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Front Page, Industry News
Banff World Media Festival: Surprise double-win at CineCoup puts Edmonton, Toronto indie film projects into production
Wednesday June 10th 2015It was in those tense few seconds before a winner was announced that CineCoup founder J. Joly suddenly threw a wrench in the mix.
Rather than greenlight one of the top five finalists in his innovative funding model for Canadian genre indie films, he announced two “Big Deal” winners Monday evening at the Banff World Media Festival. Edmonton’s High School Brawl and Toronto’s Hellmington came out on top after a “live pitch” event that found the five teams attempting to win over a panel of industry insiders that included Hangover trilogy producer Dan Goldberg, Cineplex Entertainment’s Michael Kennedy, Susan Curran of Anchor Bay Canada and CineCoup UberFan Tim Turnell. Unbeknownst to the teams, and the enthusiastic audience at Cascade Ballroom of the Fairmont Banff Springs, CineCoup had struck a deal for enough funding through the Calgary and Toronto-based asset manager Clairwood Capital to put two films into production.
That means both High School Brawl and Hellmington will be going into production. Borrowing heavily from Asian action films and anime, High School Brawl is an action-thriller about teens locked up in a state-of-the-art correctional facility who take on the system. Hellmington is a horror story about documentary filmmakers who try to unravel the disappearance of a teenager named Katie Owens from an “extreme haunted house.”
Both teams faced tough questions from the panel Monday about marketing, audience development and originality. The High School Brawl team was even asked about the social consequences of making a violent action film with teenage characters. Both teams seemed legitimately surprised at their wins.
“We’ve been throwing up all ourselves trying to practice this pitch we were trying to do,” says High School Brawl team member Aaron Kurmey. “To go from the nerves of that to . . . this. I don’t know what to tell you.”
“That caught us off guard,” said Justin Hewitt-Drakulic, co-director of Hellminton. “. . . But this is what we wanted. For us, it’s the opportunity to share it with people and scare the hell out of audiences. This was the whole point.”
The win means that both teams will receive up to $1 million in production financing and a guaranteed release at Cineplex Theatres. CineCoup launched last year, crowning the Regina-based project WolfCop as its first winner. It has since gone on to win an international cult audience and a sequel is being planned.
Nearly 100 filmmaking teams from across Canada applied to CineCoup’s program this year. They were whittled down to five over the past 12 weeks, as teams were put through a number of challenges to build its audience on CineCoup’s website. Fans watched the resulting videos and voted on which team would advance.
“Our big thing is trying to build audience equity, because that’s where all the money is and that’s where all the enthusiasm is,” said Joly. “These people don’t just pay to see the movie. They buy the DVD, they buy the action figure, they buy the t-shirts. The average revenue and the amount of work they do to market these kind of franchises is incredible.”
Hellmington, which will include a social media campaign based around the hashtag #whathappenedtokatieowens, will likely be shot in Toronto and Montreal.
“We’ve been working like crazy, with full-time jobs, for three months on this project,” said co-director Alex Lee Williams. “Now that this is going to be the full-time job? It’s what I wanted when I was four watching the Oscars for the first time.”
High School Brawl will likely be shot in Alberta. Parts of the trailer were shot at the old Edmonton Remand Centre.
“We shot in Edmonton, but over half the people we worked with were from Calgary,” says Kurmey. “There’s a whole mix of people from Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Red Deer. So anywhere in Alberta is good for us.”
Front Page, Industry News
Banff World Media Festival: Surprise double-win at CineCoup puts Edmonton, Toronto indie film projects into production
Wednesday June 10th 2015It was in those tense few seconds before a winner was announced that CineCoup founder J. Joly suddenly threw a wrench in the mix.
Rather than greenlight one of the top five finalists in his innovative funding model for Canadian genre indie films, he announced two “Big Deal” winners Monday evening at the Banff World Media Festival. Edmonton’s High School Brawl and Toronto’s Hellmington came out on top after a “live pitch” event that found the five teams attempting to win over a panel of industry insiders that included Hangover trilogy producer Dan Goldberg, Cineplex Entertainment’s Michael Kennedy, Susan Curran of Anchor Bay Canada and CineCoup UberFan Tim Turnell. Unbeknownst to the teams, and the enthusiastic audience at Cascade Ballroom of the Fairmont Banff Springs, CineCoup had struck a deal for enough funding through the Calgary and Toronto-based asset manager Clairwood Capital to put two films into production.
That means both High School Brawl and Hellmington will be going into production. Borrowing heavily from Asian action films and anime, High School Brawl is an action-thriller about teens locked up in a state-of-the-art correctional facility who take on the system. Hellmington is a horror story about documentary filmmakers who try to unravel the disappearance of a teenager named Katie Owens from an “extreme haunted house.”
Both teams faced tough questions from the panel Monday about marketing, audience development and originality. The High School Brawl team was even asked about the social consequences of making a violent action film with teenage characters. Both teams seemed legitimately surprised at their wins.
“We’ve been throwing up all ourselves trying to practice this pitch we were trying to do,” says High School Brawl team member Aaron Kurmey. “To go from the nerves of that to . . . this. I don’t know what to tell you.”
“That caught us off guard,” said Justin Hewitt-Drakulic, co-director of Hellminton. “. . . But this is what we wanted. For us, it’s the opportunity to share it with people and scare the hell out of audiences. This was the whole point.”
The win means that both teams will receive up to $1 million in production financing and a guaranteed release at Cineplex Theatres. CineCoup launched last year, crowning the Regina-based project WolfCop as its first winner. It has since gone on to win an international cult audience and a sequel is being planned.
Nearly 100 filmmaking teams from across Canada applied to CineCoup’s program this year. They were whittled down to five over the past 12 weeks, as teams were put through a number of challenges to build its audience on CineCoup’s website. Fans watched the resulting videos and voted on which team would advance.
“Our big thing is trying to build audience equity, because that’s where all the money is and that’s where all the enthusiasm is,” said Joly. “These people don’t just pay to see the movie. They buy the DVD, they buy the action figure, they buy the t-shirts. The average revenue and the amount of work they do to market these kind of franchises is incredible.”
Hellmington, which will include a social media campaign based around the hashtag #whathappenedtokatieowens, will likely be shot in Toronto and Montreal.
“We’ve been working like crazy, with full-time jobs, for three months on this project,” said co-director Alex Lee Williams. “Now that this is going to be the full-time job? It’s what I wanted when I was four watching the Oscars for the first time.”
High School Brawl will likely be shot in Alberta. Parts of the trailer were shot at the old Edmonton Remand Centre.
“We shot in Edmonton, but over half the people we worked with were from Calgary,” says Kurmey. “There’s a whole mix of people from Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Red Deer. So anywhere in Alberta is good for us.”
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Front Page, Industry News
Banff World Media Festival: Surprise double-win at CineCoup puts Edmonton, Toronto indie film projects into production
Wednesday June 10th 2015It was in those tense few seconds before a winner was announced that CineCoup founder J. Joly suddenly threw a wrench in the mix.
Rather than greenlight one of the top five finalists in his innovative funding model for Canadian genre indie films, he announced two “Big Deal” winners Monday evening at the Banff World Media Festival. Edmonton’s High School Brawl and Toronto’s Hellmington came out on top after a “live pitch” event that found the five teams attempting to win over a panel of industry insiders that included Hangover trilogy producer Dan Goldberg, Cineplex Entertainment’s Michael Kennedy, Susan Curran of Anchor Bay Canada and CineCoup UberFan Tim Turnell. Unbeknownst to the teams, and the enthusiastic audience at Cascade Ballroom of the Fairmont Banff Springs, CineCoup had struck a deal for enough funding through the Calgary and Toronto-based asset manager Clairwood Capital to put two films into production.
That means both High School Brawl and Hellmington will be going into production. Borrowing heavily from Asian action films and anime, High School Brawl is an action-thriller about teens locked up in a state-of-the-art correctional facility who take on the system. Hellmington is a horror story about documentary filmmakers who try to unravel the disappearance of a teenager named Katie Owens from an “extreme haunted house.”
Both teams faced tough questions from the panel Monday about marketing, audience development and originality. The High School Brawl team was even asked about the social consequences of making a violent action film with teenage characters. Both teams seemed legitimately surprised at their wins.
“We’ve been throwing up all ourselves trying to practice this pitch we were trying to do,” says High School Brawl team member Aaron Kurmey. “To go from the nerves of that to . . . this. I don’t know what to tell you.”
“That caught us off guard,” said Justin Hewitt-Drakulic, co-director of Hellminton. “. . . But this is what we wanted. For us, it’s the opportunity to share it with people and scare the hell out of audiences. This was the whole point.”
The win means that both teams will receive up to $1 million in production financing and a guaranteed release at Cineplex Theatres. CineCoup launched last year, crowning the Regina-based project WolfCop as its first winner. It has since gone on to win an international cult audience and a sequel is being planned.
Nearly 100 filmmaking teams from across Canada applied to CineCoup’s program this year. They were whittled down to five over the past 12 weeks, as teams were put through a number of challenges to build its audience on CineCoup’s website. Fans watched the resulting videos and voted on which team would advance.
“Our big thing is trying to build audience equity, because that’s where all the money is and that’s where all the enthusiasm is,” said Joly. “These people don’t just pay to see the movie. They buy the DVD, they buy the action figure, they buy the t-shirts. The average revenue and the amount of work they do to market these kind of franchises is incredible.”
Hellmington, which will include a social media campaign based around the hashtag #whathappenedtokatieowens, will likely be shot in Toronto and Montreal.
“We’ve been working like crazy, with full-time jobs, for three months on this project,” said co-director Alex Lee Williams. “Now that this is going to be the full-time job? It’s what I wanted when I was four watching the Oscars for the first time.”
High School Brawl will likely be shot in Alberta. Parts of the trailer were shot at the old Edmonton Remand Centre.
“We shot in Edmonton, but over half the people we worked with were from Calgary,” says Kurmey. “There’s a whole mix of people from Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Red Deer. So anywhere in Alberta is good for us.”
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