Former EastEnders actor David Proud has teamed up with an acclaimed Birmingham film director to spearhead a crowd-funding campaign to help fund a new feature film.
Steve Rainbow is using crowd-funding website indiegogo in an attempt to raise £30,000 for a comedy thriller he has written which is set to star Mr Proud, who is also the producer for the film.
Fun with Caravans, which has been described as “Rear Window for the download generation”, is set in a Midland caravan park and is due to be filmed in Birmingham.
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The crowd-funding initiative aims to raise around a quarter of the cost of making the film, with the lion’s share coming from Birmingham-based production company 104 films.
The company, which co produced the BAFTA nominated Ian Dury biopic Sex Drugs and Rock and Roll, was also behind Mr Rainbow’s last film NFA, also filmed in Birmingham, which premiered at the Edinburgh film festival and is set to hit cinema screens this month.
Mr Proud, who played Adam Best in EastEnders and was the first adult actor with a visible disability to appear regularly in the soap, said: “The film is about a disabled guy looking after the security cameras in a caravan park who sees his friend murdered on her webcam and sets out to find the killer.
“This is a great script with a few Hitchcockian twists and turns. It’s really apt that we use the internet to raise money for the film as it plays a big part in the story.
“It’s about the journey of John, the character I play, into his own paranoia and I think people will empathise with that.”
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Those who subscribe to the venture can contribute anything from £10 to £1,000 and benefactors who stump-up £1,000 will be credited as an executive producer, get a chance to be an extra in the film and attend its premiere. For £10, contributors get a digital copy of the film before its release and will be given regular updates on its progress via email.
Mr Proud, who was born with spina bifida, said he was excited to be involved in the project and said the crowd-funding initiative was as much about engaging with a potential audience at an early stage as anything else.
“This is about opening it up and enabling a lot of people to get on board, but it is uncharted waters for 104 Films,” he said.
104 Films has enjoyed success on the international stage since it was set up by award-winning Sutton Coldfield film maker Justin Edgar. To date it has made five feature films and more than 60 short films.
The firm has built a reputation for being a world leader in disability cinema with its films being screened at festivals around the world.
It says it aims to “make a tectonic shift in the representation of disabled people” in film and is billing Fun With Caravans as “a beautiful addition to an already award winning slate of films”.
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Fact File: Crowd Funding
* Peer-to-peer lending ranges from £5,000 to £1 million
* 5.8 per cent is average return paid on peer-to-peer funding loans
* £24 million has been loaned to West Midlands businesses since 2010
* As of October 2013, 海角视频 peer-to-peer lenders have collectively lent £600 million
* £2.3 billion is the amount traditional bank and building society lending to SMEs contracted by in the third quarter of the year
* The largest peer-to-peer loan in the 海角视频 to date is £1.5 million for a student accommodation property development loan in Nottingham.
* The 海角视频 government announced that the Financial Conduct Authority will regulate the industry from April 2014.