Film Courage: Now it's time to raise money for the Internal Butler and you've said already that
possibly the budget will be 5 million? How do we find investors for the film?
Sean Reid, Filmmaker: I think ultimately a film like this needs to find…I
think it would be depending I think it actually could be a combination of things
it could be because of the fact that it is we decide if we just want to set it in Europe
then we could go to some place like Ireland or Greece or wherever we decide it is it has a good
film encouragement program and see what those things would do so that would be
the first thing I would do is I would look at what could what how do I make the package better
how do I make it something that it's hard for you to say no to anybody can just put
together a package and put together a budget and say this is how much it's going to cost
that's not a production plan a production plan is when you go in and you look at all those elements
and you say if I did this and I did this and maybe I did this and maybe I figured out how to
do this and then I go shoot it here then I could actually make this movie look like it's worth
eight million dollars or ten million dollars for five million dollars that's how something
like The Matrix gets done because Joel Silver is smart enough to go well one I got these two guys
who have never done anything except for now the movie I had them do that was successful which I
can bound right they've never done anything before that which he got them to do so that they could do
that and then what he did was he went and he found he did it in I believe New Zealand and figured and
got a better production package so got the effects cheaper with a new effects company so it made
essentially put together a package where doing those other two films and that were essentially
the cost of one film and all those films were cheaper than any film that would have been made
in the United States so that's how we got the studios to do it he he now because he had to get
around the fact that he had these two guys he'd never really done anything except for bound now
who've written this great sci-fi thing and he's still Joel Silver but he's still got to convince
them to do it, it's not just like they're just going to roll out and then you still may only have
one person who wants to do it in these levels of doing these tiers so one having a package that is
undeniable that is something that says it's like I figured this out I thought this out
so thoroughly that you are just you just do I am the package it's not the package
that speaks to it's like I am the package I was like I'm the captain now like if you have that
feeling with it when selling something that's your best chance of getting the money for it
I whatever it is it it's just the ability to put yourself in that and that that
ultimately that person is investing in you ultimately that your ability to execute it
so they're yes they want that movie but they want that movie that's the Sean Reid movie
if that's production quality if that's good storytelling whatever that is that's what they
that's what they now they've decided they want so how do you make sure you convince them of that
checking every single every single check mark off over and over again knowing exactly having
thought about it in multiple ways and having also basically the the gumption to say I'm going
to make this no matter what whether you give me this money or not I'm going to make it so if you
want to get on board right that's fine too see you later bye it's just that simple because when you
do that you're in control of the process much more as much as you can possibly be because you're not
nobody is but ick Lisa gives you an opportunity to give yourself the takeaway you're taking it
away before because that makes people want nobody wants to be sold everybody wants to buy right no
it wants to be sold but everybody wants to buy so how do you make that that's you can't have it
look at this can't happen mine all mine sorry oh mine can't have it that's the only thing you got
so working that and and proceeding as if and working in that way is the only way that I've
ever known how to do things and either gotten money or gotten people to give me money or
gotten investors or gotten things is by almost an almost like hard-headedness of like I'm going
to do it and I'll do it no matter what and that energy is what people want to get on board with
whatever that is you've got to imagine Henry Ford felt exactly like that he was going to
do he's going to do a matter what it has to be that energy I think in that thinking especially
these days getting movies done it's anyway so if there you come in with maybe too much desperation
it's it's definitely going to turn people off even if you don't have the five million yeah
it's not about that's why I'm bringing other elements I'm bringing the plan I'm bringing the
movie I'm bringing the we're going to shoot it in Greece and I've already talked to them and I
got in the vet and this is the plan we're going to get back and this is the money we're going to get
back when you give me that money so every when I have that type of plan just like any other startup
if you want to look at it that way pull it back to that what everyone's doing a
startup or whatever a movie is essentially a startup every single movie is a startup
it has to convince multiple individuals that it should exist and then be able to convince
many many many many more individuals that it should exist to be successful
and it either came and is an IP it will it can earn money for the rest of its life as for the
every year it can make a little bit make a little bit of money you can make something every single
year for the rest of its life if it starts to if it gets in the right position if the per if the
person taking care of their startup their little baby if they raise it up right it could actually
turn into something that actually gives you money back every single year imagine that something
that earns money but it is a it's a tenuous process process to get from that a to movie
how are you contacting potential investors
what are you telling me it really depends on the circumstances
like in the most recent circumstances is like hey this is almost done this is what I need
I kind of warned you I may be calling you for it and let's do this and then it's done in two
days those are usually the best way that these deals get done I've primed somebody in the past
for a circumstance or in that in a window and I know that the money is there and you just
close the deal when you're really mining for new prospects it starts to be a different type of game
at this point me personally I'm doing a combination of things I'm looking at
who do I know and who do I know no who do they know right and who do who can I ask or
who can put me in front of that person that can ultimately do that fortunately I'm in my other
businesses now put me in partnership with people who have put me in those types of things and
that other business puts me in a position where someone gave me a significant amount of money
to build that so it gives me more opportunities to find people to do that than I did than I had
even six months ago or a year ago so it's just some of it is just really knowing what that person
wants and knowing if that person is appropriate I may know plenty of people who would be right for
the projects that I'm interested in because those are people that I've found for those projects
this specific project our Internal Butler I've never even thought about doing a movie like this
in the in the region I have something that is a pure piece that is set in the 70s that I am
working on so there is some relatable things but this movie is still my movie is much more
of something you've never seen before which gives you that ability to want people to see
it just because you mean you mean this story happened and nobody's ever talked about it yes
no one's ever talked about really we've got to make a movie about it you've got
to make that movie so it has that have got to make that movie feel where this one has
I think needs another element to make it which probably would be a script that would be really
right and then an actor to put in that was going to make it that's a movie we got to see
so it needs a few more elements in its package before it gets me to be like does
the movie have got to see like especially when you work off of character-driven things that's
the difference when you work off of if you work off a plot and you work off of that then you can
sell you're selling a concept first time AI talks well the investor sees that they either
one or their one let's go back and look at some of these other ones we were talking about so we had
an aging Butler reminiscing about their Glory Days so that's a very internal driven kind of story and
then we had a small Mouse with a big heart one is that an animated movie if it's an animated movie
that's expensive really expensive if it's not an animated movie then it's a really inexpensive
cheap movie and I really don't like making like movies that like what I'm going to go run around
and try to like travel a little mouse underneath the thing it becomes a really cheap movie
right you can only make this movie one or two ways because of what it is but how it's been described
I mean one you're talking about an animal one way or another you have got to have an animal Wrangler
it's either it's animation or it's something so that one's that's all concept though like I you
could go in there and say yeah because I'm going to have CGI or I've come up with a new camera to
shoot a real live mouse and now we're going to put a mouthpack on it you got to figure that out
how are you going to make that movie so that's like just like weird putting the money into
developing the story of the movie before you can really even develop the story you have to develop
a kind of scope you can work under to write an appropriate story to go along with script
right if not you're wasting your time so a lifelong bachelor well
that's also one of those that could be just about anything and really that's
character to me interior at the club a lifelong bachelor that's so vague
right I mean really that's that could be anything a lifelong bachelor gets shot at a club movie over
okay the World's phone set me interior top secret facility the world's first sent me
an AI well we've seen this on some level and we know that it's not going to be cheap I mean
we all know this right and if it is cheap do you want to see it no probably not interior arcade a
video game character comes to life well that's not original because we've already got Wreck-It Ralph
and Wreck-It Ralph 2 and several other movies Tron so it's not a concept that you haven't
seen before so it's not original not unless we find a video character comes to life and perhaps
well that doesn't even work because I think that just happened in that last one that I just saw
where the character fell in love with a human character the human character fell in love with
the so yeah that's see already been made so once again expensive probably big studio in terms of
what we've got so sweet spot like there were two of them that were and really the one I was kind of
pushing the corner with the with the butler by the way I just think that was the best choice for me
well and also too if the character is likable even if there are moments in the beginning let's say
where were put off by him but if there's something we're drawn to where we have some kind of empathy
maybe we see that this man has just given away his entire life to this family and we start to
see that this family maybe isn't that good if maybe there's some elements to them that are
not honorable and then he finds out this secret and he's kind of like what am I doing this for
yeah I mean it gives it gives a lot of because it just gives it to me this feels like the beginning
of a movie these all feel like essentially plot line description character descriptions of within
a context like a movie about at a club a lifelong bachelor okay that's fine to me but discovers a
terrible yeah wait a minute world's first sent me an AI That's plot right even though it's
character but that's the character but to me that's actually really the plot because it's
the world's first set in the AI it's the character but it's also the plot because that's what happens
the world first setting Ai and now that's his Consciousness that's the plot too to me
guess no maybe yeah right yeah it sees how you see how it kind of pushes you
to one side already where we had so many more options with
with our aging Butler reminiscing right and and we can we can imagine a lot of scenarios where
maybe he's not really seen us who he is because maybe a lot of the people that he waits on look
down on him but he's actually much more than well and you can certainly like what asking
I think the reason I love movies personally and I've always loved movies and being involved in
them in any kind of way is because they ask what if and just like the great scientists and the
great people in medicine and great other ways we are able to ask ourselves what if
and why limit ourselves to that question it's the most beautiful question what if
because there are no limitations to that where the average person or the average Storyteller or the
Storyteller who hasn't started to challenge themselves we'll take that and just do that
I'm just going to do it in in the backyard and that's what they're going to do where we've gone
and now he's gone crazy and he's left and he's now in a hotel and he's teaching people and he's
wandering the world like Kung Fu or whatever it is because we're willing to ask what if.