Twitter, a Facebook page, a Facebook event and a blog. Not concentrated enough.

Pick one or two outlets and make sure you can keep up with them. Facebook pages are great because you get all kinds of statistics about readership. Blogs (we use Blogger) are also good for the same reason.

Network from your home base. Use your chosen outlet to communicate to others. Tag people and topics in posts if possible. Don’t try to be everywhere at once.

10) We ignored other arts events as chances to buttonhole potential donors.
Justin and I went to see one of our actors in a super popular stage show in downtown Pittsburgh. We didn’t bring any of our flyers or business cards with and made no use of the experience.

Put yourself in the culture. Go and be with the people you hope to attract to your work. Networking doesn’t have to be a stuffy, weird process. Don’t think of it as networking. Legitimately try to make friends. Ask others how you can help with their work. Justin and I are very bad at this, but it’s extremely important.

11) We asked for too much money.
Justin and I are broke from spending our own money on Meet Your Maker and we thought we could make Regular Paintings without digging anymore change out of the dryer. Kickstarter success hinges largely on your funding goal and how it relates to the movie you’re selling. You want to shoot for the minimum amount of money required to make the film.

Regular Paintings has no explosions, no set-building, no celluloid (we’re shooting digital). Our budget of $10,000 looks like a lot for that kind of movie. It’s actually just enough if you consider backer rewards, Kickstarter and Amazon fees (10% approximately), festival submission and festival attendance as part of the budget, but it’s hard to make that tangible for an audience. The movie is the tangible thing and that’s what they’re paying for.

Crowdfund to fund production. Worry about the other costs later. You can even launch another small campaign for post-production.

12) We made assumptions.
We made assumptions about our popularity, about how much people liked our last film, and about the number of people we could reach. We were wrong all over. Don’t make assumptions. Ask questions. Go take the temperature. Evaluate before you launch. Get solid data. We weren’t as popular as we thought we were.

13) We did things the same way we did last time.
Our last Kickstarter campaign was successful, so we did exactly the same things again. Repetition attracts no one (except to the multiplexes). Do something interesting. Reveal yourself. Be honest.


The main thing to understand about making independent shorts is: the money will never come easily. You have to work for your audience. If you made a movie, great. You’re already ahead of the competition. But your next thought should not be, “Let’s do a bigger one!” It should be, “How can we do better with less?” The important thing is to make movies. Anything that keeps you from doing that, avoid. Learn from failure, don’t get paralyzed. Don’t get an ego and don’t make assumptions. Be smart and be humble and don’t stop ever.

'Regular Paintings' - Candid

One more promo before we close our tab. Three days left to fund Regular Paintings! Thank you so so much to everyone who has contributed or helped us spread the word!

And don't forget, if you're in the Pittsburgh area, come on down to Wigle Whiskey 6-9pm Tuesday night! We'll be screening Meet Your Maker and raising funds/excitement for Regular Paintings! Drinks, tunes and sci-fi. What more could you want? 2401 Smallman Street in the strip district. Be there or be square!