Indiegogo

338284

Bring Philadelphia a Red Carpet Event

Project Twenty1 Celebrates Indepedent Filmmakers in Style

  • Team:

    77617 Tiny see more »

  • Location:Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

  • Category:Film

9/30/10 THANK YOU, INDIEGOGO FOR SUPPORTING INDIE ARTISTS & FEATURING US ON YOUR FRONT PAGE!

OUR STORY

Project Twenty1 is a volunteer-run organization dedicated to networking, inspiring, connecting, and promoting creatives through film and animation. Our company is primarily funded by individual Project Twenty1 volunteers, in-kind donations, and advertising, as we feel that it is our duty to provide  free events or reasonably-priced film screenings, workshops, and networking events to our community.

We've been dreaming of holding a red carpet event since the day we founded in 2006, but we have been unable to find a "Title" or "Presenting" sponsor to fund such an expense. Ticket and concession sales do not even cover a fraction of the cost of putting on our events, so funding a red carpet event was out of the question.

We decided to try to hold off for another year when one of our Teams Leaders, Michael Mercadante, from Team Crackerhammer Productions, put out a call to all of our filmmakers:

"To all Project Twenty1 teams planning to attend, wed like to extend the challenge: dress to the nines, look your best, come out to the premiere of your new movie in full red carpet style, as though theres going to be a thousand photos taken of you on your way into the theatre."

This crazy guy, along with over 60 international filmmaking Teams, have banded together to throw a red carpet event without the red carpet, finding fancy gowns at thrift shops, renting tuxes for the night, jamming a dozen people into a limo intended for 10, and asking their uncles to come by with their old SLR cameras with flash bulbs to create a ruckus.

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE

A lot of people talk about turning Philadelphia into a mini-Hollywood ("Phillywood") by bringing big productions into town, but we believe in the opposite.We already have a large pool of talent here and we believe that if cultivated, Philadelphia can create world-renowned cinema that will create thousands of jobs, bring more tourism to the city, and help band our communities together over the pride of knowing that we have exemplary home-grown talent. We don't want people to come into town, use our resources, and leave - we want them to stay for good.

A Philadelphia red carpet event is important for not only prestige, but confidence amongst our creatives. Often, the public pays most of its regard to big-budget filmmakers that continually crank out remakes, sequels, and ripoffs that cost millions of dollars. We want to pay tribute to the talented independent filmmakers in our midst, who will bring about a new generation of cinema, raise the bar on entertainment, and bring quality movie productions to the fair city of Philadelphia.

Your contribution today will not only serve the creatives at this year's festival, but it will guarantee our future filmmakers the ability to premiere their films in style. We can't do this without your support.

WHAT WE NEED

The average cost of a red carpet event is over $100,000. No kiddin'. We're calling in favors, begging, borrowing, and begging some more to get this done for $1,250, which is less than most celebrities spend on their hairstyles for such events. Don't believe me? Someone did a study.

We would like the red carpet area to be available for photos on all 3-Days of the Festival, as we are hosting almost 100 films throughout the weekend, 60 of them being world-premieres. We would like this area to be FREE and open to all of our filmmakers, their friends,  their family, and the media.

We hunted around to get the best prices on the following items:
  • 30 foot long Red Carpet: $149.00 (free shipping)
  • Economy 3-Point Studio Photography lighting kit: $259 (free shipping)
  • Matte 8 foot x 10 foot Red Carpet Backdrop: $600 + $29.95 Shipping ($629.95)
  • Metal Stand & Clamps for Backdrop $149 + $18.53 Shipping ($167.53)
         Subtotal: $1205.48
       + Indie GoGo Fee: 4% (about $50)
       Grand Total (rounded): $1250
-Bonus Items if we exceed our goal:
  • One of those fancy stands to display the named of the ppl that contributed ($125)
  • Ropes & Stanchions (we need 8 of them, which is another $1000-$1500)
  • CASH prizes! (To be split between Grand Prize winners of Filmathon & 21-Day Competition. Will definitely happen if we exceed $3000)
  • Professional photographer (anyone want to barter for a free on-screen ad?)
 

WHAT YOU GET

If you get in your bids before midnight of September 29, you'll get lots of stuff! We will give free stuff to donors that contribute after the 29th, but we just can't guarantee that we'll get you on the paper acknowledgment next to the event.

HOW ELSE YOU CAN HELP

Please pass this link around to philanthropists, patrons of the arts, and local Philadelphians. Let's give these filmmakers the fanfare they deserve!

You can also help us by clicking FEATURE IT and suggesting the IndieGoGo place us on their front page!

You can also add us on Facebook or Twitter to keep on top of the fun news!

START YOUR OWN FUNDRAISER

We encourage our filmmakers to run drives for their own projects through IndieGogo, since we did the research and it seems to be one of the few sites that does not automatically return all of the pledges if you come short a few dollars. And if you use this referral code, IndieGogo has promised to donate Project Twenty1 $50 once YOU raise at least $1000 for your own project: http://www.indiegogo.com/?a=38037&i=rfrl

Team on This Campaign: