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