The video Pitch

This is the trailer I used to promote my campaign.

Launching my campaign on Indiegogo

The  Campaign and its Goal:

This Mortal Coil on Indiegogo  Click on link to reach official campaign.

Be 1 of 50,000 to make history.  50,000 people: this is how many people it takes with a flat $ 20.00 donation to fund his project and see it made.

Be 1 of 50,000 and be part of the most successful film crowdfunding campaign ever.

Why 50,000 people?  Reaching 50,000 can only happen by word of mouth, via social networks.  This large number then creates a large fan base.

Why raise so much money? First, it is the only way to attract name actors, which adds value to the production. Second, a good production value invites a wide range of platforms and foreign markets for distribution.

Why should you support this project?  What makes it special?  Think of “This Mortal Coil” as a trampoline project.  100% of proceeds the money donated (through Indiegogo) will be donated to non-for-profit organizations.  If you have a cause you feel passionate about or that inspires you, I'd love to hear from you.  Whatever it is:  hunger, the environment, research such as finding cures for cancers; or even homelessness such military vets…  if you believe in a cause, here is your chance to manifest it. 

My hope is to be able to make generous voluntary contribution back to society, once the film makes its way through the market place. 

(Please note that I have no tie nor I am part of a non-profit organization. I have an unofficial affiliation with Nyaka: an Aids orphan school based in Uganda, for whom I help raise money every year.  Nyaka has no relationship whatsoever with this project.)

Bear in my mind that your donation does not constitute an investment in this film whatsoever and/or in your cause.

 Who am I?    

I am Frederic Colier, the bus driver on this project.  I intend to produce and direct “This Mortal Coil,” which I also penned.  It will be my 4^th feature film.  I have written, directed and produced, “The Hindenburg Omen,” “Dinosaur Park” (premiering at the Queens World Film Fest in March, 2012) and “My Last Play,” (currently in post).  Next Spring (2013), I'm planning to shoot “Made in China,” for a Franco-Canadian co-production, near Toronto.  I am a playwright and a published author with a long list of credits, widely available on the web (see imdb or Wikipedia).

“This Mortal Coil” will be shot in and around NY City, not only because the story requires it, but also so that we can take advantage of the generous NY tax credits and Mayor’s office’s help.

The tentative budget foresees a 28 day-shooting schedule, which will be honed once a line producer comes on board.

I have started to contact people in my network to build a reliable producing and production team.  If you find this project inspiring and want to get involved at any level, production or even post, please contact me.   

The Poster & The Story

Why is the poster entirely green? It’s not quite green, but opalescent.  It is the color of radium. Believe it or not, until the turn of the 20^th Century, radium was thought to be a healthy substance and was widely used in medical treatments.  The greenish glow of watches and airplane instruments primarily came from radium based paint.  Then radium was discovered to be radioactive.  Ever heard of the tragic story of the Radium Girls in Orange, NJ?  I touch upon it in my script.

“This Mortal Coil” depicts the struggle of an amnesiac rock musician who tries to find his past and his identity.  Having forgotten everything about life, after a savage hit-and-run accident, he sees no other choice but to become a star with his band in the hopes of reuniting with his family.  The problem is that he also is dating the singer of the band, and she is falling apart. To prevent his band from splitting up, he moves in with her into a house where the past slowly catches up with him.   

What does this film bring to the table?

What is the relevance of the story in today’s world? Why bring this story to the screen?  The last ten years have seen our society deeply impacted and transformed by world events: two wars, the sharpest economic downturn in our modern history, to name just a few.  These events have contributed to the breaking down of the systems we once relied upon.  For the first time, we may need to reinvent ourselves by discarding our broken past first.  We live with old morals based on broken models, inadequate for the situation ahead of us.  

Adrian, the hero of Mortal Coil, is also a broken person, without a his past or identity.  His body is riddled with scars, which puzzle him when they glow green at night.  He thinks he must first put the past to rest, understand it, before he can move on with his life. But the past may not be fixable and in fact may be too dangerous to contemplate.

Not reaching our goal?

Should this campaign fail to reach its goal, whatever money raised via indiegogo will be used to hire key development and pre-production personnel, with the goal of developing a new strategy to raise finances through alternative outlets.  The unspent money will be kept in the LLC’s bank account, while the development process continues.   

The Other Ways You Can Help

It goes without saying that this campaign and the film cannot happen without your help.  This project is intended to bring goodness to many different people, both big and small, all of whom need help.  Make a contribution and spread the word of goodness.  Stay tuned for updates by clicking on the icons here below.

Day #2, Tech day, productive tasks

Day #2. Still feeling it.  But still having no clue how to start a mass movement to get this film made.
Flying blind, I decided first to tackle the tech thing. . . So I spent pretty much the last 10 hours, tweaking, linking, oiling all the various social networks together.   So now you can find all the sites on the top bar of the blog.  My Youtube account said hello to Twitter and Facebook, via Indiegogo, and Ustream, all of which got linked to my own company site, Altered Ego Entertainment 
Unsurprisingly, I received zero comments regarding the announcement posted yesterday. . . Maybe once the trailer is up and the account goes live on Indiegogo, the project will begin to gain traction.  The struggle feels extremely steep.  I have no followers per say on Twitter. As for my Facebook friends, most of them would not know who I am.  To say the least, it is kind of strange to do all this on my own, without knowing at all who is going to come on board.

After investigating the various crowdsourcing sites, I decided to settle for Indiegogo.  I found Kickstarter's policy restrictive.  Indiegogo may have a higher % commission, but I like the fact they allow you to have a message or even fight for a cause. . .  I do not subscribe to the artist philosophy. Statement such "I'm an artist" makes me raise my eyebrows.  Since when are artists free floating agents with nothing to say? But maybe I don't understand . . . what they mean.

Two days ago, I made a dummy poster for the film. A quick single picture of a woman, behind foggy glass.  The green hue matches perfectly with the theme of Radium.

Tomorrow, I'll be looking into the legal stuff. . .  

Day #1, "This Mortal Coil" announcement

Today is an important date.  The first day that I have decided to raise more than $ 1 million through crowdfunding to shoot my next film, This Mortal Coil.  How am I going to do it and with whose help?  At the moment I do not have a single clue.

What's against me?  Well for a start, the amount I'm looking at is staggering over the top, given that a miracle crowdfunding campaign reaches around $150,000.  So am I stretching myself way beyond realistic expectations?  Probably.  But what do I have to fear?  Ridicule, public humiliation?  There are no challenges that begin without this possibility.  Whoever sticks his or her neck out runs the risk to have it chopped off.

To my credit, I have my own antecedents on my sides.  Against all expectations, I have achieved impossible tasks in the past, and when I see who I have become from the places where I started, trust me, a part of me believes in miracles.  Concrete example?  Well, for a start, I was a school dropout.  Never attended high school in my life.  I put myself through college and still graduated summa cum laude.  Today, I write in English, and I'm a published writer.  When I was twenty, I couldn't speak a word of English.  Okay, so I'm not here to blow my own trumpet, but given this perspective, this fundraising challenge does not feel that outrageous in terms of impossibility.  If I fail . . ., it will be because people have failed to hear me, or I failed rather to reach them.  Therefore I will just be another anonymous tree crashing in the forest of multitude, away from anyone's attention.  I will be pretty much standing where I am standing today with this project, which is nowhere and very close to the ground, where my feet rest.  Harm would be minimal.

One thing is certain however.  Having all this self-drive and confidence to fuel myself are not enough. A personal achievement versus a social one is a different kind animal.  Another way of saying, there is no way on earth, I could achieve my goal without your help.

Let me ponder overnight how I am going to get you involved in participating in this project.