The Real Maine: Movie Poster!

Chris Derrick.Kyle Merber.Erik Van Ingen.Mark Feigen.Riley Masters.

Following a very successful release of the epic running documentary, the boys in The Real Maine are seeking a way to help promote the film a bit more.  They are also looking to recouperate the film expenses that they incurred since the film was made available to the public at no cost.  The goal is to reach at least $1,000 by this coming Friday, July 13th and the ultimate goal is to reach $4,500.  Anyone that pledges money will see their name on the back of the posters which will be for sale in August on, www.therealmainemovie.com.    

Trailer

This coming fall they will begin to auction off one at a time ten limited addition framed, matted, and autographed posters.
All proceeds will go towards the creation of a potential sequel (years down the road).

The running community is a tight knit one, and to help out runners spread the joy to each other of one day making it big means a lot to everyone involved.  These guys bust there butt each day like everyone else, are multiple time All-Americans and are looking to bring more exicting running footage to you.   

The posters are printed on 17x22 paper at 1440 dpi.

Pledge here

 The Real Maine Movie

A personal statement from Erik:

"Last year I began making a documentary entitled "The Real Maine". To start any project you need some sort of capital. As an independent filmmaker you must play the role of producer and market your film not only to an audience, but to financiers. There are several art grants in existence for filmmakers, but many of them are closed to students. The case these grant boards make is that a student has open resources provided by their academic institution (cameras, studio space, editing lab, computer software etc...) and an independent filmmaker is independent in the truest sense of the word. It was great having the safety net of Binghamton University, but unfortunately there's no way in hell that our department chair was going to let a twenty-one year old take a few thousand dollars worth of camera gear into the wilderness for six weeks, six hundred miles away from school. I was back to square one, broke, without a camera, and my move to Maine rapidly approaching. After hours of brainstorming I decided to go with corporate sponsorship. In exchange for screen time companies would exchange money to finance the film. I was pumped, I put a proposal together and sent it out to everyone that I could. I'm sure my proposal ended up in many spam folders, but I was able to get a few bites. Eventually I was able to raise enough money between outside financiers and a yard sale when I moved out of my apartment (so long Xbox).

 

The summer goes by, we laugh, we film, we get fit, and high-5's are at an all time high. I show up to campus for my final year of school and I get a message from my coach saying that I'm ineligible. Instantly I'm confused and flustered. I run through every possible scenario but can't keep my mind away from sitting on the sidelines as another miler takes a shot at an NCAA title. I spoke with our compliance officer and he revealed to me that I was soliciting funds as a student-athlete. He said it was simply because of my name. I played by the rules, my proposal promoted me as a filmmaker, made no mention of my running credentials, and even included a cinematography reel demonstrating my ability to execute various camera maneuvers. I felt robbed. Robbed of a year that I had been working for my entire college career and for what? Working on a senior thesis project that's not required for graduation. Taking on a project where I'm compensated four credits for 20 hours of work a week for a calendar year. Going above and beyond what I'm supposed to? I was fine not being given the credit I deserved. I was making a film about something that I love, something that is a part of me. The Real Maine is a reflection of myself. But, to have the opportunity to compete for my University stripped from me because I went a different route, that didn't settle with me. 

 

We came to the conclusion that if I paid back all the financiers that my eligibility would be reinstated. Fortunately my parents were willing to help out (I didn't raise that much money to begin with). I was happy, I could run, I could make my movie. The only thing that bothered me is that I was seeing no compensation for all the work I was putting in. Binghamton University was great, but I have school loans, masseuse bills, and Brooks Radius receipts littering my bedroom floor. I need to find a way to make some money, enough to do what I love to do. This brings me to the point of this blog. I decided to start merchandising to offset production cost and work towards a sequel in years to come. I started with a proposal on Kickstarter http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/80857009/the-real-maine-movie-poster. What kickstarter does is they raise money for artists trying to fund a project. Kickstarter takes a 5% cut and that's it (they gotta eat too!). When you make your proposal you put together a goal. If you don't raise enough money to meet your goal, everyone gets their money back. Kickstarter's reasoning is that they don't want to be responsible for a poor investment. If people aren't willing to invest in your project, its probably not very good anyway, right? To spare you all extra reading, take a look at the Kickstarter page for all the information. We have made two posters and I am proud to say they are beautiful, very pleased with the printer that I outsourced to". 

Thank you all so much,

-Erik Van Ingen

The poster!