Conrad Shaw has
a dream. He wants to make a movie
called “Rolling With Virgil” and he wants your help to make it.
Shaw, an actor, was walking around New York one day when he saw a group of musicians
playing. The musicians in question
make up a band known as The Dirty Urchins. He heard them and immediately connected to their music. He bought their CD and it became the
soundtrack to his life.
Riding the
subway one day, one of their songs came on
and he thought he had a potential
idea for a music video. As the
album progressed, he realized he had a complete narrative forming in his head
until eventually he had the idea that this could be a movie, with himself as
the star and with the music acting almost like a Shakespeare-ian chorus. Shaw’s idea was to almost make it like
a silent film where the songs would tell the story using 16 of the band’s
compositions. These songs can be
found on their two albums, “Late As Usual” and “Romance And Apocalypse.” He also got access to a newer song and an
older one that band member Freddie Stevenson recorded with his previous
outfit.
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| Conrad Shaw |
Shaw was
nervous to approach the band to get their approval, saying, “My whole
philosophy is to not to show up with anything as just an idea, half-assed as it
were.” He spent months working on
the screenplay before he even approached them. When he did, they were game. Shaw hired a lawyer and worked
out a deal for the rights. The whole thing hinged on them saying yes.
Shaw also hired
a storyboard artist to prep for the initial jump-off and another artist to
design the images on his website.
The idea was to then launch a Kickstarter to get the film made. That Kickstarter is now open and taking
donations until the end of the month.
The hope is to raise enough money to get a director and others
involved. Shaw has a producer on
board to help him budget everything out.
The budget is currently estimated as $350,000. He’s hoping to raise $70,000 with the Kickstarter. After fees, that means that he’ll probably clear $50,000 to
begin shooting. He’s hoping that
will be enough to secure more investors along the way.
The film has
five main characters and a lot of extras and Shaw plans to rely on his
numorous acting friends to populate the movie. He also is trying to secure one name actor. Once the film is
made, he plans to go the festival route to try to sell the distribution rights.
If you click here, you can
hear my conversation with Shaw where he goes into greater detail. It’s a loose conversation, but it’s
best to hear Shaw’s passion in his own words.
If you find this interesting, please donate to his Kickstarter. Please support independent artists.
