Category: Productivity

Bri Castellini: Join Buy In on Seed&Spark today! – @brisownworld

by Bri Castellini

In November 2016, my good friend Colin and I decided to write a horror short film together. Colin had just finished a stint as Carl in season 2 of Brains (a web series I created and also starred in) and as Kevin in Ace and Anxious (a short film I had written/directed).

He was a big fan of horror and I had been wanting to try my own hand at it, so it was decided: a short film in the horror genre with an idea of our production restrictions in mind as they developed the script. We knew we wanted to keep the cast small, the location singular, and the horror psychological, and within a month we’d written the first draft of what would become Buy In, the story of a charming young salesman and a strange, lonely traveler who find themselves locked in a struggle for control over their own destinies.

Production commenced in January 2018, with a tiny cast and crew of seven people total (4 crew, 3 cast), and post-production was completed the following year in January 2019. Buy In then began its successful festival run, racking up several nominations and award wins.

Why did it take so long?

Money. We were a team of volunteers, who loved working together and wanted to make a creepy film about the horrors of multilevel marketing schemes. Colin and I financed production and post-production with our day job salaries, and we couldn’t be prouder of what we put together. Now, we want to give our short a splashy entrance to the world, and we need your help to once again live burden free.

But isn’t Buy In finished? What’s the money for?

First and foremost, we need your help to settle our debts. We bought in to make this film, and to get it to your screens, we need to pay up, to our incredibly talented cast and crew who also bought in.

More importantly, though, we have an exciting proposition for you. Would you, [insert name here], like to buy in to an exciting new opportunity? It’s called Buy In on Seed&Spark, and here’s how it works:

Step 1: Pledge to & follow the campaign! Any pledge amount to one of the team member salaries on our Wish List page or to the campaign at large.

Step 2: Recruit others to pledge to and follow the campaign! Every new pledge you bring gets you closer to the top. The top of what? Why, our Buy In on Seed&Spark leader board! Compete to become the most valuable salesperson in our international community! Each new level you rise to will unlock a new employee ID card to show off your success to other salespeople, in addition to seeing your name move up our Employee Rankings list on the campaign page.

Please note: this is not a pyramid scheme and we take any claim that it is to be deeply hurtful.

Level 1: Limbo

You have been recruited to the Buy In on Seed&Spark team by pledging and following our campaign. Welcome to the team! Now get recruiting by sharing the following message with your friends, enemies, and followers:

Help me climb the ranks of the exciting definitely-not-a-pyramid-scheme by supporting the psychological horror project #BuyInFilm on @seedandspark! Join the team and climb the ranks yourself: seedandspark.com/fund/buy-in

Level 2: Lust

You have recruited 1 additional teammate to the Buy In on Seed&Spark community. Tweet proof of your new recruit’s pledge to us here.

Level 3: Gluttony

You have recruited 2 additional teammates to the Buy In on Seed&Spark community. Tweet proof of your new recruit’s pledges to us here.

Level 4: Greed

You have recruited 4 additional teammates to the Buy In on Seed&Spark community. Tweet proof of your new recruit’s pledges to us here.

Level 5: Platinum Executive Diamond

You and your recruits have personally pledged $666 or more to the Buy In on Seed&Spark community. Tweet proof of your and your recruit’s pledge total to us here.

Is there anything else you need, my supreme overlords?

There is no need for such formalities. As your supreme overlords, we graciously request you simply call us ‘teammate.’

Thank you, truly, for helping us bring this project to a screen near you and to seize the means of production. We are so proud of this project, and we hope you enjoy watching it as much as we’re going to enjoy sucking out your souls into our eternal soul bank. Terms and services apply.

Bri Castellini is an indie filmmaker and Film Community Manager for Seed&Spark, a film crowdfunding platform, as well as an adjunct professor for two MFA programs. Watch the remarkable Ms. Castellini’s award-winning web series, Brains, HERE. See Sam And Pat Are Depressed HERE. This post first appeared on Bri’s wonderfully refreshing blog.

Bri Castellini & Undead Burrito Productions are at it Again – @brisownworld

We at TVWriter™ are big admirers of Bri Castellini and her partners in indy interweb and short film production, so it’s with great pleasure that we pass along the following message. (Oh, and, yeppers, we recommend Bri’s project to the max.)

Award-winning horror short about pyramid schemes launches crowdfunding campaign designed as a pyramid scheme
by Bri Castellini

Hi All,

Undead Burrito Productions is the producers of the award-winning horror short Buy In, a psychological horror short about lies, desperation, and multi-level marketing schemes, which seems like a project right up your alley.
Today we launched a crowdfunding campaign on Seed&Spark for distribution as well as for marketing purposes, designed as a multi-level marketing scheme itself to align with the themes of the film.
Here’s how Bri & Company see this new project shaking down:

Brooklyn, NY- The latest award-winning project by Undead Burrito Productions announces its online and NYC premiere with another announcement: a Seed&Spark crowdfunding campaign that hints at the themes of the film itself.

Buy In on Seed&Spark is described as an exciting new international community, where each time a pledge to the campaign recruits new pledges, they move up the leader board of top salespeople. If this sounds like a pyramid scheme, the co-writers of the film insist it’s just shaped that way.

Incentives for the campaign (outside of a place on their Buy In on Seed&Spark leader board for top salespeople) include an anti-capitalism propaganda poster, access to the film early, and, for just $666, associate producer credit on the film and immediate Platinum Executive Diamond membership status on the leader board.

Buy In is an award-winning psychological horror short about lies, desperation, and multi-level marketing schemes, which follows a charming young salesman and a strange, lonely traveler who find themselves locked in a struggle for control over their own destinies. Written by Colin Hinckley and Bri Castellini, directed by Bri Castellini, and starring Colin Hinckley, Marshall Taylor Thurman, and Mae Mitchell.

The film won the Spotlight Award at Stephenville Fright Fest in 2019, and was nominated for horror and acting awards at the Northern Horror Fest, VOB Film Festival, and the Northeast Film Festival Horror Fest. It will be available for rent or purchase on Amazon Prime on March 23rd, 2020.

About Undead Burrito Productions

Undead Burrito Productions is a Brooklyn, NY based collective of filmmakers known for the award-winning web series’ Brains (2015-2016), Sam and Pat Are Depressed (2017-present), and Relativity (2016) and short film Ace and Anxious (2016).

Bri Castellini is an indie filmmaker and Film Community Manager for Seed&Spark, a film crowdfunding platform, as well as an adjunct professor for two MFA programs. Watch the remarkable Ms. Castellini’s award-winning web series, Brains, HERE. See Sam And Pat Are Depressed HERE.

Podcast fiction tips from one of the genre’s top creators

The writer behind three of the most popular audio dramas now available tells us how to move audiences using nothing more than dialog and sound.

INTERVIEW WITH WRITER K. A. STATZ
by B. DeCesare

I had the chance to talk with K. A. Statz, co-founder of Fool & Scholar Productions and writer for the podcasts The White Vault, Liberty, and Vast Horizon. 

The White Vault is a horror audio drama that focuses on the disappearance of a research team at Svalbard, a frigid wasteland where secrets resting beneath the ice for millennia are more chilling than the unforgiving environment of the Arctic Circle. The “found footage” style podcast boasts a talented and diverse cast of characters and voice actors and uses dialogue and sound to create a terrifying story.

1. TELL US A BIT ABOUT WHAT INSPIRED THE WHITE VAULT.

In 2016, Travis (Vengroff) and I went on a trip to Iceland during the winter. I was just out of university, so the only time we could really afford to go was in the winter off-season. So, we packed for snow and ice, and off we went. It was spectacular: black sand beaches, steaming saunas, fields of volcanic rock, and entire mountains of ice that spread on past the horizon.

It was also where I came to realize how harsh and neutral nature could be. All that ice and snow, those impossibly strong dark waves that could pull you out to sea like you were nothing, everything could harm you. It didn’t want to or need to, it just could. I loved it. This gave me the idea for a much different story, but over time as I worked on building something out of those ideas, it took on some supernatural elements and eventually became the story of The White Vault as it exists today.

 

2. IN A PREVIOUS Q&A SHORT, YOU MENTIONED THAT YOU WERE DRAWN TO AUDIO FICTION BECAUSE OF ITS EFFICIENCY AND HOW ENJOYABLE THE PROCESS WAS. WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE ASPECTS OF CREATING CONTENT FOR AUDIO FICTION? 

It’s accessible. Anyone, anywhere, at any time can write a script and make a podcast. It’s this open-door to podcasting that has allowed so many great stories come into being. But, from the writing perspective, I enjoy the freedom I have to craft worlds and horrors. I create my script, but listeners do a lot of the work in their ‘Theatre of the Mind’. The creature someone creates in their mind’s eye will always be more terrifying to them than anything I describe.

3. CONVERSELY, WHAT ARE SOME OF THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES…? 

Read it all at morbidlybeautiful.com

Seth Godin’s Top 5 Rules For Success

Worthwhile reading for anybody trying to make it to the top of the ladder, regardless of what ladder you’re trying to climb. Have at it!

Brought to us all by Behind the Brand

about seth godin

He’s an American author, entrepreneur, marketer, and public speaker.

He’s the author of 17 books.

His Seth’s Blog was ranked in the AdAge Power 150 as the number 1 marketing blog out of the 976 tracked.

What to Look For in a Co-Working Space

Here’s a handy guide for those of us who are tired of writing our hearts out at coffee shops…and have a few $$$ to spend.

by Elyse Hauser

The U.S. got its very first coworking space in 2005. Not quite 15 years later, the country now offers 781 coworking spaces, where remote workers can tap the benefits of a structured office. In future years, that number will almost certainly keep growing.

This means that even once you’ve decided to rent a coworking space, you face the challenge of choosing the best one for your needs. And the closer you are to a major metropolitan area, the more choices you have.

How can you narrow the pool of possibilities down to the best coworking space for you? While each worker is different, these considerations will help you make your choice.

Location

The first thing you should think about is the location.

When you rent a coworking space, you’re buying an office. You might only pay for five days a month, or you might pay for 365 days a year. No matter what, though, having an office outside of your home means having a commute.

You need to know that you can live with that commute. Think about travel time and travel methods. If the best coworking space is in a neighborhood across town, is it worth navigating traffic to get there? Will your coworking space force you to have a car, or can you save your hard-earned money by using a bike or public transit?

These questions don’t have right answers—it’s all about what works best for you. But make location the number-one priority when you choose your coworking space. A great space that’s too hard to get to will become virtually worthless.

Budget

While the location is critical, so is cost. A coworking space that eats up too much of your profits will harm, not help, your career.

Don’t delve too deep into the search before deciding your budget. How much can you realistically afford to pay for a coworking space? What’s your ideal price, and what’s your maximum price?

You may get the chance to take on more work or raise your rates once you have the resources offered by a coworking space. But it’s best not to count on these opportunities before you have them. Work with your current budget to figure out how much you can pay right now….

Read it all at lifesavvy.com