Trailer – Chasing Bonnie & Clyde by chasingbc
Remember Breves de Trottoirs? That super sweet French web-doc done by Olivier Lambert and Thomas Salva about the life of people in Paris? Well… they are back, but this time they are traveling to the USA and they are uncovering the mysteries of the criminal justice system in Texas… all through the lives of Bonnie and Clyde…
Today Lumento Film is launching a social media campaign inviting us to help the project on KissKissBankBank. As you can see below I have been “captured” by the project… so join the mugshot crowd , read the interview below and decide if you want to chase Bonnie and Clyde!
OK… here comes the interview (or shall we call it: how to know why this is worth it, but also why crowdfunding on KissKissBankBank):
SG: You are in the middle of a campaign KissKissBankBank for Chasing Bonnie & Clyde… could you tell us in a few words what the project is about?
OL & TS: We’ll be happy to do so!
Chasing Bonnie & Clyde starts with an interrogation : 80 years after the Great Depression and the death of the famous outlaws Bonnie and Clyde, what can we learn from their story ?
The thing is we are under a great recession now and the state of Texas, where the couple grew up, has been changing its ways to handle juvenile criminals because of that crisis. It is now cheaper to rehabilitate young offenders that throwing them to jail… and the Lone Star starte is now seen as an example within the US… even with its tough on crime reputation and the highest rate of death penalty in the country.
So Chasing Bonnie & Clyde is an unexpected story that we have decided to tell in a transmedia project : first a 90 minutes documentary for theaters that follows in parallel two criminal pathways : Bonnie & Clyde on one side, young criminals in Texas nowadays on the other side ; secondly an interactive documentary for web and tablets that immerses the user on a modern criminal pathway where he has to make his own decisions.
In this project, the narrator is a folk singer, Black Yaya the leader of Herman Dune, he has written 10 original songs, and they’re all amazing.
So this is a BIG project, we have big ambitions but we try to keep it simple, we’re just trying to our best by telling a great story.
Chasing Bonnie & Clyde – Crowdfunding… by chasingbc
SG: Why Bonnie & Clyde (in the USA and a wide territory to cover) after Breves de Trottoirs (Paris based and with a local scope)? Is there any link between the two projects?
OL & TS: Since 2009, we’ve been working on the human nature, trying to tell unusual stories that could touch people and cause universal interrogations. With Brèves de trottoirs we were looking at very small stories but which were always having big resonance in the audience’s life. Here the story is a myth, we’re dealing with the US but in a way it is also a small story: a couple being in love and taking the wrong side of the road further and further… there is nothing amazing, it’s common in a way. So there is obviously a link in our works: we like to look at things with a different perspective, we want to look into a story and see what’s unusual that could be universal. Here we talk about freedom to make choices and to take or refuse a second chance.
SG: Give us 5 good reasons for which the i-Docs readers should back up your fundraising campaign.
OL & TS: I guess, the first reason would be purely down to earth and kind of boring but real: indie filmmaking is a matter of being true to yourself and true to your audiences, we wouldn’t do a fundraising campaign if we didn’t need money to achieve this project.
Then I would say that we have a good track record with Brèves de trottoirs which won the Webby Award for best documentary series in 2011, or with La Nuit Oubliée – 17 octobre 1961 that won the Grand Jury Prize at the WebTV Festival in 2012. So the i-Docs readers can expect us to do at least as good as our previous works, we won’t let you down.
Third, I’d go into the project: we are just a team of 2, making everything most of the time in a DIY way, and we’re aiming at a BIG impact with this project, so wee need you i-Docs readers to make that happen.
A fourth reason would be that it’s an American Dream that we want to share with people, it’s not just “another fundraising”, it’s a process where we discuss and want to share feedback, emotions and progresses with you.
And final reason would be the rewards. We tried to make them funny and concerning. If we’re chasing Bonnie & Clyde, we want you to do so. The crowd is our best ambassador and we’re making this project for you.
(on this I have to say that their reward strategy is quite elaborate! Have a look to this great hat! It is yours if you give more than 150 Euros)
SG: Why did you choose KissKissBankBank, as opposed to IndieGoGo or KickStarter, for your fundraising? Give us some insider’s knowledge on how to choose your best fundraising platform!
OL & TS: KissKissBankBank is a French website that we know well since we already did a fundraising for our previous project La Nuit Oubliée – 17 octobre 1961. It went well and we were really happy about the staff who helped us all along the way. With that project we must admit KickStarter was tempting but when you look into it more precisely you see that their datas and results are the same as KissKissBankBank ones. So we felt it was better to have that connection with KKBB staff, to launch the campaign in France in order to touch our first circle and then go into the second and the third circles by promoting our project in the US and in the UK and that’s happening right now, so we think it was a good idea.
Always remember that a fundraising campaign is almost a full-time job. You have to be prepared and most important to prepare everything. We built a strategy with a schedule and objectives. You have to look at where the people go, if a fundraising platform has a specialty for comic books go there to fund your comic book, it might be better to reach your main community. If like us you work in a non English country have a look on the local platforms, sometimes it’s better than the big ones that let you all alone doing all the basic mistakes that other familial platforms help you to avoid.
And I mean the best knowledge about fundraising is really: take it seriously, money won’t fall in your basket just by clicking “launch the campaign”…
SG: What are you raising the money? If all goes for the best, when are you planning to launch the project?
OL & TS: Basically our aim is to reach 15k€. It would allow us to fund the two shooting trips in the US and the equipment rental. But obviously we’d like to get more fund in order to work with an editor and finance the post-production. If all goes for the best, we’ll get 30 to 50k€ and we’ll be able to make the entire project without the majors.
We’d like to launch the project in two times, first start showing the documentary the last week of may 2014 for the 80th anniversary of Bonnie & Clyde death, then the interactive documentary from september 2014.
SG: Make us dream… (and sell us your project)… when I will go through Chasing Bonnie & Clyde I will “….. ” (for you to compile with what you want me/us to discover through it).
OL & TS: When you’ll go through Chasing Bonnie & Clyde you will feel what is freedom. Like driving your car for the very first time: watching life including yours happening all around you.
You won’t be able to resist to the sirens of the wrong side of the roads and fell thrilled by how curious and unexpected your desires could be.
Immersed in the amazing landscapes, you’ll listen to powerful songs and lyrics that will soothe your soul. Bonnie and Clyde will never be far… you’ll meet them and their friends.
You’ll experience a criminal pathway that you’ll have the full ability to follow, break, choose, modify or stop. Sometimes harsh, sometimes surprising, sometimes liberating.
But always for the better.
http://www.kisskissbankbank.com/en/projects/chasing-bonnie-clyde
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Good luck to you!!!
Sandra Gaudenzi