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SanFranLand is a comedy web series about three women living it up and keeping it real in the spectacular city of San Francisco.

“No city invites the heart to come to life as San Francisco does. Arrival in San Francisco is an experience in living.” -William Saroyan

San Francisco is to adults what DisneyLand is to kids. Through our years of living in SF, we’ve learned that the people here tend to be blessed with Peter Pan syndrome…you know, that “I won’t grow up” mentality. That’s life in a city where every event is attended in costume, most nights include a sing-a-long, laughter (among other things) is heard through paper thin Victorian walls, sunrises and sunsets can get confusing, dance parties erupt behind a bicycle with a boombox, rules don’t like to get followed and risks are constantly being taken. San Francisco is a place where people can truly be free. It is a place that embraces diversity and celebrates individuality. Hence the name, SanFranLand.

SanFranLand follows Bobbi Winter, a Southern gal who goes through one a hell of a break-up. After finding her fiancé cheating on her, she moves from her small, drab town in Georgia to a colorful, pulsing San Francisco. The story highlights the uniqueness of the City while following Bobbi on her emotional journey of self discovery. With her two madcap friends, Coco and Tara, they uncover a city reluctant to grow up – bursting with unpredictability, energy and oddities – and in the process they discover a little more about themselves.

Besties – makin it all happen!

 

SFL exemplifies strong, yet flawed women, navigating through their ever-complicated urban lives. While working and playing around the clock they explore themselves, embrace love, make good and bad decisions and foster deep friendships. SFL is a story about picking up and starting over. It is about reinventing a life you love.

So, what’s a Web Series?

A web series is episodic content released on the Internet as part of the newly emerging medium called web television. A single instance of a series is called a webisode. Season One of SanFranLand will contain 12 webisodes, averaging 5 minutes in length. We plan to distribute the show via Youtube and our website. The pilot episode is scheduled to release in Spring 2013 with a subsequent episode released each week for 12 weeks. Ninety eight-ish percent of all of the episodes are shot within San Francisco’s borders (the other 2% just across the bay), incorporating the best of SF locales, music, and style, and taking full advantage of the large pool of local talent.

Kickstarter operates on an all-or-nothing funding model where projects must be fully funded or NO money changes hands!!! None, not even a penny! We must raise 20k to receive your contribution!

Your contribution and the Kickstarter process:
Where will your contribution go?

  • Food! The most effective way to keep our phenomenal cast and crew happy and productive
  • Toilet paper! To wipe their soft bums
  • Paper towels! For their sticky, little fingers. Ok, but for real…
  • Permits! For our amazing locations
  • Insurance! Because we have to
  • Props! That can’t be borrowed
  • Costumes! That can’t be pulled from our extensive collective closet
  • Professional makeup! For the dark circles under our sleepless eyes
  • Camera! So you can see us 🙂
  • Lights/generators/other special equipment! So we can look good while being funny
  • Sound! We love silent movies, but…
  • Post production! Editorial, music, credits, the list goes on
  • Marketing! Social media is great and all, but…
  • And of course, parties for you! We have to practice what we preach, folks!

“You live in SF? Isn’t it so expensive?” Oh, if we had a penny….Yup, it’s not cheap, that’s for sure! And can you imagine filming here? We want to make something special that will stand out amongst the swarm of other web series being produced. We have an incredible backdrop against which to shoot and we would like to continue to secure the cream of the local talent crop. So we need YOU to join the team, to invest in the show’s development and help us spread the word. We have already been able to film more than half the series and, with your contribution, we are certain we can finish with a quality product. One that gives you a little taste of our palette and makes you chuckle. We want to SHOW YOU THE SHOW!

Story boarding on location (Toby Cochran)

Story boarding on location (Toby Cochran)

The Kickstarter Process:  In 2012, 10% of the films at Sundance were kickstarter funded. Of the 19 kickstarter projects selected, 4 won top prizes. In the same year, 63 kickstarter funded films opened in theaters. We totally believe in this process. If we reach our funding goal of $20K, (everyone cheers!) we get to turn SanFranLand into a reality, and you get your awesome kickstarter incentives (see sidebar >)! However, if we don’t meet our goal, no one gets charged, and we get NO $$$…. and we’re right back here, where we started. We sincerely hope that doesn’t happen, but it does act as a fail-safe for you: you can pledge knowing that we won’t get your money unless the project happens. That’s fair, right?

Based on our assessments, $20K will get us through the end of shooting the first season (3 more weekends!), move us along in post-production, and get us started on marketing. If we are lucky enough to surpass our goal, we will be able to submit to festivals, continue raising production value in so many ways, and prepare for Season Two. One thing we can certainly promise is that this show WILL HAPPEN if we secure the funding!

Lights, camera, action

Lights, camera, action

Check out our last short: Real Men Go Hunting

Key players on our project:

Writer/Director: 

Ryan Lynchstory manager at Pixar and award winning writer/director (Real Men Go Hunting, Ratatouille, BRAVE)

Producer

Laura Wainer MissMottMedia by night and wetland ecologist by day, From waders to stilettos in a moments notice….

Co-Producer:

Chrissy MazzeoActing, Producing, Writing, Script Consulting, Workshopping. If it’s part of the creative process, she’s doing it.

Debbie Brubaker: Producer extraordinaire! She’s produced such films as, La Missionand Miss Representation, and and just recently wrapped up Blue Jasmine, Woody Allen’s latest film as the UPM.

Director of Photography:

Jesse Dana Emmy Award-Winning Director of Photography http://www.jessedana.com/

Peggy Peralta

Benjamin Casias

Andy Hoffman

Post-production:

Sarah K. Reimers 1st Assistant Editor at Pixar (Brave)

Nate Cormier 1st Assistant Editor at Lucasfilm (Star Wars: Clone Wars)

casting director

Natalie Lyon C.S.A; casting director at Pixar

cast 

Ashley Chaney “Bobbi WInter”

Chrissy Mazzeo “Tara Walker”

Liz Anderson “Coco Rocco”

Patrick Russell “Joel Bradley”

Art Hsu “Officer Cox”

Andrew Bancroft “Dave”

Anthony Veneizale “Party Marty”

Ryan Pratton “Hazmat”

Calum Grant “Doctor Green”

We thank you in advance for considering being a part of this project. All of us who are working on SanFranLand feel grateful for the overwhelming sense of community we feel from our family and friends, near and far, and for the support that we continue to receive.

If you haven’t already, please like us on Facebook!! www.facebook.com/sanfranland

If you can not donate to the project at this time, we totally understand. PLEASE help us spread the word – post, post, and re-post!

With our hearts in San Francisco, Team SanFranLand 

www.sanfranlandseries.com

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Drawing by Bobby Rubio

Drawing by Bobby Rubio

Risks and challengesLearn about accountability on Kickstarter

 

RISKS AND CHALLENGES

Every independent project presents unique risks and challenges. Here at SFL HQ, ‘challenge’ is our favorite word. While the process of bringing this story to life may seem daunting to you, we wholeheartedly embrace it. In fact, we prefer it over the alternative.

Having said that, we are absolutely aware that our biggest challenge is money. We have a solid script, we have access to top-notch resources, and we have the determination to see it through until the end. So far we’ve almost magically managed to accomplish a significant amount with so very little, but there is much more to do, and money is required to get it done. With money in hand, our other challenges – namely, recruiting top talent to commit to our project vs. dropping out to work on higher paying jobs – becomes a lesser issue.

Recruiting a large group of highly talented folks to come together on the same day is no small task. The people we hire are professionals in demand. They work every week on shoots and they often get paid their full day rate. Schedules and scheduling is always a challenge on shoots, it’s just a wee bit harder when you can’t pay the full rate. We have to rely on the integrity of the project to lure them in and so far (with a little blood, sweat, and tears) it’s worked!

We shoot on location. That means we either need to obtain permits or get expressed permission to use a location. Coordinating locations with our scene list and cast and crew availability can be a real juggling act. And losing a location at the last minute can throw the whole shoot into the blender. But luckily, we are resourceful gals and can weather any storm.

Speaking of storms, weather in SF is HIGHLY unpredictable. A lot of our locations are exteriors. When relying on the weather, we need to be capable of changing it up on a dime, or prepared to shelter folks.

Do we try to mitigate risk when possible? Of course we do. But we also know that not making this production happen and not telling the story is the greatest risk of all.

 

FAQ

Have a question? If the info above doesn’t help, you can ask the project creator directly.