In January of 2013, when I became convinced that I had found my two lead actors, I decided to try again (see the history page) to make this movie, but this time with me directing it. The first thing I had to do was make a budget and thus enlisted the help of Rob Yoo as a line producer. After that, I actually had to raise some money to make that budget concrete.

To convince folks to contribute to the “All Things Chicken” crowdfunding campaign, I wrote and directed this pitch video in March of 2013.  (It also functioned a dry run for the movie.)  Like the movie, the pitch stars Matt Mercer and Drew Nye as Dave and Ray, but interspersed with my on-camera narration.  Matt Cooper was the cinematographer – shooting on a Canon 7D; Lenore Eklund edited and Rob Yoo was on location with us:

I’m very grateful to those generous people, most of whom are not genetically related to me, who contributed money (and/or locations / time / labor).  Here is that list of supporters.

But in the end the campaign failed to make its goal, so I had a choice thus I financed 85% of the cost from, and decimated, my own personal savings.  Frankly those savings only existed because my dad had passed away and I was a beneficiary of some pension and life insurance policies.  That’s why I particularly wanted to honor my father in the end titles of the finished movie.

While Rob had to drop out of the project due to illness, he was a huge help in getting this movie off the ground.  I took over his line-producing duties in mid-April.