UK-based production company Shaunywa Films are aiming to raise a budget of £24,603 to produce two non-profit feature-length films, both of which will be released online, for people to watch for free, on two celebratory dates: Halloween 2018 and Valentine’s Day 2019.
Please donate to this exciting crowdfunding campaign if you’re able to.
“While it’s always nice giving people movies to watch for free, the issue is that it’s difficult to MAKE films for free”, highlights Company Director, Shaun Troke.
In October 2013, Shaunywa Films uploaded their first feature-length film – untitled – onto YouTube, and let it do its own thing. In almost five years, it gathered its own following of around 2,000 subscribers and has been watched by nearly a million people. With no marketing behind it at all.
In March 2017, Shaun began toying with the idea of making a follow-up to untitled‘ (because of its unexpected following), and a storyline was developed in the 12 months preceding that. A teaser trailer was also made in March 2017, to see what interest there would be for a sequel, with the aim for the final film to be released on Halloween 2018, exactly five years after the first film was published online.
“The final storyline idea for the sequel untitled/untold is to take the audience in a different direction to what they’re probably expecting, to turn everything on its head,” Shaun confirmed.
The other film project – The Visiting Hour – was written in August & September 2017. The aim was to make the film in November 2017, for a February 14th, 2018 release date… however, the main location for the film was lost just 10 days before filming, therefore setting back the project an entire year, to November 2018, for a Valentine’s Day 2019 release.
The Visiting Hour is a story first inspired by a screenplay called “The Caller”, written by an old acquaintance of Shaun’s:
“I’d read a script called The Caller, written by Matt Mosley, who was the writer of a movie called Sparrow that I directed back in 2010. I explained to Matt that what he’d written wouldn’t be a direction I’d take the movie in, while also understanding that I didn’t want him to rewrite the entire script based on my opinion… because, no writer likes redoing their own work. So, I suggested to Matt that I take some of the elements from The Caller, and write my own story.”
At the time of reading The Caller, Shaun was breaking-up from a long-term relationship, which meant he was able to pour raw input into the script about a troubled relationship, that would then eventually become The Visiting Hour. This film will tell the story of a female couple who retreat to a remote country house to fix their problems… but, things take a turn for the worse when dark secrets from the past arrive to confront them.
With The Visiting Hour’s new filming date looming, along with untitled/untold‘s Halloween 2018 release date, it was decided that the “Two Movies, One Campaign!’‘ project should begin on April 18th and end on May 18th, as the number “18″ is very significant to both ‘untitled’ movies.
And, it will be 13 days into the campaign (another significant number), on May 1st, that the project’s 10-month production schedule will begin.
“£24,603 is the absolute minimum that these two films can be made for, at a comfortable level of quality where I’d be happy telling the stories… and, by May 1st, we should be able to evaluate if making these two films will definitely go ahead or not,” assures Shaun. “Ideally, though, it’d be more helpful exceeding the £24,603 target, to make things a little easier during those 10 months of production.”
Aside from financial contributions, this crowdfunding campaign also hosts a Help Wanted section on its page, inviting people to inquire about joining the expenses-only team, to be involved behind-the-scenes in the making of these two films.
And, depending on the amount of assistance (and money) that is offered, this will also determine the location of where the majority of these films will be made: either the North West of England (Shaun Troke’s current habitat) or the South East of England (Shaun’s original homeland).
