Kickstarter Complete

And that's that. Kickstarter complete. Success. Wow.

We had never heard of Kickstarter just four months ago. Now we've run a successful campaign and that's thanks to all of you who donated, re-posted our links, took a chance on us, supported the arts, and generally helped us spread the word. Our success is your success. Congratulations to us all!

Things are coming together (proof? - I just ran into our D.P. at my local coffee shop!). Now that we've cast our female roles we'll turn our attention in other directions - like the male roles! Matt's hard at work on putting the budget together. And as we enter the new year we'll begin our search in earnest for our principal location (so if you know of a two-story, preferably white, house that at least looks like it's out in the middle of nowhere, and that's available for us to take for a month beginning in late July or early August - let us know at reunionproducer@gmail.com).

Thank you all again. You are amazing, spectacular, generous people. We love you.

See you at the movies!

Kickstarter winding down

As I write this there are a mere 37 hours left in Reunion's Kickstarter campaign, a campaign that, through the generosity and faith of 72 backers (so far!), has been a success for nearly a week.

Our campaign officially ends at 11:59PM (PST) on December 29th, but we reached our goal a full week early (12/22). It's been an amazing experience to see so many different people support the production of an independently produced horror film. And thanks to that support we were able to enjoy the Christmas break without worrying about whether we would reach our goal.


One thing we've taken away from this experience is that we will support other Kickstarter projects in the future. It's an amazing way to support creative people and the passion that drives them.


And Kickstarter is free to use! They only make money when projects are successfully funded (like ours). At that point they receive 5% of the money donated. So when you back a successful project you're also helping to support the whole Kickstarter community of projects, a community that includes novelists, graphic novelists, video game designers, filmmakers, musicians, and more. Pretty cool.


We'd like to again thank all of our donors for helping us make Reunion. If you'd like to be a part of our little production there's still time to donate, earn rewards, and support Kickstarter. Just follow this link - http://kck.st/b9F3fi - and then click the green "Back This Project" button.

Be seeing you...

Meet Reunion's leading lady...

With the rest of winter, all of spring, and the first part of summer ahead of us before we actually start shooting, we've completed the casting of our female roles!


Last week we introduced Trin Miller and Jen Page and today we are announcing the casting of a third beautiful and talented actress, Alison Monda, who will the play our female lead, Heidi. 

Alison fought hard to earn this part -- she's an avowed horror film fan, including High Tension -- one of our own touchstones -- on her list of favorite films. Tall, tough, and multi-talented, Alison was made to kick ass in a horror film.


Not only can Alison scream -- she can sing! She's booked up doing theater work throughout the first half of 2011 (visit her site for her full schedule: http://alisonmonda.yolasite.com/) and has been compared to Idina Menzel (that's Rachel Berry's mom on Glee, yo!). You can currently (through December 31st) see her onstage in Olympia where she's starring in A Stardust Christmas Carol (http://www.harlequinproductions.org/seasonpages/11/starcarol.html).

We couldn't be more excited to welcome Alison aboard the Reunion train as it chugs out of the station. She's fun and funny. And she's working hard at becoming a cat lady, which, as we all know, is the highest, most admirable life goal there is. Wish her luck and wish her well as she joins the cast of Reunion!

Keep an eye out later this week -- we'll be introducing our bad guy...oooh, scary!


Be seeing you...

First casting announcement

This announcement was promised for Friday, but I finished it early. So why sit on it?


After two plus months of accepting video submissions from actors and two rounds of in-person auditions, we couldn't be more excited to introduce the first two members of Reunion's cast.
Without further ado, meet Trin Miller (as Sarah)... 

 and Jen Page (as Lucy)...

Trin and Jen are currently working together on a web series set to debut on Christmas Day. The Dirty Do Gooders is  an online episodic series about four close friends who mysteriously gain superpowers. Armed only with wisdom gleaned from stacks of comic books, they decide to tackle the rising crime wave in their home town of Milton (taken from their web site).


While they are playing supporting roles in Reunion, both Trin and Jen have headline talent. And beyond their acting chops, they are also the kind of people we would love to hang out with even if they weren't in our little horror flick. 

And if Trin occasionally shows up on set with baked goods, well, so much the better for all of us! And if Jen gets to occasionally rub elbows with the stars of the web series The Guild, don't be jealous - she's just cooler than you.

But seriously, we are lucky to have these wonderfully talented and wonderfully wonderful women on board. 


You can read Trin's blog about her experiences fighting off randy doors here: http://www.dirtydogooders.com/2010/12/im-a-door-able/. Look at this picture:

You can hardly blame the door. Trin's other tales of adventure on The Dirty Do Gooder set can be found here: http://www.dirtydogooders.com/author/trin/.

Jen has her own website, which you can visit here: http://www.jenpage.net/ "Like" her on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/thejenpage

Welcome, Trin and Jen! We can't wait to get you both in front of the camera!

All photos of Trin by Johnny Miller.

Jen's headshot by David Ward. Her other photos are hers to do with as she pleases!

Quick Update

It's been a busy couple of weeks. On December 4th we had our first round of auditions. For that we sent the actors we invited sides (scenes from the script). We scheduled them in fifteen minute intervals. For the actual auditions we had them read with producer Jared Callaway Hagen. He was great, but the actors we brought in were even better. 


On Saturday the 11th we brought back a number of actors for callbacks. For this round of the process the actors were in groups. This allowed us to pair them up and combine them in a number of ways to see how they played off of each other. Again the performances were great. By having actors working off of each other the performances were elevated even further.


Two actresses have already been offered supporting roles (although they could both easily be leading ladies) and they have accepted. We will introduce them here this Friday (12/17). Next Tuesday (12/21) we are bringing those actors still in contention for the leads in for one final audition where they will again be able to act opposite one another. We can't wait!


In other news, last week I completed a blog post that should appear at http://infdist.com/blog this Friday. In it I write a little about my own journey into filmmaking and touch on the availability of new distribution methods in the internet age.


And finally, we're down to the final two weeks of our Kickstarter campaign. It's been an amazing ride so far, with 52 generous donors pledging over $8,000 toward our $10,000 goal. Let's keep that surge going so everyone who has pledged so far will get their richly deserved rewards! We can use your help - fake blood and body part prosthetics are not cheap, but that's what we want for Christmas!


Be seeing you...

Kickstarter Final Month

This is it! Our final month on Kickstarter! But what the hell else is going on?

Casting. Tomorrow - December 4 - we'll be holding auditions in Seattle. We received A LOT of great video submissions (a couple originating in the U.K, London and Dublin specifically) and from those we were able to put together a great group to come in for in person auditions. We are excited and a little nervous -- it's time to grow the Reunion family.


FX. We're in the early stages of trying to work out an arrangement with Bandersnatch Studios (a new, Seattle-based makeup and fx house) to do our gore and goo stuff. They're currently putting some budget numbers together for us. While nothing is set in stone, we're optimistic we can work something out with them. We'd love nothing more than to keep the money we raise on Kickstarter in Seattle, and spending it with Bandersnatch would be awesome.


New Producer! Jared Callaway Hagen is officially onboard as a producer. You can see more about Jared on our main Kickstarter page, but suffice it to say we are THRILLED to have him on board. Even before our auditions tomorrow we've grown the Reunion family by one this week. Welcome, Jared! As we get closer and closer to production Jared's going to have a lot to do. And, if we meet our Kickstarter goal and receive the funds that have been pledged so far, Jared will be working side by side with Matt to see to it that that money is spent smartly to make Reunion its scariest, prettiest, bloodiest, nail-biting best.


Speaking of the Reunion family, you who have donated already, ARE the Reunion family. Kickstarter, and crowd-sourced funding in general, is a very new concept. And an exciting one. It's a chance for people like us to live our filmmaking dreams while reaching out to a potential audience before a frame of the movie is shot. And you took a chance on us and on the potential of crowd-sourced funding. For that, we are eternally grateful to you. Words cannot express what it's meant for us to see your donations come in and move us closer to our goal. We take the commitment you've shown to us, and to Reunion, seriously. It is our commitment back to you to continue doing what we've been doing, which is to go slow through the pre-production process so that we are fully prepared for the unexpected surprises that do come up on all film sets.


You have already done so much for Reunion but we could use your help with getting the word out. If we don't reach our goal by 11:59PM on December 29th, we will not receive any of the pledges we've received so far. Please consider posting to your Facebook wall, Twitter feed, or email and let your friends and family know that you donated to Reunion and include this link: http://kck.st/b9F3fi. And if you know anyone with a blog or a forum where we could reach an audience that would be a huge help in getting us to the finish line as well.

If each of you could get just two, three, or four others to donate that would be amazing. We need lots of smaller donations - $15 is the low pledge and it basically equates to pre-ordering a Special "Donors Only" Edition of Reunion on DVD, a DVD unique to donors and one that donors will get first. A lot of smaller donations can add up quick. But,i f you have a rich uncle who's always wanted to see his name in the credits of the movie, $500 gets him an Executive Producer credit. For $1000 your uncle gets a character named after him and he gets an invitation to the set for the day that character is slated to meet his demise!


We have 26 days left to reach our goal. We can do it and you can get the rewards you so richly deserve.
Thank you all so much for taking a chance on Reunion. We love you all!


Be seeing you...