In what might be a new way to finance movies, or a new way to hype movies, or a new way to learn about moviemaking, or maybe all of the above, the indie romantic comedy “Grooming Giselle” is selling passes that will allow interested parties to follow every aspect of the production online.
Through the Sul Set website, which was officially launched on Monday by Saddle Ranch Productions, subscribers will be able to watch streaming footage from four cameras during the film’s production from June 4 through June 25, with premium passholders also being able to participate in the decision-making process and to text the actors and crew during filming.
The basic pass, the “Filmmaker’s Reel,” which allows streamed access to the production footage, costs $9.99. The deluxe “Director’s Cut” package normally costs $24.99, but is currently being offered at $9.99 as well.
Kim Sarubbi, the president of Saddle Ranch Productions, says the number of packages sold is currently “into the hundreds, and we’d like to be in the thousands before we start production."
The technology, for which Saddle Ranch currently has a patent pending, began when an investor pushed the company to move into feature films. Previously, Saddle Ranch had produced “digital signage” and film content for 17 years, including some documentaries and educational films. But Sarubbi says it was reluctant to enter the movie business.
“We thought, are there other ways to make money on films?” she said. “What if we could make the money back prior to the film even being distributed?”
From that came the idea of selling streamed Internet access to low-budget productions – initially, Sarubbi says, as a way of enticing film students to take an inside look at the process. She says she now views the technology, at least in the case of “Grooming Giselle,” as less of a moneymaker than as a promotional and educational tool. The film will assuredly not make its budget back via Sul Set packages, though it may gain some added attention that could otherwise be hard to come by for a small indie.
“We started out with film students,” she says, “but now we’ve noticed that there’s a lot more interest than just among film students. And that’s for a film that doesn’t have any stars.”
The leading man of the sub-$200,000 production, Clark Koelsch, has a thin resume that includes a role as “Flight Attendant Stephan” in one episode of “NCIS,” and one as a security guard in an episode of “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.”
Production of the film will be documented with four cameras. One, manned by a camerman, will “show what’s being filmed, and move around getting all the interesting stuff.” A second, stationary cam will sit at the craft service area – because, jokes Sarubbi, “the director wanted to see who’s eating all the food.” A third will be in the makeup and wardrobe area, while the last will cover the section of the set where the film’s producers congregate.
Subscribers will also be able to access background information and bios, watch videos taken during casting and pre-production, and win a paid internship on the next Saddle Ranch film.
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Saddle Ranch and Sul Set expect to have other productions available soon: “As soon as we started putting content on our website, we had people knocking on our door,” says Sarubbi, who adds she hired two new employees to handle the increasing workload.
Of the other films that are discussing the process, she says, one has “a pretty big name involved. He’s not at a Brad Pitt level or anything, but you’d know the name, and he has a million-plus fans on Facebook. Imagine if he goes there and says, ‘Come to Sul Set and watch me make this movie.’ You’d make your money back on the production right away.”
The amount of footage available on the site, she says, will be up to the discretion of each film’s producers, who have the leeway to move cameras out of sensitive areas if they see fit.
More information is available at www.SulSet.com.
