The "Nitecrawlers" Logo

It's so important these days for independent filmmakers to create a "brand" around their film right from the outset.

That's why, even with the script still in the violent throes of a second draft, we asked our good friend Ed Adams to design us a logo to help us brand the new film. I gave him only a few vague themes and plot points to work off of, and he came up with the pretty logo you now see at the top of the page. The logo will be a key visual element in all our investor materials.

Here's Ed's design (you can also see it up in the header of the blog:



I wanted the logo to recall the shared aesthetic from a lot of popular 80's horror/adventure/comic movies. Two film logos in particular stood out to me as being excellent brand markers of their properties. When you see these logos (or even the typeface), you immediately can recall the film or films of their origin.

Here they are:

"Goonies" Logo:


"The Warriors" Logo:


I think Ed did a really great job of capturing the same essence and timelessness of the above logos with his work on the Nitecrawlers logo. What do you think? I'm going to try to get some commentary from Ed himself and post it here so that he can describe the creative process that went into the logo's creation.

You can check out Ed's website here: http://www.flickertoflame.com.

- K

Getting Back on the Horse

A lot of first-time filmmakers don't realize how draining the process of making a feature film can be.

When Mike and I started to make our first feature in the Summer of 2005, we were both only 22, both fresh out of film school. We had no idea about the sheer gargantuan nature of what we were taking on. Form an LLC? Prepare early for deliverables? What? Nobody had ever taught us the business end of making a film, and I think that's a common thought that most recently graduated film students experience when they set out to do what we did.

What we didn't realize at the time was that the entire process of making our first feature (from the formation of the LLC and the writing of the script all the way through to seeing the film released in foreign countries like Russia and Japan) was nearly a 3 year process. Even to this day, some 4 years later, parts of the process still drag on. I still have to close the LLC from that film before the year's end.

It was incredibly emotionally draining for both of us. At one point during post-production, we stepped away from the edit completely for 6 weeks. We were just burned out, plain and simple. And once the film achieved distribution and we were finding it in places like Wal-Mart and Best Buy, it was easy to sit back and ride the coattails of that success for a long time.

But you can't milk the success of one film forever, and the creative juices always come rushing back. When you've made a $20,000 film, there are inevitably many things that make you say "Man, next time around, when we have more money, I'm going to do X, Y and Z so much better."

But making a new film is a great risk...financially, legally, emotionally, when you make a film, you open yourself up for a lot of hurt. Especially now, when the economy ain't that great, the pressures are amplified.

I've thought long and hard about how enticing the path of least resistance seems: hang it up after one film and walk around risk-free for the rest of my life saying, "Hey, when I was 22, I made a movie that was in Wal-Mart, that was on Netflix." But I think they call that living in the past.

And so here we are, getting back on the horse once more.

- K

Welcome to Our Journey

Welcome to the official Nitecrawlers production blog.

One of my greatest regrets while making our first feature film was that we did next to nothing to document the (nightmarishly) rewarding process we went through during its production and subsequent distribution.  I'm not going to make that mistake again.

So who are we, what is Nitecrawlers, and why is this worth reading?  Let me explain.

My name is Kevin, and I'll be writing this blog with my fellow producing partner Mike.  We're 26-year old filmmakers about to embark on our 2nd feature film.  Our first feature film (which I'll discuss in more detail in a later entry) was a little $20,000 horror movie with no stars (funded entirely out of our own pockets).  Our goal was simple, to recoup our investment and to get our film distributed direct-to-dvd.   We ended up doing that and more, with the being released nationwide on DVD by Warner-Elektra-Atlantic and worldwide in Russia, Germany, Japan and Singapore.  How well did we do financially?  Well, let's just say we did well enough that we're back for more punishment, but as any indie filmmaker can confirm, it ain't about the money.

Nitecrawlers is our long-awaited 2nd feature film.  We're billing it as a "coming-of-age horror tale," but I don't think the movie knows exactly what it wants to be just yet.  Since we shot our first feature for $20k, we're looking to make what we consider to be a sizeable jump up to a $200,000 budget.  What's more, we are hoping to use the SAG Ultra-Low Budget Agreement, which hopefully will mean access to some "names."

So what can you expect to find on this blog?  Well, in short, lots of stuff.  When Mike and I were 22-year-old newbies setting out to make our first feature on a wing and a prayer, we would have killed for an all-inclusive resource from a fellow independent filmmaker who had walked down the production and distribution path before us, and so that's what I hope to accomplish with this blog.  There are some specific things that I'd like to touch on, including:

- Script Development
- Creating Concept Art
- Soliciting Investors
- Writing Business Plans
- Forming an LLC

In short, all the trials and tribulations an independent filmmaker will have to endure.  We've done it once, and we're ready to do it again, this time on a somewhat grander scale.  Once we secure funding for the film, this blog will hopefully re-direct to our official website, where we will continue to blog from pre-production through distribution.

So hop onboard, subscribe to the blog, and follow our progress in our quest to raise $200,000 and get this film made!

- K