That is right, tomorrow is the Grey Room Crowdfunding Kickoff Party. We will begin our Indiegogo campaign and you are invited.
We are having out party at The Hub. 719 N Franklin St, Tampa, Fl, which is the greatest bar, like a real bar, in the world. Be aware that there drinks are very strong so do not slam them. Anyways, We are having this party to A. Bring attention to our Crowdfunding campaign B. To just give people a reason to have a good time and to bring closer our community and C. To bring attention to ourselves and build our audience and build our Brand.
We will have have the cast and crew of Grey Room: Linda Roser, John O’Keef, Leon Salem Kathrine Michelle. Lydia Edwards, Jeannine Fiallo, Brandon Hyde, Tony Tartaglia, Lakiasha Olds, William Wright. They are great people who work very hard and are talented . We will be showing our out Pitch video and trailer.
Please come out. This is our first event and we will more. I like getting together and hanging out with good people like you.
I have a good news: I am teaming up with filmmaker Alex Alvarez on his documentary about Non Racist Skinheads from the Twin cities of Minneapolis and St Paul, Minnesota. This project will be near and dear to my heart for a Couple reasons. One, I being a punker, and I used to hang out with the Chapel Hill Boot Crew; a non racist skinhead group out of Chapel Hill, NC. Another reason is, I too used to fight Nazi skins. If you were in the punk rock scene back in the day, you would have to at some point have deal with Nazi’ skins; I just happened to deal with them with extreme prejudice.
Alex has shot a lot of this doc and we are now talking about what we need to do to finish this film. I do know that we will be crowdfunding and will need your support. This is going to be an amazing documentary and Alex and I are going to come up with a marketing and film festival strategy. There are tons of details that we have to go over and lots to discuss, but I am confident that when it is said and done we are going to have a damn good film.
I am blessed and lucky to have good work coming my way. I am working with talented filmmakers and am building up a group of talented people to work with. Florida film has a LOOOOOONG way to go, and it is going to take talented and fearless filmmakers to get us there; however I am confident that we can get there and earn respect of our peers from around the country. I know that some toes will be stepped on and some egos crushed, but that is what it is going to take to get Tampa and Florida recognized as a place for amazing and fearless cinema.
This week has been the week of meetings. Note to yourself, do them with people you enjoy being around. Makes it fun.
So I have a ton of work and am trying to figure out where and how to start. I have a ton of research to do on a subject for a film I am producing. I am teaching myself how to write a business plan so that I can write one for my production company as well as one for a film I am producing. I need to start searching for talent and a director for that film I need to write a business plan for; and as soon as I have said business plan, talent and director I then need to go in search of the almighty investor.
Along with that, I have to do preproduction for a doc I am producing as well as do some social media for Grey Room. Do not forget we will begin Crowdfunding for it in February. I also have to come up with an article I need to write for the FMPTA news letter The Slate. Any suggestions? God knows I could use some. Also, if you want me to write about something please feel free to make suggestions. It would benefit me because I would have to go and research the topic.
Also, with that I am running for Vice President For the Florida Motion Picture & Television Association Tampa Bay Chapter. FMPTA. If you are a member please vote for me. I will be writing as to why you should vote for me.
This is where I need to learn how to plan and organize my tasks. I am starting to learn about strategic planning, something that I think you should learn if you are to be successful at filmmaking. There are proven tools that work and should be applied to your filmmaking skills.
I have some news about Grey Room. As you may or not know we have had some problems getting our crowdfunding pitch video done. We have had audio issues with the first 3 attempts and finally yesterday we shot our 4th pitch and I know we got it. I will write more in detail about that however I, as the producer, take full responsibility for the delays and the pushing back of the dates.
Here is what is happening, we are pushing the crowdfunding campaign to 15 February 2013 and we begin shooting 13 April; and here is why, we would have the pitch edited by Friday and then, depending if we need more editing, we would start next week. Add 45 days of crowdfunding and that would bring us to the beginning of December; then 2 weeks of final per-production and then we would shoot. In the middle of December, and as you know Florida winters are unpredictable; it could be amazing gorgeous or it could be brutally cold. We have a pool scene and we do not want our actresses freezing their asses off and possibly getting sick. It is just not worth it. So what we have decided to push it back. However, this in many ways this is good; by the time the film is finished it will be time to be submitting film into the major film festivals. Which is where we want to put Grey Room.
The other day I was bungee jumping with a group people, with whom I did not know, and the statement was made that “You never see enough Awesome Asian Bad Guys.”; and they couldn’t be more correct. We as a society and as a Republic we need more Awesome Asian Bad Guys. Don’t you think? It would have been refreshing to have heard at least 5 minutes of the Presidential Debates dedicated to how the two candidates would bring to our country more Awesome Asian Bad Guys; however they did not. But as fate would have it the guys from the National Film Society are doing just that.
Stephen Dypiango and Patrick Epino have developed a 5 episode series about two filmmaker who ensemble a team of Asian bad guy actors who set off to take down one of LA’s most nefarious mobsters. This of course will lead to great fun; if you’ve watched any of Stephens and Patrick’s National Film Society youtube post, then you know just how funny and creative these guys are. Plus, they are some of the most passionate filmmakers that are out there.
They have assembled some great talent: Al Leong who was in Die Hard, Lethal Weapon and Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure; Yuji Okumoto who you seen in Karate Kid 2, Better Off Dead and Inception; The Lovely Tamlyn Tomita who was in Karate Kid 2, Joy Luck Club and Glee; Randell Park who was in The Five year Engagement, and last but not least Aaron Takahashi who you’ve seen in a ton of commercials.
Stephen Dypiangco (@dypiangco) – Creator / Director
Stephen is an independent filmmaker who writes, directs and produces narrative films, documentaries and online videos. His new media production company the National Film Society has been featured by PBS, Filmmaker Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, GigaOM and Indiewire. As a Producer of Marketing and Distribution, Stephen’s recent projects include the Oscar-winning short film God of Love and the feature documentary How To Live Forever. Stephen is an alum of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and NYU’s graduate film program.
Patrick Epino (@patrickepino) – Creator / Director
Patrick is a Los Angeles-based filmmaker and co-founder of the National Film Society. He was selected by the film magazine, The Independent, as one of its “10 Filmmakers to Watch” for his first feature film, Mr. Sadman, starring Scoot McNairy and Tim Kang, about a 1990 Saddam Hussein double who loses his job and moves to Los Angeles to start his life over. Patrick is a graduate of the University of Chicago, earned his MFA in Cinema from San Francisco State University and is an alumnus of the IFP Narrative Labs and Film Independent’s Project:Involve.
Yes, I totally copied and pasted that. Sue me.
Now, Stephen and Patrick have only 3 days left to raise around 16,00 dollars, and they need your help. To make all this a reality they need you t go to their Crowdfunding Campaign page and donate. They have a lot of really great premiums as thank you gifts and the full list of all the talented people that they have on this project. Also, they have a lot of entertaining videos there too. Seriously do yourself a favor and look Nation Film Society on youtube. Brilliant stuff there.
Also you can help by spreading the word; tell all your friends by posting this blog and their kickstater page on all your social media outlits. And if you support them I will save a gorilla in the wild, and if you don’t I will kill one. It is true, I will.
My journey into film 