To make a film, there are a lot of things that need to be done. As a film student, I also take all types of different responsibilities and I need to wear different hats in the process of making a film. One of the important factors to make an independent film is to have enough money so, the crowdfunding for our thesis film, Silver Cord, is finally live!

We knew the crowdfunding campaign was going to take some of our time but I realize more and more how much you have to be invested in your film to get where you want to be. As I mentioned in my previous blog posts, we finished shooting our crowdfunding campaign video on campus at the Media Production Center. Then, me and my producer spent more than 15 hours for a 2 minute, 43 seconds editing the video. After getting feedback about our video and our page from our professors, our friends, and our crowdfunding platform, Seed & Spark, we finally went live!

The crowdfunding page of our thesis film, Silver Cord.

I am so thankful for our professors who have been helping us: our advisors David Tarleton, Eric Scholl, and Susan Kerns who spent a lot of time on our crowdfunding page, making sure everything looks good! Anyone who is reading this, please follow our page or make a donation! We are incredibly happy with the feedback we have been getting from our friends and film people!

Link: www.seedandspark.com/fund/silvercord

We decided to use the platform Seed & Spark because we think this website has great advantages for filmmakers. First of all, this website is a crowdfunding platform only for films. They offer great deals if we can get up to 250 followers. Those deals are all about filmmaking and we are hoping to reach at least 250 followers, and maybe then to the next level which is 500 followers!

While spending a lot of time reaching out to people for our crowdfunding campaign, we are also trying to figure out different things about our production. We are almost coming to a decision on our casting! We have auditioned more than 40 actors and we have seen a lot of talented people. It is a difficult process; choosing the right person is always difficult for me. When we are looking for the actors, we are also looking for their experiences other than their acting skills. Since we are trying to make a very ambitious project happen, we are also looking for the actors who are experienced with swimming and would be comfortable acting underwater.

Me and my producer have been meeting with underwater camera operators and trying to get a crew together. Also, we started making the shot list with our amazing cinematographer, Matt Hayward, who is an alumnus of the Columbia College Chicago Cinematography department. We hired our VFX supervisor and we are constantly talking to him to make sure our shots are possible and can be done the way we want to do it.

Me and our director of photography, Matt, talking about the shots.

We are also hunting for locations for our film. We have been going to different pools, parks, and cabins.

My producer, Creative Producing MFA student Urwa Zubair, in one of the potential locations of Silver Cord.

To make a production happen, you really have to be invested in it enough to have the best result. We are hoping that we can have a film that we are proud of and tell our story in the best way we can. To get more information about my thesis project, go to our website! And don’t forget to give us a follow or a small donation!

Crowdfunding Page: www.seedandspark.com/fund/silvercord

Website: www.silvercordmovie.com