Harley Neville recalls his first film-making foray with long-time friend and cinematic collaborator Guy Pigden.
In the mid-1990s, as 13-year-old Logan Park High School pupils, the pair had just finished a session of detention when they decided to meander through Dunedin's Northern Cemetery. Inspiration struck.
The result? A zombie film titled Superstition Bites. Continuing the undead thread, the duo shot I Survived a Zombie Holocaust in Dunedin in 2011.
Picked up by a German distributor, the film is awaiting final touches to some visual effects before it is released next year, Neville says.
The pair secured a $NZ250,000 ''Escalator'' grant from the New Zealand Film Commission to produce Zombie Holocaust.
However, having been denied funding for their latest project, the aptly titled, more mature drama Older, they are taking another approach.
In short, they want your money.
The film-makers, along with co-producer Kim Martel, are using crowdsourcing website Indiegogo to raise capital for Older.
''We set the funding goal at $[US]25,000 for the entire production, but the good thing about Indiegogo is you don't have to reach your goal in order to get money that has been donated,'' Neville explains.
As of Wednesday this week, the project had received $US3500. Even if they reach only $US5000 by their deadline of October 21, production on the film will still begin a few days later.
''We've done the budgeting and reckon we can shoot this film if we get to $[US]5000.
"Anything above that will make it a lot easier for us,'' Neville says, adding that the slick film trailer on the Indiegogo website was made solely for the purpose of attracting support.
''We shot that entirely for the fundraising. Everything in the trailer will be reshot and probably recast.''
Now based in Auckland (''We are proudly Dunedin lads ...''), where each has a full-time job to pay the bills, Neville and Pigden are no strangers to internet-based revenue streams.
''We joined YouTube in 2005-2006 and now have 3 million views, which is not bad for scripted content coming from New Zealand. We spent a chunk of time trying to become viral sensations.''
Both will have acting roles in Older. Pigden, who wrote the script, will play lead character Alex, a 29-year-old ''man-child'' who's recently moved back in with his parents and is determined not to grow up.
At his best friend's wedding he runs into an old high school friend. A romance blossoms, but he's still infatuated with another girl he fell in love with 10 years earlier.
Described as a drama-comedy about sex, love, relationships and how our nostalgic attachment to the past can colour our perception of the present, the film is, at its core, about growing up.
''We are getting older ourselves, so we do think about it,'' Neville says.
''It was time to try something new. The good thing about drama is you concentrate on the story and don't worry about visual effects, so it can be shot on a small budget. It can be great as long as the writing and performances are, too.''
As the countdown to production continues, and the dollars steadily build, there are other matters to consider, too: crew are being assembled and auditions are under way for various roles.
''We also need a baby for some scenes,'' Neville says.
''Oh, and a dog.''
All aboard
Older producer Harley Neville and writer-director Guy Pigden explain their crowd-sourcing strategy:
Goal 1, $US5000: ''If we reach $5000 (via pledges on website Indiegogo) we can begin production on the film. This money goes toward catering for the crew, hard-drives to store all our footage and back it up, make-up supplies, key props and costumes, along with additional sound equipment.''
Goal 2, $US10,000: ''Now we're talking. We get to pay all of our crew members for their time on the shoot. And you know what they say: `A paid crew is a happy crew'.''
Goal 3, $US15,000: ''We get to pay our principal actors as well as organise insurance on our equipment.''
Goal 4, $US20,000: ''We can afford to hire some extra equipment for the shoot, which means camera lenses and mounts plus lights and gear, a whole new tool set to make the film look as good as it possibly can.''
Goal 5, $US25,000: ''We have money to begin our postproduction; that means commissioning a composer to write the score and paying a production house to work on our colour grade and sound mix.''
