Life in Hollywood, below-the-line

Life in Hollywood, below-the-line
Work gloves at the end of the 2006/2007 television season (photo by Richard Blair)

Sunday, April 2, 2017

Fractal Vision





Attentive readers might recall this post, plugging the first indie feature directed by former PA Matt Price, called Other Halves -- a cyber-horror thriller that has garnered a slew of good reviews in limited release.  I've known Matt for several years now, and watched him climb up through the PA ranks until it was time to make the necessary-but-terrifying leap of faith into directing, and I'm really glad to see him succeed.

Actually, I don't think he was terrified at all. I would have been terrified, but being a director was never on my career bucket list. Matt is more ambitious, and after all these years of working towards his goal, he was exactly where he needed to be.

He was ready. 

Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to see Other Halves yet.  Being of an age where the term "old school" doesn't connote any particular virtue to me, but rather defines my outlook on the world, I have yet to plunge deep into the digital waters of streaming. I'm a DVD guy, so as soon as Matt's film comes out on a shiny disc I can hold in my hand, I'll watch it... and not until then.

Besides, if my internet connection up here in the boonies is light years better than the pathetic Iphone-tethered-to-laptop cellular access I suffered through back in LA, it's still too slow for stutter-and-frustration-free viewing over the web. 

In Matt's latest venture, he joins nine other filmmakers creating a series of short films called  Fractal Vision, along the lines of The Twilight Zone and Black Mirror. Such an ambitious effort will require the contributions of many people, lots of equipment, considerable hard work...and of course, money.

You know where this is going. Matt and the Gang of Ten are trying to raise the necessary funds for Fractal Vision via the time-tested method of crowd-funding, albeit with a twist. By dint of legal machinations far beyond my primitive understanding, contributions to Hatchfund are tax deductible, so if you earn enough to suffer paying income taxes, sending a few dollars to the Fractal Visioneers just might take a measurable bite out of your IRS bill come April 15, 2018.  

The more you send, the more you save -- that's the beauty of it!*

I sent my fifty bucks in, and if a few dozen of you do the same, Matt and his fellow directors will be on their way to bringing the Fractal Vision series to life on your computer screens. And lest you think "big deal -- you're retired now, you can afford it," I'll let you in on a little secret; the zero-sum game of fixed-income life is very much akin to being adrift in the horse latitudes, and with no more fat film industry paychecks coming, I have to watch my pennies just like every barely employed Hollywood newbie.  

That said, art  -- and those who make it -- should be nurtured and supported, especially in such troubled times. For a preview of what you can be a part of, here's Matt's initial offering to the series, a very well made short called DupliKate.

Check it out, and if you can, please help share the load of supporting Fractal Vision -- but if you simply can't, at least stay tuned if and when the funding goal is reached, and full production gets underway.  

I can tell you this much: I'll be watching...
 

*No, I really can't believe I stole that insipid line from those cheesier-than-cheesy TV ads that cast a pall over late-night TV...

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