Location, Location, Location...

Since finishing the BitterSuite Kickstarter, The DOG BUTTON HQ has been a hive of activity - from new rehearsals, to new versions of the script, it's all been very exciting here!

This weekend Jan and I set out at 2am with our awesome DoP, Tom Doran, and looked at some of the night locations in the current draft of the script - we wanted to see how much light was present, how that would be captured using an approximation of the camera settings we expect to be using, how many people were around at that time of night...

...so we generally had a bit of a nosey around.

(no post processing on these snaps by the way... all this light is stuff that's already there in the location!)

We're pretty happy with the results too - the locations we put on our list to checkout had a very wide range of moods and lighting conditions, so we're pretty confident that we're going to be able to get what we need out of them!

Looking at these locations also sparked some great suggestions from Tom about what light rigs he's going to want to use, how that would affect production, etc.

It's all go from here!

Sam

The BitterSuite Kickstarter has ended

So. We did it. 

We’re making BitterSuite.

One-hundred and ninety-one people have made this possible – and raised an astonishing £11,448. We’re humbled by your generosity, your belief in us, and the love BitterSuite has received. We’re going to do everything we can to make the film live up to the love that has gone into funding it.

There’s nothing more to say other than ‘Thank-You’ – from now on we’ve gotta speak through our actions…

…which means actually making BitterSuite.  Something we’re scheduled to start doing on the 12th August - eek.

As of next week we’re going to give blog posting privileges to every single member of the cast & crew, so hopefully you’ll get an fully rounded view of the production as it unfolds – it should be an interesting, and pretty candid, look into the DOG BUTTON process.

(Oh, and if you haven’t already please ‘like’ us on Facebook, and‘follow’ us on Twitter! There’s always stuff going on…)

In other reward based news we’re going to be filming the ‘Toast Your Generosity’ video at 2am on Thursday morning, so look out for that on Thursday evening – we have 101 people to toast, so we’re going to do a shot of beer for every one of them. It ain’t gonna be pretty, but hopefully you’ll see the love in it! 

Also, we still have 63 Vines to make, so we’ll be making those over the next week – keep your eyes out for them on the DOG BUTTON Vine profile page. 

With that, we’ll sign off – running a Kickstarter has been one of the most rewarding things we have ever done, every single pledge has made our tiny hearts skip a beat, and every day has been full of tiny struggles and victories. 

Thank you all for making it worthwhile, and making BitterSuite happen. 

Sam & Jan 

Ps. Breaking from the lovey-dovey nature of the post though, we’ve gotta be honest – it was also absolutely exhausting running this campaign. We got this photo snapped just as we hit the end of the Kickstarter – as you can see we're full of beans.

Jan's KickStarter Diary.  'Like a blog, only more about me-me-me'

Day Two.

We’ve just gone past the 24 hour mark and already a lot has happened. Immediately after we launched, several of you dove right in and pledged your little hearts out and it means a lot to us.

That’s our first lesson – that we have healthy appreciation glands. Or maybe they’re relief glands. We’ve put a lot of work into just getting to the point where we can start nagging people for money to help get us to the point where we can start making the film. So we’re a long way off the actual point, but, even so, we’re already tired and therefore humbled when someone actually backs our little film and gives us that tiny piece of validation our broken, overly dramatic diary-writing characters require.

            Last night was the official launch party. Sam super-insisted that we have cake. He wasn’t going to make it… But he wanted it there. So I made two cakes and people loved it, but I take no credit because I did it entirely begrudgingly and tried my best to poison everyone. But in the end I’m just too good at baking and we learnt our second lesson of the day – let them eat cake.

            Sam just came in with a brilliant idea: WE SHOULD HAVE A BITTER-SWEET TASTING PARTY. This is now our lives: coming up with stupid ideas to convince people to donate money to our completely selfish and not-at-all-helping-the-poor-or-the-sick-or-any-of-the-other-people-jesus-helped-when-he-wasn’t-making-kitchen-sink-comedy-dramas-about-turning-thirty-and-not-having-a-clue-what-you’re-up-to cause. KickStarter is a confusing place.

            But, at midnight last night we got selected as a Staff Pick on the KickStarter. Perhaps we have made a good impression on the internet so far. Maybe it’s okay to ask money. Still not sure. But to everyone that’s pledged so far I can say whole-heartedly that we’re very grateful. There, a human moment. I’ll stop before I deliberately undermine my own sincerity it with a paedophile joke.

Teasing a Kickstarter campaign... Day, well, X

So then. Day X.

Why "Day X", you ask? The answer is due to a few reasons... Most notably that I've been so busy teasing a Kickstarter capaign that I haven't had time to write about it!

Between that, trying to pre-produce a film, work a "normal" job and trying to get all the behind-the-scenes organisation done for the Kickstarter campaign... I'm exhausted!

(Picture was taken by Jan when we were trying to open a bank account for BitterSuite - it's all been a bit too much!)

Since my last post we've deceived we're having a party to on Kickstarter launch day to promote it, so we've arranged, booked and planned that - it's happening at The Jolly Butchers (the pub where I hold my "normal" job) and there's a Facebook event page ( https://www.facebook.com/events/424426501033773/ ) you should come!

We've also had two more rehersals, and designed future rehersals so they will serve a double purpose and also yield a web series, called BitterSuite moments - head over to the DOG BUTTON YouTube page and you'll see two of them there already. All of them should be, if the plan works, be chronological and lead up to the events of the film proper - it's a pretty ambitious plan, so let's hope it pays off!

There's actually been so much work for Jan and I to do recently, that we've had to devise a new scheduling system on our office wall to denote deadlines, and move jobs around to make sure we hit them - I'm including a photo of it here, so you can see the purposefully low-rent, uber stylish, working method we now have (hahahaha!)

In addition to this chart, we've also redesigned, and rewritten, our script outline wall chart as we approach our new draft - it's pretty in depth and big already!

So yeah, a load has been happening, and something had to give - namely, this blog... but hopefully this will change. 

As we get closer to production more people are being added to the team, and I'm hoping that more people will wrote more and more on this blog as we go on - being the sole writer sucks!

We're almost at the launch of the Kickstarter campaign (3 days!) so hopefully the tangible monetary scale of donations will push us to carry on - it feels like we're at the end of the race, but really we haven't even started!

Gotta get back to work now, speak soon,

Sam

Ps. Oh! One last thing - Jan and I have now said we're making a BitterSuite cake for the launch day party... Let's hope there as good as these ones at the shop opposite The Jolly Butchers, or we'll look awful in comparison! THE CHALLENGE IS ON!

Teasing a Kickstarter campaign... Day 8

After some big internal debates we decided to come up with a way of unifying everything BitterSuite under one umbrella, and redesigned the DOG BUTTON website's homepage splash to reflect something from the individual character one-sheets.

Pretty, ain't it?!

Let's just hope it funnels people to the Kickstarter page, eh?!

That's your lot for today,

Sam

Teasing a Kickstarter campaign... Day 7

12 DAYS UNTIL KICKSTARTER LAUNCH

Today's reveal is... this!

This blog!

on and on and on and on and on and on

I'd say that if you're new here (and that's 100% of you!) the place to start is with the first post. In it I talk about what this blog will be, and what it won't.

(Cliff notes version; it's gonna be raw, non-party line individual views, and not a slick media outlet - this is where everyone working on BitterSuite will have a place to post whatever they feel like.)

Hopefully the blog will be a fun and informative look at what happens when you try to crowd fund budget for a £11,000 first time feature, and what subsequently happens when you try to make it.

It's gonna get messy.

Sam

PS. Jan and I are having a rehearsal with Cordelia and Sarah today, so look for some posts on how it all went, and what we got up to, in the near future - to tide you over here's an unused poster still of the gang hanging out on the sofa.

Teasing a Kickstarter campaign... Day 6

13 DAYS UNTIL KICKSTARTER LAUNCH

After the release of all of the posters for BitterSuite, today is the first day of the "teasing" campaign that didn't have a image to go along with it; instead Jan and I had planned to release an overview and synopsis.... but it looked pretty damn boring, and didn't really work so well on Twitter!

Instead, I decided to take one of the major pieces of the project's visual identity (the wall from the first 'sofa' poster) and put the text we'd written over that. I think it looks a-ok.

As a bit of an experiment I made the image a 9x16 ratio, so that if people looked at it on their phone it would fill the frame entirely when held in portrait mode. I'll be interested to see what people make of it.

One thing I didn't expect, was that close friends already seem to be eager to help - the final poster, and this synopsis, were both shared without any prompting by us. I reckon this is a good sign as we approach the campaign... but I really want us to hit the magic 30% mark within the first 48 hours of our launch - that means, £3,300 so we're all gonna have to push hard to bring the sofa home!

That's all for today, smell ya later,

Sam

Teasing a Kickstarter campaign... Day 5

Today is the final poster release, and it's the group poster of all three of our leads; Sarah, Myles and Cordelia.

The final Bittersuite poster

We imagine that either this poster, or the more motif 'sofa' poster, will be the face of BitterSuite throughout production and release - of course, we could be completely off base, and find that the project has another identity after release, but that'll be another blog post!

Today we also publicly announced the launch of the Kickstarter campaign, and our goal - on Tuesday the 17th of June we'll launch our campaign for £11,000.

I'm getting pretty obsessed with tracking other feature film campaigns on Kicktraq, and preparing for the campaign is already shredding my nerves; I can't think what I'll be like when we actually launch!

That's all for today,

(a worried... but excited) Sam

Teasing a Kickstarter campaign... Day 4

Today's tease is the final character poster release - Sarah.

The fact the 'tagline' ends on the word "sofa" was no accident!

Sarah is going to be played by Sarah Barker, who also featured in 'room for two', along with Myles - if you've seen 'room for two' I'm sure it'll come as no surprise.

Here's all three together, just so you can see all three of our leads together...

Awwww bless!

With that done, we're all done for today!

See you tomorrow sofa-surfers!

Sam

Teasing a Kickstarter campaign... Day 3

As promised here's day two of our character posters for BitterSuite - the is Myles.

When the posters are put in 'order' Myles is staring at Cordelia on yesterday's poster

Jan and I have worked with Myles before on 'room for two', you can see the trailer for it below, and the full film, for free, when our Kickstarter page is officially launched.

(I have to dash to work at my other job so I can't wrote more here today - sorry!)

Sam

Teasing a Kickstarter campaign... Day 3

Today we're showing off our individual character poster for BitterSuite.

We've designed all three so that they work on their own, but also work as the basic plot setup of the film when viewed as a triptych - you would not believe the amount of arguments Jan and I got into about wording of these!

The concept took weeks to come together (a downside of being a democracy of two!) but when we struck on the idea of having the characters lying on the grass with broken bits of sofa around them we knew we had come onto a winner of an idea.

I'm especially happy with the way the 'sofa' motif is understated and literally a background to the issues the characters are dealing with - just as they will be in BitterSuite.

Gotta say though, I think they work together pretty nicely - without any more preamble... meet Cordelia!

Note the "Bit-ter-Suite" stamp - we're all about branding at DOG BUTTON!

Cordelia really stuck out in the auditions, and had a wonderful ability in improvisations to speak harsh truths to other characters without coming across as harsh - she's naturally incredibly charming, and is pretty disarming because of it.

In person, she's a trooper and we're positive that she's going to make BitterSuite a fun and affecting viewing experience - I love her expression in the poster, it's like Mona Lisa's smile; what's she thinking? Is she feeling remorse for the actions in the text? Or does she not give a fuck because there's something else going on? SO MANY QUESTIONS! (Hopefully they'll be answered when you see the final film though...)

Another character reveal tomorrow, but that's your lot for now!

Sam

Teasing a Kickstarter campaign... Day 2

So, here we are again, another day, another tease - of course, you've already seen this one though, on day one of this blog... so I'll tack it on at the end!

Instead, I'll chat about the last few days. They have been mainly an attempt to construct a list of people to contact who might be interested in BitterSuite or, fingers crossed, would be more willing to write about them... I feel like I've effectively become the dark machine that sits at the end of a phone line incessantly ringing up busy people asking if they know that "they are due a round on their PPI insurance claim..."

It's all been a bit soul destroying... but that ends now.

I don't have a problem when I find someone who I genuinely think would like to hear about DOG BUTTON and BitterSuite and all the things we hold dear, and I think I've just found out how to find just those people, and it involves finding those people who like the films and stuff we do...

For example, Joe Swanburg's Drinking Buddies 

Just a little something I whipped up on Photoshop. Lord, I'm slick :-p

After searching for articles on Drinking Buddies I came across an article called "Let's Talk Drinking Buddies" over on The Movie Blog which outlined exactly what we're trying to do with BitterSuite - to make something "[not a] cutesy, light hearted comedy. Serious stuff happens as emotions and attraction happen."

Someone who likes that sort of stuff is sure to be interested in BitterSuite, right?! (And written in all the simple, non-fancy, words Jan loves too! CASHBACK!)Thanks, Kenny Miles, you're going on my list - and you've made me realise another way we can target this Kickstarter campaign! (Oh, and when I do contact you, I'll be sure to link you to this post, just so you can see that my thanks is genuine! Ha!)

Sam out!

PS. Before I go, here's today's teaser poster - I know you've already seen it, but what harm can it do, eh?!

Shhhhhh! Don't tell anyone we messed up already - everything's planned from here on out, honest!

Polish

This is another attempt on my part to annoy Sam by posting about anything that isn't the film we're supposed to be making... BitterSuite.If a commercial is required then it's here: BitterSuite will be awesome. Give money to make it happen via KickStarter.

There. Now on to my story.

A while ago I met a middle-aged couple at an airport who told me this story which is both short and amusing, and therefore blog-appropriate, in my eyes.

The guy was an electrician and out at work all day, and his wife had retired early, once his business was stable, to spend time at home being a mother to their kids (who'd already moved-out) and a wife to their house (house-wife).

Except, she did fuck-all all day. She lunched with her friends, watched TV, and went shopping. She openly admitted to not caring one bit about the state of the house, and, after a week or so of this, her husband had started to get annoyed when he came home and the place was filthy.

The wife felt guilty this, but she also loved her freedom, hated cleaning, and, for some reason, couldn't just own that. 

So, on about the eighth day of this new dynamic, when she knew her husband was coming home, at, say, five-to-seven, she went around the house spraying polish into the air. Great, thick swathes of Pledge or Mr. Sheen, so that the house would at least smell like it had been cared for.

When her husband came home, he walked into the living room, smelt the polish and immediately slipped on the parquet floor that was greased to the nines by the settling polish cloud, landing on his spine.

The result was he was bed-ridden, incapacitated for several months with a major back injury, and they were both at home together, with her looking after him.

But I met them at an airport where they were about to go on a skiing holiday, so I guess it all worked out.

Anyway, there's a moral in there somewhere.

Jan 

Intro / Teamwork

I'm new to this whole blogging thing and have no frame of reference - I don't post on Facebook and I didn't keep a diary as a kid so.... I'm going to start at the very beginning, as if I'm turning twelve today.

Sam tells me (via something called 'Analytics') that only around 60 people are currently looking at this, so how wrong can it go? Let's find out. (Sorry, Sam.)

Dear Diary,

I hurt my ankle on a slippery slab. I went to the hospital and had an X-ray. Nothing is broken; it just hurts. I can't walk. I couldn't finish my day's work, so I spent money travelling around, and didn't get paid. 
I'm currently homeless, so this is a problem.

Right now I'm high on Guinness and paracetamol.

Tomorrow I need to go back to work, but it's not looking good. If I try and walk I look like Johnny Depp in the casino scenes in Fear and Loathing, but with more wincing and swears.
Sam said if I can't go, he'll go for me, and that, murfuckers, is teamwork. And you can't make a film without teamwork. So, all-in-all, I'm looking at this as a positive.

Yep... Definitely high right now.


Goodnight, Diary.

Jan

Scheduling a Kickstarter campaign and a shoot is... tough...

As the post title shows, we've been having a bit of an odd week, as we're trying to work out the best way to market BitterSuite's Kickstarter campaign before launch:

- What pre-release information / content will people be interested in?

- When would it be best to reveal to them?

- Should we contact blogs we would like to feature BitterSuite's campaign before the campaign starts, or after?

- When do we try to secure, and co-ordinate pledges from friends and family?

- When do we actually MAKE THE FILM ITSELF?!

To that end, Jan and I are currently trying to do all the jobs of a small production company, and it's getting pretty complex - so much so that our internal calendar is a pattern of colour madness that just seems to draw my gaze in and... never... let... go...

The many angled fractal geometry of Lovecraftian horrors have nothing on this BEAST

...but, yeah, we've come to a decision, and now have a plan on drip feed of information running up to the Kickstarter campaign for the general audience - the plan is to have it cascade across our social media platforms simultaneously, so we'll be there in people's feeds with a simple image - not obtrusive, but not ignorable either :-p

To this end I'll try and use Sex & Sofas to also document the running of the Kickstarter campaign, so hopefully others can learn from our successes and failures - I know looking at other campaigns has been a source of deep research for both Jan and I over the last few months...

Back to business though; today's 'tease' is the BitterSuite poster stamp. Our hope is that the arrangement of text is iconic enough to be cemented in people's minds as the film logo's identity by the end of next week... fingers crossed, eh!

Anyway, here's your poster - enjoy people!

Sam out :-D

(Yeah, white on black is a pretty strong look - I like it!)

Kickstarter to launch Tuesday 17th June

BitterSuite's Kickstarter campaign will launch on the 17th of June, so Jan and I have been hard at work on getting everything we need together for the Kickstarter video.

I must say though, when we started it I didn't think we'd be explaining BitterSuite's plot through the high tech medium of felt pens, paper, and blu-tack... making a Kickstarter video is odd.

The long journey begins!

Hey everyone!

Welcome to Sex & Sofas a blog detailing every step we take towards the creation of BitterSuite - the debut feature film by DOG BUTTON, a boutique, London based film production company started by myself, Sam Mildner (@dogshowhello on twitter), and my partner in crime Jan Hillman.

We're planning to raise funds for the project through Kickstarter, and make the film on a very small budget, in a very, well, DOG BUTTON fashion (ie. small, intimate and familial.)

This ain't how films are usually made, kids!

We plan to use this blog to show this process, warts and all, and probably give you several chuckles at our expense - this blog isn't going to be towing a 'party-line', and will frequently feature contributions from cast and crew... it's going to be messy!

To find out more about us you can go to our website, follow DOG BUTTON on twitter, go to our YouTube channel, check out our Vimeo profile and 'like' us on Facebook - we're all over the internets!

Until next time, here's the 'sofa' poster for BitterSuite - enjoy!

Sam