- What's the short about?
- Who's in the cast and crew?
- So what's this about Likes and Emails?
- Would the feature have the same plot/characters?
- Why are you asking for Likes, isn't that just useless?
- Has this been done before?
- What will happen to my email?
- So just to be clear, you won't sell or giveaway my email?
- Why not put up a Kickstarter?
- So why not do a Kickstarter just to raise some of the money?
- I'm from the media, whom do I contact?
- I'm interested in talking with someone about financing the feature version, whom should I contact?
- Your movie is bad and you should feel bad!
- The film is "For Shirley." Who's Shirley?
- What was the film's budget?
A woman who's lost the love of her life to illness decides to escape using a new kind of hallucinogenic drug that is customized to make fantasies seem real.
Charlotte Gulezian (Erin, the woman in question), Patrick Toth (Tristan, the titular Sleep Counselor), Francisco Pryor Garat (Owen), and Moronai Kanekoa (The Helper).
The 1st and 2nd ADs are Jayne Jeffrey and Mitch Iverson, respectively. Mitch provided his apartment for use in the shoot as well, and for that I am forever grateful.
Steven J. Kukla wrote and performed the music. He's amazing, and a dear friend.
Kyle Spiker is a very talented visual effects artist (whose credits include Avatar) that gave a few things his special touch.
The writer/director/editor/dancing monkey is John Holowach, which is who's typing this right now. Hi there! I made a documentary awhile ago, it turned out alright, and it's the sixth most-viewed doc of all-time on Hulu, which is nifty. But we're not here to talk about that, so let's just keep it between us.
I want to make this world into a feature. To do that requires money and interest, and interest has to come first. That's where you come in! Aside from watching the film and recommending it to people, by liking the Facebook page and/or entering your email, we can show to potential investors and studios that there is a strong base of people who would go see this in a theater. But please only like the page or enter your email if you genuinely want to see this made as a feature.
If you don't, then I'm perfectly content that you visited this page and gave it a shot, so thank you.
No, the short is a self-contained story inside this universe. The feature would be grander in scale, using a larger budget to explore the limits of the mind, and have a completely different cast and crew.
It would follow Sonas (pronounced "Sun-us"), a sleep counselor in the profession out of desperation, as he's paying off a debt to one of the suppliers of the chemicals that combine to make the mind-bending drug. When he gets an offer to make a big supply deal that would end his financial slavery, it ends up putting himself, his young son, and his new lover at risk.
The feature would explore the world of the near-future, how drug policy and social consciousness has evolved in light of such a powerful substance, and what it means for us when we can change our reality to anything we want it to be.
So, the usual.
Many times people use Likes in a very foolish way. They try to use a shotgun approach (just getting likes with no regard for who they are), when it should happen more organically. I only want people to Like the page or put in their email (or both) if they are genuinely interested in seeing this world be turned into a feature. Then you'll actually want to see the updates, learn about the progress, and be a part of this world, which also means you might shell out some cash to see it on the big screen, which is precisely what investors care about.
Not really, as far as I know this is new territory -- using a short film's public response to gauge interest in a feature. That's what makes this so exciting, and so nerve-wracking!
We will keep it in a database whose size we will present to investors/studios (but they will not possess the list of names, just know how big it is). If everything works out, we'll add those emails to a newsletter to keep you updated. If you don't want them, you click unsubscribe and you're done, plus your email is removed from the database permanently. For Facebook, just unlike the page if you don't like the updates or lose interest, simple and easy.
Also, we fully comply with the CAN-SPAM Act, as does our email provider, MailChimp.
Nope, they'll only be used for The Sleep Counselor mailing list. Even then we won't send any newsletters unless something particularly important is happening (like we got into a major festival or the feature is getting made). If even those are too frequent, unsubscribing is a one-click affair, and your email is permanently removed from the database.
Besides, think about it this way: I just implored you to help me make this into a feature, so why would I go and break your trust by over-emailing or selling your email? And on top of it, I'm legally required to under the CAN-SPAM Act, as I said in the previous answer.
Kickstarter projects can be great, but a feature of the kind envisioned for this, with the kind of talent needed, will require a larger budget, into the millions of dollars. Even the most successful Kickstarter projects, by people who have been in their respective industries for decades, attracted less than $10 million. An astonishing number for crowdsourced indie projects, but not enough to make the best film we can make. To do that, we need a competent and talented crew, and talented people don't come cheap, nor should they. Finally, to fully explore the mindscape, we'll need some impressive visual effects. While those can be done inventively, they still won't be terribly cheap. Besides crew there will be a talented cast, who also need to be paid accordingly.
While many people and companies do this, I think it's unfair to ask people to shell out money for a project which may never happen, essentially having thrown their cash into a black hole.
Instead, I'd ask you to share the film, like it on Facebook, and/or add your email to the mailing list. All of these things will show that there is genuine interest in the project, specifically the kind of interest that would warrant a feature.
Shoot an email to contact [at] sleep-counselor [dot] com (sorry for the weird formatting, it's to prevent spamming. Just replace the [at] with @ and [dot] with a period, and remove the spaces)
Send an email to contact [at] sleep-counselor [dot] com -- you can also use this email if you're interested in contacting me for interest in writing/directing another project (sorry for the weird formatting, it's to prevent spamming. Just replace the [at] with @ and [dot] with a period, and remove the spaces)
Well you can't win 'em all. Sorry you didn't like the film for whatever reason, although I would remind you that this was done with a small group of people (mostly friends), and that the cast, crew, and plot will be completely different for a feature version (see here). If you didn't like the plot or direction, well...sorry about that. But thank you for watching and giving it a chance.
She's the inspiration for the short. As for who she is specifically, there's a line in the film that's apropos here: "It's like I'd met my other half, and I didn't even know I was incomplete."
The film cost approximately $300 to make, most of which went to a lens rental and the rest to feeding the cast and crew to thank them for working so hard. It was Thai food, and it was delicious.
Honestly, there's nothing down here, I swear.