MovieMaker’s Trailblazer Tuesday Crowdfunder of the Week is Paperback, the sophomore effort of director Adam Bowers: “a smart, painfully real comedy/romance.”
Bowers, who graduated from the University of Florida in 2007, already has impressive credentials in spite of his youth. His first film, a mumblecore-ish romantic comedy called New Low that Bowers made for $2,000, premiered at Sundance in 2010 – talk about being fast out of the gate. Everybody who saw it drew favorable comparisons to Woody Allen (and we mean everybody – read the quotes on Paperback’s Kickstarter page), which not only is high praise, but more proof that smart, lasting film doesn’t require huge budgets. Like Allen, whose oeuvre is so inextricably tied to New York (recent global output notwithstanding), Bowers seems to be setting himself up as a moviemaker with a distinct local interest, a bard of Gainsville, Florida. Of that town, he writes “It’s gritty, overgrown, wet, and awesome, and making the movie there will be more than worth the difficulties. Like in my first movie, I want to really capture what it’s like to live in that town and be a part of its unique culture.”
Besides the evidently talented Bowers himself (whose tall, lanky frame and perpetually droll expression would seem to lend itself perfectly to comedy), Paperback’s team of producers bring their own indie chops to the table, with credits like The Myth of the American Sleepover, Black Rock, Sun Don’t Shine, and Black-Eyed Peas videos to their names. As we’re learning over our weeks cherry-picking crowdfunders, a strong team is the core of a good campaign and a good film, so this bodes well for Paperback – it takes a village, and so on.
We wish that the film’s synopsis went a little more in-depth than a brief couple of sentences on its campaign page. While the tone of a film like this is naturally of prime importance and deserves the attention it receives (“funny and entertaining, but also sad and real”), tone is a very intangible thing to carry a crowdfunder. We like, though, that Bowers shares our indie philosophy: his belief in the irrelevance of budgetary constraints to the innate quality of a film – or, in fact, the creativity-enabling value of such constraints (Bowers mentions in his video his plan to “embrace our limitations” and “use [a microbudget] to shape the movie itself as part of the creative process”). He does plan to go a lot bigger with this project than he did for his last – $39,000 is, after all, almost 20 times $2,000 – but this auteur-in-the-making is just spreading his wings. And hey: donors to Paperback can call themselves Paperbackers (get it?). That’s reason enough to give a couple of dollars, right?
Synopsis: “It’s about a pizza cook who never left his college town, his old best friend who’s just moved back, and the love of his life. If I told you more it would spoil some surprises, but I’ll just say that things get… tricky.”
Campaigner: Adam Bowers, writer-director-actor
Target Amount: $39,000
Amount Currently Raised: $21,599
Campaign Opening Date: July 17, 2013
Campaign Closing Date: August 16, 2013 (30 days in total)
Funding Goes Toward: Travel, lodging and food for the core team in Gainsville, and a basic camera package.
Donor Reward Highlights:
$15: One of our cast members will send you a postcard from the shoot with a real-deal Florida recipe included on it + soundtracks + button + access to private Instagram + our thanks!
$20: Adam will confess a secret of yours to the person of your choosing (he’s surprisingly discreet) + most previous rewards
$200: 2 passes to all 4 days of THE FEST, a music festival in Gainesville (http://www.thefestfl.com) + most previous rewards
$750: A chance to visit the set, where you can eat lunch with us, yell “action” once or twice, and possibly even be an extra if you want to (travel not included, but we’d love to do a “Skype visit” if you can’t make it) + most previous rewards
$2,000: Adam will produce or direct a comedy sketch or music video for you (a 1-2 day shoot, production budget not included) in Los Angeles or worldwide, if travel and lodging are provided + most previous rewards
$3,000: Beach vacation getaway for up to 4 people. A week at Tommy’s On The Beach (tommysonthebeach.com), a beautiful vacation home right on the water in Indian Rocks Beach, FL, upon availability (travel not included) + most previous rewards.
For more information on Paperback, visit its Kickstarter page.
Moviemakers, keep them coming! We welcome any crowdfunder campaign submissions for spotlighting consideration in our Trailblazer Tuesday series. Email [email protected] with your pitch! Help us to help you get your films made.
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