Halo: Hunting Ground

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Lonewolf260

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Hello people of the 405th! My friends and I are currently writing a script and planning out everything needed for our upcoming fan film!

The movie is called "Halo: Hunting Ground" and follows a squad of 3 marines, I want to make a unique halo film so this is partly based around sniper movies. One marine is a sniper, the other is a spotter and the other is there fot extra support in case things get bad.

At the moment we are still finishing the script and listing out everything we need for to come up with a budget.

A kick starter will be up very soon (Space below will be edited for the video) that will explain everything and the offers we will make for you upon donation.




Not much to say for now! Don't want to spoil anything! Expext this film to be at least an hour long

COMING SOON
-Kick starter video
-Artwork

-Ian
 
Dude! (Or ma'am) In a week or two, ill gladly put some money forward for it. Have any perks for donations?
 
Dude! (Or ma'am) In a week or two, ill gladly put some money forward for it. Have any perks for donations?

We will have an official list of perks tomorrow.
Our basic idea is around the lines of:

$15- copy of the movie
$30-copy of the movie and 3 signed pictures of all three actors dressed as their character
$40- everything above with a poster

$200- an assault rifle (raw)
$250- assault rifle (painted) with copy of movie and poster
$300 everything listed above

These are ideas. We will have a for sure thing as I said tomorrow

Hopefully the video will be up.

-Ian
 
Good luck. I can say from experience that if you want to reach your goal you're going to need to have a full list of places to market/advertise it in order to maximize your view count for the campaign way before you actually go live with the project. This goes double for Kickstarter since they have a policy of you either reach your goal and get your money or you don't and get nothing.

For my thesis film in senior year of college I did an Indiegogo campaign and managed to raise only a couple hundred of dollars for it. However I had managed to raise a decent amount outside of it through way of friends, family and other means (it was a period movie so literally everything had to be accurate from props to costumes, hair styles and locations so it cost quite a bit). I had a big list of places to advertise the campaign but still came up drastically short but since it was Indiegogo I was able to keep what I raised.

Here's some unsolicited advice that may come in handy for you:

- First things first you really need to put a lot of effort into the video. Treat it almost as its own mini movie. You want the viewer engaged in it. The higher the quality is the more interested the viewer is and the greater the chance they will contribute to your project. Don't just go out and shoot a video! Think about what you want to convey, how you want to convey it and where you want to convey it. If you're just sitting in a room talking people will lose interest fast. Show off your Halo stuff right off the bat and do it in a very cool way!

- Set a reasonable budget. It seems dumb but aim low miss low. You try and set a super high budget and people will think you're crazy. Set a budget as low as possible and if people think your project is worth funding they'll continue funding after you reach your goal. If/when this happens have stretch goals set and ready to go!

- Know your perks and set a realistic time to send them to your contributors. From what I saw up above it looks like you have some interesting perks. Be careful you don't under value them. Depending on size posters aren't cheap, neither are DVDs/Blu-rays after bulk disc purchases and cover slips. Additionally 250 for a raw gun isn't unreasonable but how much is your time worth and are you using a good amount of that money to the movie or the perk for the person contributing for it? Lastly have a basic idea when you think these will be ready? Push it further by a few months. Say you plan on releasing the perks in January, change it to April. Things happen, your movie gets delayed being made or takes longer than you thought. Now your perk release is pushed back as well.

- When writing your write up be sure to market the hell out of yourself and why this project is important but DON'T GO OVERBOARD!! I've seen so many campaigns be written by people who think they are film gods and are experts in their fields yet when I go to look them up they don't even have a Facebook page for their production group or film and have zero body of work. You want to sell yourself but keep it humble and simple. Also if you have any other work showcase it. People want to see that you can do what you say. As for the project its great to show what percentage of your budget is going to what. Some great campaigns I've seen/helped with will have a pie chart showing something like 15% goes to food, 20% to props etc.

- Finally and probably most importantly try as much as possible to interact with your campaigners. Keep regular updates. Whether it be on the Kickstarter page, a Facebook page, YouTube or even a thread here you absolutely need to regularly update people as to how things are going either through pictures, videos or a few sentences. People like to know that you are still there working hard and using their money for what you said you would.

I hope this helps you. I've done/helped with a few of these over the years and have learned from trial and error what works and what doesn't. Best of luck and if you need any other help feel free to ask.
 
Good luck. I can say from experience that if you want to reach your goal you're going to need to have a full list of places to market/advertise it in order to maximize your view count for the campaign way before you actually go live with the project. This goes double for Kickstarter since they have a policy of you either reach your goal and get your money or you don't and get nothing.

For my thesis film in senior year of college I did an Indiegogo campaign and managed to raise only a couple hundred of dollars for it. However I had managed to raise a decent amount outside of it through way of friends, family and other means (it was a period movie so literally everything had to be accurate from props to costumes, hair styles and locations so it cost quite a bit). I had a big list of places to advertise the campaign but still came up drastically short but since it was Indiegogo I was able to keep what I raised.

Here's some unsolicited advice that may come in handy for you:

- First things first you really need to put a lot of effort into the video. Treat it almost as its own mini movie. You want the viewer engaged in it. The higher the quality is the more interested the viewer is and the greater the chance they will contribute to your project. Don't just go out and shoot a video! Think about what you want to convey, how you want to convey it and where you want to convey it. If you're just sitting in a room talking people will lose interest fast. Show off your Halo stuff right off the bat and do it in a very cool way!

- Set a reasonable budget. It seems dumb but aim low miss low. You try and set a super high budget and people will think you're crazy. Set a budget as low as possible and if people think your project is worth funding they'll continue funding after you reach your goal. If/when this happens have stretch goals set and ready to go!

- Know your perks and set a realistic time to send them to your contributors. From what I saw up above it looks like you have some interesting perks. Be careful you don't under value them. Depending on size posters aren't cheap, neither are DVDs/Blu-rays after bulk disc purchases and cover slips. Additionally 250 for a raw gun isn't unreasonable but how much is your time worth and are you using a good amount of that money to the movie or the perk for the person contributing for it? Lastly have a basic idea when you think these will be ready? Push it further by a few months. Say you plan on releasing the perks in January, change it to April. Things happen, your movie gets delayed being made or takes longer than you thought. Now your perk release is pushed back as well.

- When writing your write up be sure to market the hell out of yourself and why this project is important but DON'T GO OVERBOARD!! I've seen so many campaigns be written by people who think they are film gods and are experts in their fields yet when I go to look them up they don't even have a Facebook page for their production group or film and have zero body of work. You want to sell yourself but keep it humble and simple. Also if you have any other work showcase it. People want to see that you can do what you say. As for the project its great to show what percentage of your budget is going to what. Some great campaigns I've seen/helped with will have a pie chart showing something like 15% goes to food, 20% to props etc.

- Finally and probably most importantly try as much as possible to interact with your campaigners. Keep regular updates. Whether it be on the Kickstarter page, a Facebook page, YouTube or even a thread here you absolutely need to regularly update people as to how things are going either through pictures, videos or a few sentences. People like to know that you are still there working hard and using their money for what you said you would.

I hope this helps you. I've done/helped with a few of these over the years and have learned from trial and error what works and what doesn't. Best of luck and if you need any other help feel free to ask.
Thanks a lot for the advice! I've changed through the perks and we have a rough estimate of the budget we need to raise. We made a kick start video but It could have been done better so we are going to completely re do it and make it worth watching and not some video of us saying everything. Since we have no footage could I just record me working, showing off the props, and everything else "behind the scenes" to make it interesting?
 
Thanks a lot for the advice! I've changed through the perks and we have a rough estimate of the budget we need to raise. We made a kick start video but It could have been done better so we are going to completely re do it and make it worth watching and not some video of us saying everything. Since we have no footage could I just record me working, showing off the props, and everything else "behind the scenes" to make it interesting?

What you could do is take a little bit of footage of you working on the props and costumes and incorporate it into the kickstarter video to show that you have the skills to make great pieces which then in turn kind of amplifies the production value of the finished product. What you could also do is perhaps offer some sort of video workshop or something of that nature as a perk. Almost like a Skype 1 on 1 or a short video series tailored to a specific item like an Assault Rifle or certain piece of armor.

Talking in front of the camera isn't necessarily bad but you want to keep things moving. Having sections of you just talking can work just make sure it isn't flat. When you can flip an angle or a location and try and base your actions around what you're currently talking about during that particular moment. For example when talking about props and costumes and how you make them film that section in your workshop. If you talk about locations show off a cool location. VFX? Add in or briefly describe what you want to do. If you do this all within 2-3 minutes in one video you should be in good standings.
 
Short updates:

-Kick start is in progress
-Sniper rifle almsot done
-Casting/selling assault rifles soon
-Youtube video updates

Hope to have a lot more progress to show soon

-Ian
 
Kick starter is planned to be released tomorrow or Friday. My friend and I made a shoulder mount for his camera to make things more steady when filming!

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image.jpg

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I highly recommend building this for a great way to keep a steady camera while filming, it cost just over $20!

Script is finished
Sniper rifle almost complete
Filming locations found
All funds estimated for kick starter

More progress to come!
 
Yo Lonewolf,

Good luck with the film, dude. As a fellow filmmaker working on a Halo fan film of my own, I just wanted to ask if you've gone through Microsoft's Content Usage Agreement. I mean, you don't technically have to abide by it, but it's not a bad idea, especially if you're doing a kickstarter. Either way, can't wait to see it! Good luck.

-Thugzz
 
Yo Lonewolf,

Good luck with the film, dude. As a fellow filmmaker working on a Halo fan film of my own, I just wanted to ask if you've gone through Microsoft's Content Usage Agreement. I mean, you don't technically have to abide by it, but it's not a bad idea, especially if you're doing a kickstarter. Either way, can't wait to see it! Good luck.

-Thugzz

I haven't gone through it but I know about it.
 
Hello i have a question to all of you out there!

I am going to be molding my halo assault rifle soon and have a method, i just want to verify and make sure it'll work!

-So my plan is to make a shadow mold out of foam core and spilt it in half, and i read a thing to put it 1/4 inch below the middle line drawn.
-After this make a clay barrier all around it in that 1/4 inch space to line up with the center line around the gun.
-make a clay wall all around it so nothing spills over
-carve keys into the clay around it
- apply silicone to the gun
- apply a second and add keys
-third?
-after the silicone is dry apply fiberglass as the mothermold
-when that is dry turn it over and apply vaseline to the mold and apply more silicone to the other side
-Fiberglass

will this be an exceptional method? ive seen people use plaster but not sure how much i need.

any help appreciated!!

-Ian
 
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