If you’ve ever read a story and thought to yourself, “Someone needs to make this into a movie!” or if you have ever wished you could see your name in the credits of a film, fan funding (crowdfunding) may be the perfect opportunity for you, the film fan, to partner with filmmakers.
Every film genre has its fanbase of loyal individuals who care more about entertainment than the Hollywood film business machine. Epic fantasy films like the Lord of the Rings trilogy Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Clash of the Titans, Gladiator, Braveheart, Conan the Barbarian and Jason and the Argonauts especially have hardcore fans, fans who’ll watch the movie repeatedly and recommend it to friends. Wikipedia discusses epic fantasy films as: films with fantastic themes, usually involving magic, supernatural events, make-believe creatures, or exotic fantasy worlds — and fans love it.
However, unlike its sister genre, horror, epic fantasy films have often been big-budgeted computer graphics laden films that no fan could ever hope to be a part off until after the film was completed and in theaters. Because epic fantasy films are often difficult and expensive to make, the time between the release of movies in this genre is long. In 2010 the remake of Clash of the Titans was released. Before this film the only other significant epic fantasy film was the final installment of the Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, which was released in 2003.
But with the rise of independent films and fan funding (crowdfunding), fans now have an opportunity to partner with filmmakers all over the world to bring more epic fantasies to theaters, video chains and the Internet.
Consider the fan film, The Hunt for Gollum, which was entirely funded by fans of Lord of the Rings. Fans played a significant role in the film, with 95% of the staff being non-professionals. The film went on to be officially launched on Daily Motion and has screened around the world. But what’s next in the realm of epic fantasy?
Legend of Black Lotus is an epic fantasy film project by writer/director Angelo Bell, who hopes the fans will get behind his most ambitious project ever. With 13 film credits, several awards and two best-in-festival wins, Angelo is no neophyte to independent filmmaking. With the power of the fans behind him, Angelo hopes this next project will help him move up from micro-budget filmmaker to low-budget filmmaker.
Legend of Black Lotus tells the story of a child born to a barren queen with the help of the magic of the black lotus flower. According to the legend, the child will rise to become ruler, but because of her dark skin color the child is demonized and forced into slavery. With the undying love and commitment of her mother the child is trained in secret to harness her supernatural gifts. She becomes a skilled warrior and ultimately rises to defeat the tyrannical emperor, her father.
Legend of Black Lotus is hosted on the premier fan funding (crowdfunding) site, Indiegogo at the URL, http://www.indiegogo.com/blacklotus. There’s also a secondary site where the fan funding project is hosted on RocketHub – http://rockethub.com/projects/97-legend-of-black-lotus. Angelo maintains a detailed blog at http://www.AngeloBell.com where he blogs about his 10-year career as an independent filmmaker.
If you are a fan of epic fantasy films, you are sure to enjoy Legend of Black Lotus. The project presents a chance for fans to support a film from its beginning stages and see their names in the credits. To see a test animated storyboard of the film project visit the links below:
Legend of Black Lotus, promo trailer animatic test
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BzQksHIe38
Animatic Concept No. 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZIdY0Fo3CM
Fan Funding Donations accepted here: http://www.indiegogo.com/blacklotus
