Professional Motion Picture Production and Distribution NEWS

Fans Make Indie Movie into Theatrical Release

By Anthony Brownrigg
posted Mar 14, 2005, 17:42

A small independent film about werewolves decided to ask some fan boards what they wanted in a werewolf film before the script was finished. With over 2M hits on the message boards in 3 months, The film has now been bumped up from a 50K DV video horror, to a 6M theatrical thriller. All because of the fans involvement.

When a small production company, Re-Quest Entertainment, located in Dallas Texas, hired on Director/Actor Anthony Brownrigg, his job was simple. His job was to direct a 50K DV, direct to video werewolf creature feature.

Brownrigg, who has had a background in horror as son of cult film director S.F. Brownrigg "Don't Look in the Basement", "Poor White Trash", as well as his own projects, knew that in addition to horror fans, werewolf fans themselves had their own nitche market. He had a simple plan, to put up a small message board online, and ask some other werewolf fan sites (most of whom were already grumbling about underworld) to come and post what they wanted, and didn't want to see in a werewolf film.

In three days the site posted 9,000 hits. Quickly Re-Quest and Brownrigg realized that this genre had a dedicated fan base. And as the weeks (and hits) grew, Brownrigg began to contemplate that the original script just wasn't up to par with what the fans were asking. So along with Maegan Brownrigg, and Ed Landers, they began the task of completely remaking not only the werewolf script, but the werewolf legends in conjunction with the fans themselves.

The Result is "Freeborn". The film picks up where other werewolf films leave off. "Okay, so now its all over and you're a werewolf.... now what???" the fans wanted to see something new, not in the style, or form of werewolves, but rather in how they're treated story wise. Werewolves don't 'have' to be slathering bloodthirsty beasts, if a werewolf were to hold onto their human mentality after a shift, then what would they do? The answer goes into common psychology, and natural freedoms in the world today. We all want to get away from it all. And so so many just don't understand us.

Along the road to where the production is now, Brownrigg was invited to A-Kon (an anime convention of 12 thousand held yearly in dallas) to come and speak about the project. Two other conventions followed suit. Brownrigg through his research to deliver what the fans wanted style wise lead him to Timothy Albee, of Albee Animation, who had been marketing his own project "Kaze: Ghost Warrior". The film "Kaze" has already received a large amount of press for Albee's breakthrough animation skills, and natural looking anthropormorphic characters. Brownrigg contacted Albee, and within weeks Brownrigg had brought on Albee as a co-producer with himself, and the Re-Quest team. In addition to Albee, various other talented people ranging from makeup artists, musicians, and distributors have made their interests in the project known.

Meanwhile the fans themselves began to talk more and more about lore, myths, legends, and other movies in general on the boards. The fans have become so tight, that Brownrigg decided they needed a name. Many names were considered by the fans and eventually "The Pack" became the official title. Members of the site are receiving their own membership cards, and necklaces with a custom symbol for them developed by Brownrigg himself. He is also accepting video audition tapes from pack members before regular casting begins on the project.

The pack site has begun to spread and other directors with their own film projects are now proliferating the boards with their own movies, and asking the pack for their input and opinions.

Brownrigg and Albee will be forming another LLC company for the production of "Freeborn", which is now more of an Epic/Thriller than a horror film, and plan on beginning production in the summer. They're already entertaining some distribution offers, and investment contacts for the new budget.

And "The Pack" gets opening title credits, after all they earned it.

www.studentfilmmakers.com © 2004-2005. All rights reserved.
A division of Welch Integrated, Inc.