MOVIE PROPOSAL FOR:
"SHOCK OPERA: AN ALICE COOPER STORY"
Thank you for reviewing the MOVIE PROPOSAL.
GuignolFest Productions, LLC is run by creatives, Dylan Hillerman (Founder, Producer)
& Julia Reodica (Producer). For inquiries, please email: guignolfest(at)gmail(dot)com
Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
GUIGNOLFEST PRODUCTIONS
GUIGNOLFEST PRODUCTIONS
Overview of the proposal
GUIGNOLFEST PRODUCTIONS
GUIGNOLFEST PRODUCTIONS
GUIGNOLFEST PRODUCTIONS
Mission - Organization
THE PROJECT
GUIGNOLFEST PRODUCTIONS
THE INDUSTRY
A meta-story mockumentary about a fringe theater group trying to make the Alice Cooper Story movie.
THE MARKET
INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY
INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY
Independent Film Festivals & Audiences
INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY
INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY
INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY
Funding for the movie project
DISTRIBUTION STRATEGY
DISTRIBUTION STRATEGY
DISTRIBUTION STRATEGY
Post-festival distribution globally
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Executive Summary
Overview of Company
GuignolFest Productions, LLC, a Limited Liability company, is an independent motion picture productions company assembled from independent creative and business entertainment professionals with a common goal of producing the independent film, “SHOCK OPERA: An Alice Cooper Story.”
The Project
“SHOCK OPERA: An Alice Cooper Story” is a motion picture budgeted to be produced at approximately $30,000 and for theatrical festival exhibition in the United States and abroad. The film genre is comedic, music mockumentary, with attributes of meta-story telling featuring true rock history along with speculative narrative, the rise of a rock band to stardom, and celebrity cameos from notable rock industry personas. GuignolFest Productions desires to insert original interview clips from real rock band members directly related to the featured band of the film, thereby adding to the film's commercial value and audience appeal.
The Industry
Independent Film Festivals are primarily to garner new audiences to the films' subjects or renew interest about what or who are featured in the work. Most independent movie makers work on shoe-string budgets ranging from $1000 to over $1 million, on the conservative side of spending. What is admirable is how effective a movie production team can tell a compelling story within their financial means. The success of a independent movie in the industry of film festivals is to keep exposing new audiences to the film globally. The valued return for a music mockumentary or documentary is expanding the audience base to the original band that inspired the film.
The Market
The strategy of making films for established genres is a reliable approach to attract audiences. Recent successes of independent films such as, “Mandy,” “Won't You Be My Neighbor,” and “Isle of Dogs,” have ensured the independent segment will continue to grow since movie festivals are becoming increasingly attended by both mainstream movie enthusiasts and die-hard independent movie fans.
Distribution/Exposure Strategy
GuignolFest Productions, LLC intends to submit the completed film to the most popular independent and emerging festivals that have loyal audiences. Top tier independent festivals include Sundance Film Festival (Utah), Toronto International Film Festival (Canada), Tribeca Film Festival (NY), and The Cannes film Festival (France). Targeted film festivals catering to specialized independent films include Cacophony Cinematic Aural Review Film Festival (Texas, NY, Hollywood, London) South by Southwest – SXSW (Texas), New York City Independent Film Festival (NY). In addition to festival submissions, GuignolFest Productions, LLC intends to negotiate with a distributor upon or near completion of principal photography to increase the potential profit the film may earn worldwide.
Investment Opportunity
GuignolFest Productions, LLC seeks $30,000 in capital to fund the movie production of “SHOCK OPERA: An Alice Cooper Story.” GuignolFest Productions, LLC proposes to secure all its moneys from venture capitalists and private investors. Company product placement at an allocated cost per appearance will be considered.
Check out the performance archive pages & updates for SHOCK OPERA
GUIGNOLFEST PRODUCTIONS
GuignolFest Productions, LLC
Mission
We at GuignolFest Productions, LLC, want to create a movie that entertains, educates, inspires, and re-invigorates the interest in meta-story telling in an independent film format.
“SHOCK OPERA: An Alice Cooper Story” has the unique position of using gender-role bending, satire, speculative fiction, as well as filling in gaps in the history of The Alice Cooper Group where other films have had omitted or never discovered in their own development of their movie. Our movie is based on the premise that a theater group strives to put on a multi-media play based on The Alice Cooper Group, with women actors playing the original band members. The feminine perspective plays an important part on how the band embodied an androgynous aesthetic and behavior.
We shine a light towards the blind spots in the vast timelines others have presented in documentaries, music history books, magazine articles, biopics, and narrated video collections. What we have found are conflicting stories, rumors, and fantastic missed memories that all have to be included in our movie because after all, the Alice Cooper Group symbolized shock and chaos that first-hand and second-hand stories could not capture. Even the original band members' recollections are Rashomon-like stories. At times, stories from the band or various sources providedsubjective, alternative, and contradictory versions of the same incident. The intended movie is a joyful and dizzying bouillabaisse of surrealism, theater, and shock rock.
Organization
GuignolFest Productions, LLC originated in 2009 by Dylan Hillerman in Portland, Oregon as a 1-person operation. In the early years, he produced Grand Guignol style (horror) stage plays and was the director and curator of horror movies for the 72-HR contest that he ran. In 2014, Julia Reodica joined Hillerman as Co-Producer, Co-Writer, Co-Director, and performer, in which the 2-person team produced and performed in live plays, commissioned video work, and continued curation of the 72-HR Horror Movie Contest for short films. There proliferative work goes beyond GuignolFest Productions, having collaborated with noted directors and entertainers of stage and film, in projects specifically produced in the Pacific Northwest.
Advantage
“SHOCK OPERA: An Alice Cooper Story” has had 3 seasons of live performances as a multi-media play from 2016 to 2018. There is an exclusive, live reunion performance planned for Spring 2020. Dylan Hillerman and Julia Reodica have directed, produced, and performed with the same core cast and the same performers are committed to creating the film version of the stage play in a fictional storyline. Having the same actors saves rehearsal time and film reshoots, as their previous experience in conveying the meta-story will be consistent.
Additional advantages are that Dylan Hillerman and Julia Reodica of GuignolFest Productions have been in contact with the original members and associates, Alice Cooper, Dennis Dunaway, Michael Bruce, Neal Smith, Cindy Dunaway, Janice Buxton, Bob Davison, Miss Mercy (GTOs) Peters, historian Paul Brenton, and film maker/super fan Christopher Todd Pen. All parties have known about the play since its debut in 2016 and have met face-to-face with the majority of them multiple times, at the band's events.
Check out the performance archive pages & updates for SHOCK OPERA
THE PROJECT
“SHOCK OPERA: An Alice Cooper Story,” The Movie By Dylan Hillerman
A film about the band that invented the rock show.
Don't go through the mirror.
What's it all about, Alfie?
A fringe theater troupe try to put on a show about the Alice Cooper Band, with women actors as the band members. There are uncanny parallels between the chaotic histories of the Alice Cooper Band and the actors, director, and crew that also affect every step of the way to getting the play up on stage. Will the show go on?
Just like the Alice Cooper Band, the theater troupe mostly was made up of a group of friends who liked performing together. They hung out, drank together, vacationed together, and generally were each other's extended family. In the movie, the theater troupe play themselves as well as the characters in the stage production of “SHOCK OPERA: An Alice Cooper Story.”
Not every show in the 3 seasons that the play ran went smoothly. Each year, the lead actor who played Alice Cooper had dropped for personal reasons and the troupe would be left high and dry for the next season, causing the director to recast and re-establish the dynamics in the group. Each member had their own personal problems that almost mirrored the real Alice Cooper Band member they emulated.
The lead actor for Alice gets sick multiple times, barely hanging on to the end of the run, crossing the finish line in complete exhaustion. A champion at heart, the actor and Alice face challenges with the will to survive. The producer, Julia Reodica, the female version of Shep Gordon, has to deal with the brunt end of business that nearly tips her into a nervous breakdown. All the while the actor for Shep Gordon, is juggling multiple acting gigs to maximize his local exposure. The actor playing Dennis is the narrator of the stage production and has to help also mediate some of the earlier problems arising from the first Alice actor which started the cascade of revolving Alice replacements.
The struggle of filling the part for Michael went on for almost 2 years and the troupe had to write ways to include the elusive member, which was finally filled in with an actor who could embody Michael's persona. Glen, who was the rebel of the group, was played by the demure actor, who despite the intensity on stage, was the calming factor to the director and producer. The actor who played Neal, the towering drummer with a tough-guy jokester presence had to go to an actor who could pull off comedy and sexiness at the same time.
There are 3 different versions of Alice on stage. The director plays the mirror version of the self-destructive younger Alice. The female actor takes us on Alice's journey through the band's history. Her father plays the older Alice, who is a transvestite who has lived just as an illustrious and controversial life as the real Alice Cooper.
The film takes a look at the slices of life of the troupe, director, producer, and crew as they face a tight schedule of filming clips for the multi-media play. They rehearsed in unusual locations because they did not have their own theater to work from. Nomads of the theater world, the troupe would meet and rehearse in bar basements, each other's back yards, and perform in bar venues that usually featured rock bands. In the end, they present shock theater. The band shot up to superstardom in a short time during their youth and to the delight of the fans, have remained pillars of shock rock. Like the band, the troupe embraced surrealism and theatrics.
Screenplay Rights
The script of the playwright and screenplay are intellectual property of GuignolFest Productions, LLC. Excerpts featuring stories or direct quotations are referenced to the biographical authors according to copyright permissions to use in a play and film. Their script will be registered upon completion, under a Certificate of Registration, with the Writers Guild of America, reflecting copyright year and ownership.
Development Highlights
The movie is based on much footage and script developed over the years. Theater industry and online presence of the play had been maintained since 2016 with a growing international base of fans. Through social media, there is an on-going awareness of the troupe's adaptation of the play to movie. Numerous entertainment liaisons who have interviewed the troupe have been regularly circulated online.
The script will also include actual interviews and anecdotes from the original band upon permission. Much of the previous literature and biographical films have had conflicting or missing histories that may be clarified by Dennis Dunaway, Michael Bruce, Neal Smith, Alice Cooper, Joe Greenberg, Janice Buxton, and Bob Davison.
Currently, synchronization permissions for film are being arranged for numerous songs covered by the SHOCK OPERA Band. Songs that have been covered or re-adapted with script lyrics under the live performance include: Welcome to My Nightmare, Billion Dollar Babies, The Black Widow, Ballad of Dwight Fry, Is It My Body, I'm the Coolest. Although some of the songs are from Alice's solo career, the lyrics and song style were used to convey the concept of certain script passages.
As of 2019, the following individuals are being pursued to produce or consult:
- Michael Bruce (original Alice Cooper Group member)
- Dennis Dunaway (original Alice Cooper Group member)
- Joe Greenberg (Former manager for the Alice Cooper Group)
- Christopher Todd Penn (independent film maker and narrator for “Live from the Astroturf: Alice Cooper!” 2017 reunion documentary, Alice Cooper Group Superfan)
- Mike Meyers (Actor, Producer, Alice Cooper Superfan)
- Bobcat Goldthwait (Legendary Stand Up Comic, Actor, Movie Director, Producer, Writer, Alice Cooper Group Fan)
- Rob Zombie (Rock Musician, Writer, Horror Movie Director, Alice Cooper Group Fan)
- Sam Rami – Bruce Campbell (Horror Movie Director, Producer, Alice Cooper Fan)
- Keanu Reeves (Actor, Alice Cooper Group Fan)
- Shia LeBeouf (Actor, Performance Artist, Art Film Producer)
- Steve Buscemi (Actor, Director, Producer, Independent Cinema Supporter)
- Dee Snider (Rock Singer, Radio DJ, Alice Cooper Fan)
Check out the performance archive pages & updates for SHOCK OPERA
THE INDUSTRY
The Industry
Pending
Check out the performance archive pages & updates for SHOCK OPERA
THE MARKET
Various opportunities have been on the rise for independent films to having access to funding, advertising, theater screening, broadcast, and distribution. In recent years, the methods of soliciting film financing from a number of supporters have increased. The top online crowdfunding sites are IndieGoGo and Kickstarter.
IndieGoGo has become a preferred platform as filmmakers keep all money raised past 9% cut, funding goal does not have to hit 100% to collect funding. The IndieGoGo model allows for even the smallest production company to successfully collect any funding contributed. Prestigious film events such as the 2008 Sundance Film Festival was launched by IndieGoGo monies when it was the first major platform for crowdfunding.
Kickstarter on the other hand, does not grant any funding if the campaign does not reach 100% of its goal. Even though Kickstarter has reported over $480 million for crowdfunded movies, the smaller movie productions have a harder time reaching their goals due to their smaller supporting followers and marketing efforts in comparison to the larger independent outfits. The biggest crowdfunded movies so far are: Veronica Mars (2014), which raised $5.7 million on Kickstarter applied to the production budget of $6 million; and Super Troopers 2 (2018) raised $4.5 million on IndieGoGo, applied to the production budget of $13.5 million. These large funding amounts are not required to create an effective an engaging movie. Paranormal Activity (2007) had a micro-budget of $15,000 and earned over $180 million worldwide.
Crowdfunding suits indie filmmakers for a number of reasons: They don’t have to pay any money. They don’t have to pay any interest or premium on the money raised. No-one controls their film. The filmmakers keep 100% of the film’s profits – normally assigned to investors. The crowdfunding campaign can build a loyal following even before the film has been made. It’s open to everyone – the only unavoidable cost is the commission charged by the platform, if the campaign succeeds.
Advertising and marketing the film has become more widespread and less expensive to maintain. Social media services such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are helping cut some costs to traditional promotions via commercials, print ads, and radio spots. These services enables smaller production companies reach fans without spending exorbitant amounts of money and still get marketing reach to broad and specific interest and genre populations. The value of online promotions and social media posts allow for films to have ephemeral presence on different internet/application platforms long after the debut of the movie. This means the fan base can continue to grow and the movie can be further accessed through their distribution formats. A strong social media strategy makes the film's identity memorable and transferable to other interested parties online.
Theaters have become major players in sustaining annual film festivals as major sponsors and dedicated venue. With the built-in audience looking for independent film festivals, they are more apt to desire viewing obscure, innovative, and engaging films from smaller production companies. Theaters also have a regular online presence with promoting film screenings to create awareness to the event lineups.
The digital revolution has offered more choices for viewers to seek content and repeatedly watch films or original series. Online streaming services has become a preferred alternative to cable as audiences are becoming more discerning with their watching habits. The big players for paid streaming are: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Showtime, HBO Now, YouTubeTV. Depending on which streaming service awards an independent movie access, the built-in audience to the channels are continuously looking for original content. The independent film company would benefit best by creating a hybrid distribution strategy that encompasses traditional cinema/DVD/television releases with online distribution.
Check out the performance archive pages & updates for SHOCK OPERA
INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY
Investment Opportunity
Film Investments
Investments in the independent film industry is speculative and risky. This is the nature of the non-mainstream films vs. big budget films. Investors are aware of these risks as their mission goes beyond monetary return, by supporting independent film productions to continue to contribute to the diverse culture of moviemaking and unique story-telling.
Comparable Films
This is Spinal Tap (1984), was a mockumentary about the legendary British metal band, Spinal Tap, and its challenges to become relevant again. A folly of events are “filmed” exhibiting the sensation of the group, their live performances, the decadent parties, and behind-the-scenes moments that look closely at the band members life on the road.
“Noises Off” (1982 play). The director of a British sex farce must run a final dress rehearsal.
All the action, slapstick, and mishaps behind the scenes almost ruin the performances. Lots of
props, slamming doors, and underwear!
Living in Oblivion (1995), was about an independent film director trying to make his first feature. From day one, everything goes wrong or awry. His actors are flaky, tensions flare, the lead actors don't get along, and problems on the set are endless. Money and time runs out and the director must complete his film. The first half of the movie is a dream. The second half is reality.
It’s all a nightmare.
Super Duper Alice Cooper (2014), was an independent film that followed the story of musician Alice Cooper, his original band members, and associated personas that built up the band's notoriety. However, the documentary falls short having omitted Michael Bruce, Joe Greenberg,
etc, therefore causing negative critical reception from the fan base. In the GuignolFest Production
of the stage play, many of these omissions were integrated in the playright.
“Frankenstein’s Monster’s Monster, Frankenstein” (2019). David Harbour delves into the enigmatic history of his legendary acting family, as he examines his father's legacy and role in a made-for-TV play. What he finds out is the surrealand eccentric histories that were kept secret for decades. A dark, meta-comedy about studying performance history.
Our film, “SHOCK OPERA: An Alice Cooper Story” is a combination of the above films, showing the struggle a cast and crew go through to put on a show. The surrealist aspect of the film is how the cast and crew lives, high jinks, and mishaps are comparable to the Alice Cooper Group members. With fiction and speculative story-telling aside, the film would also include missed details of histories and accounts that other documentaries may have missed. It is imperative to the movie that the original band members and associated people interject their stories or contend the speculation acted upon the “Shock Opera” re-enactments in the film. Some of the discrepancies are on purpose, for the original members to react to. This parodies how much misinformation and rumors were out in the ether among the fans, in previous interviews, articles, and movies about the band.
GuignolFest Prouctions, LLC seeks capitalization of $30,000 to cover film production budget and distribution efforts. Funding goes to necessary expenses such as film crew, talent, location, set-builds, technology/equipment, cover song licensing, original song synchronization licensing, legal support, distribution agents.
Check out the performance archive pages & updates for SHOCK OPERA
DISTRIBUTION STRATEGY
Distribution Strategy
Coming soon
Check out the performance archive pages & updates for SHOCK OPERA
APPENDIX
Cover Songs - Video Clips - Images
Coming soon