misunderstood

I’ve been sitting here a moment, trying to find the right way to open this post – but I’ve only got an hour until I have to leave for work, so I guess I should jump into it. I’ve heard, through the grapevine, some “negative”, to put it mildly, comments on proj:pedal, well, the project itself is more of an innocent bystander, it’s really directed towards me and how I run this site.

To sum-up the criticisms; I’m coming off as a “taker”, and not a “giver”. Things are becoming too one sided for the readers, and there’s a lack of interactability that’s turning some readers away.


To explain; I’ve done a poor job communicating that the bulk – and when I say “bulk”, I mean 95% - of the budget isn’t expected to come from reader donations. That is an amazingly naive and unrealistic route in raising the funds for the film. To be perfectly honest, I don’t expect more than $300 in actual cash donations to come in by the time May rolls around. So, with readers under the impression that I was asking for a giant handout, it’s no wonder some of them are frustrated with me. It’s time to clear things up:


Q. How is the bulk of the $8,000 being raised for the film?
A. I’ve been preparing and fine-tuning a pre-production “press release”, normally these are created after a film is completed, but I’m calling it this for lack of a better word, basically it covers everything there is to cover about the documentary – both in front of and behind the camera. This package of info’ is geared at a more professional audience – looking for investors, sponsorship, etc…

On top of this package, I’ve been working on a more general ‘fundraising’ letter, with the, much appreciated, help of Chris, a woman who organizes fundraisers for a living. This letter is geared at a more personal audience – family, friends, random people in the phone book, just kidding, kind of.

The “press release” will be used here in North Hollywood, as well in Berlin, thanks to Olivier, Olan and Quentin – who have, time and time again, been more than generous with their time and energy towards this project.

Anyways, these two things – if all goes as planned – should knock a large chunk of the budget out of the picture; what ever is left will most likely be compensated for with personal money. Then there is always the option of selling my Mac & Canon GL2… or auctioning off body-parts for advertising purposes.

Q. Why don’t you just max out some of your credit cards, like Kevin Smith did with Clerks?
A. Oh, if I only had a credit card – I would be in debt so fast with this film. But, unfortunately, I don’t have a credit card – I’ve never been approved for one, I have no credit, not bad credit, but just no credit. I’ve never bought a car or anything else that required payments – not having a credit card, in the past, was something I was very proud of, everyone I knew, my age and up, was in over their head with debt. But now that I need $8,000 – what I wouldn’t give…

Q. Are you the “Hollywood” type – a.k.a., “a person who thinks he's too good for the "little people" but doesn't recognize that he's a little person? Someone who doesn’t realize that the people who support you are the people that get you places”?
A. On one hand, I find it kind of humorous that someone would even think to call me the “Hollywood” type. I would be hard pressed to forget that I fit under the category: “little person”, let’s just say I’m a starving artist not a Steven Spielberg. On the other hand though, it’s flat-out insulting, despite the fact that I do live in Hollywood, well, North Hollywood, I have no real interest or intentions of “making-it-big” in the industry, if you ask me, Hollywood [as in the film-industry] churns out shit 98% of the time – it’s a business, only interested in making a buck and playing the demographics safe, which means: cookie-cutter actions flicks, or cheesy recycled love stories with predictable happy-endings. Both filled to the brim with ‘A’ list actors / actresses. None of these things spark my interest, none of them appeal to why I want to make films.

Really, all this came about because this site doesn’t have comments. Personally, the connection is a bit of a stretch.


Now, even though the remarks made, indirectly, towards the site and myself were… harsh, I think is fair word, and personally attacking, they raised a few good points, so there are going to be some changes made around here. First off, the boat-thingy’, hasn’t gotten a warm response from people, so it’s gone.

I don’t want this site to become something readers can’t visit without being guilt’ed into forking over their hard-earned cash, and I’m afraid I’ve unintentionally already made it that way. From now on, if you feel like buying proj:pedal an hour of tape, go right ahead, if you feel like boxing up some canned food for the crew, it would be much appreciated. If not, I want you to be able to simply sit back and enjoy the show.

Secondly, I really do look forward to people’s questions and comments in the forum or via email, some readers have gotten the impression that I don’t care to hear what anyone else has to say. I don’t know how this has happened but it, honestly, really kind of brings me down. I love it when I look in the forum and find something new – but the problem is I’m not always the quickest at responding. So, I promise, starting today, I’ll be much, much quicker in responding to reader’s questions or comments. It’s the least I can do to show how much I appreciate anyone’s interest in this labor-of-love.