Film Released

Today, we release a fully completed feature film that was barely even a notion six months ago.

15 January 2011, I launched a Kickstarter fundraiser...promising that I would "shoot over several days....allow for experimentation on set....break new ground visually….improve location sound recording....total running time for the film....between 65 and 80 minutes."

TAKEN IN is most certainly that, but it has also become a guiding star for my work and career. Moving forward now, I plan to continue making two features per year...on the same, six month schedule.

My next film, GET BETTER, launches a Kickstarter fundraiser today. And, assuming it is funded, there will be a process website like this one, 1 September 2011.

Thank you for your support in this process. I invite you along for the next one, as well.

This is such a great way to make a movie...with you, for you.

ASKS

A collection of excerpts from the 300 short video asks I sent to potential backers prior to making TAKEN IN. Looking back on these videos, I'm kind of amazed...seeing me believing somehow that the film should and would actually happen.

Settling the Score

Colin Devlin is no stranger to film and television music. His song "The Heart Won't be Denied" was just used in the season finale of ABC's "Brothers and Sisters." I first encountered Colin's music on the BATMAN FOREVER soundtrack (which I owned on cassette, I believe). He and his brother appeared as The Devlins on that collection (that featured U2, Seal, and PJ Harvey as well) with a track called "Crossing the River." For TAKEN IN, Colin has recorded U2's "Staring At the Sun." It sounds amazing. The perfect ending to our film.

LANDY WINGARD

A big thank you to Executive Producer Landy Wingard of Greenville, SC. Your support made our film happen.

JACK DRAYTON

A big thank you to Executive Producer Jack Drayton of Houston, TX. Your support made our film happen.

JIM DEDMAN

A big thank you to Executive Producer Jim Dedman of Greenville, SC. Your support made our film happen.

Taylors SC \ Pre-release Screening TONIGHT

A pre-release cut of the film will be screened tonight for Executive Producer Jim Dedman and his guests in Taylors, SC. The event is a private, invitation-only event.

IN ATTENDANCE: actor Madelaine Hoptry (with entourage), cinematographer Daniel McCord, writer-director Chris White, and co-writer Emily White.

Touring like a rock band. With a film.

Not sure if this idea is efficient, but it feels like the right thing to do.

I'm taking the film anywhere that will have me July 15 - August 31, 2011. Screening it for friends and other interested parties. Watching the story with people known and never met. Listening to their reactions, talking with them after...asking for their support of future endeavors.

I've made TAKEN IN to share with friends who have shared with me. Person-to-person filmmaking. Driving around, visiting their homes seems like the natural next-step.

Pre-Release "House-Screenings"

Kickstarter backers who gave us $500 (there were four) will see TAKEN IN before anyone else.

Between late May and the end of June, there will be at least four private, “house-screenings” of the film. I will be there to personally introduce the film and to answer any questions people have…also to listen to feedback from the audience as to how best to improve the film.

Final cut of the film will be completed after these screening events, and I hope to apply what preview audiences have to say about the film to that final, locked cut.

2 JUNE \\ Taylors, SC

5 JUNE \\ South Boston, VA

INSPIRATION AT WORK

Chris White talks about his work preparing for shooting TAKEN IN on the "Inspiration at Work" podcast hosted by Terry Barber and Tamara O'Neill.

ASKS

As part of a successful "crowd-sourcing" campaign to raise money to make TAKEN IN, writer-director Chris White produced and e-mailed 300, two and a half minute "video asks" to would-be backers.

"When I started, I thought, 'Why not? I’m asking people to give me their hard-earned cash. It’s the least I can do.' Then, after I’d made several dozen, I realized that 'facing' my potential backers was more difficult than I'd thought. Every video required me to imagine that person, remember them…talk directly to them.

“The more videos I made, the more deeply I thought about my film. As I asked for his or her support, I envisioned each person watching it. And that was very powerful. It’s made me think about my audience as a collection of individuals rather than rows of blithe faces staring at a flickering screen.”

The effort may be considered a rousing marketing success (25% of sent videos resulted in a pledge...making up nearly 60% of the total amount raised). But White insists it wasn't his most valuable discovery.

“My ‘video asks’ yielded an invaluable result: I really do know my audience now. And this has made me a better filmmaker.”

GO!

TAKEN IN is a feature-length motion picture about a father and his teenage daughter—two people who can't abide each other, forced to spend an entire weekend together. They must find a way to give each other grace...to make peace with one another.

This film is a "micro-budget" movie. That means that it will cost less than a "low-budget" movie to make...it will cost almost nothing to make. A true “labor of love.”

It will exist because a hundred people wanted it to. And the team who will be making it, led by writer/director Chris White, will do the work of making TAKEN IN for those backers who believed in their story, no one else.

So buckle up! It's going to be a wild ride. 60 days from today, a work of cinema will exist that did not today.

Creation at its most pure: TAKEN IN.

Away we go!