November 23rd, 2011

By Michala Smith | Edited by Jerry Kann

Nashville, TN — Best Part Productions, Nashville’s newest film production company, is proud to announce its first set of independent films, created by our friend Chad McClarnon and his brother Trey.

As part of this innovative process of film creation, Best Part Productions is currently using Kickstarter—a new fund-raising platform named by Time magazine one of the best inventions of 2010—to raise the money necessary to submit these two Nashville movies to film festivals all over the world.

Kickstarter is based on a crowd-sourced funding model which seeks small-scale pledges from individuals instead of large sums from big investors or companies.

Though many Kickstarter projects use the funds they raise to finance production, BPP is requesting pledges to bring two completed works to wider audiences. Trey McClarnon is enthusiastic about this new method of financing: “The members of this team and the local businesses that have supported us believe that these are stories worth telling, and we are trying to raise money to make sure that they get told to as many people as possible.”

The two films from the McClarnon brothers have finished production but are not available for public viewing yet. But if you make a pledge, you can view exclusive content, including behind-the-scenes photos and videos. Also, a pledge of at least $25 will get you HD digital copies of both movies, scheduled to be sent out to donors in March 2012.

Below is a Q&A with our friend Chad about the films and his transition from photography to motion pictures.

Was it easy transitioning from photography to film? What challenges did you face?

In a lot of ways, the processes are very similar. I’ve always been much more a fan of cinema than I am a fan of photography, so from an inspiration standpoint, the film aesthetic has been a part of my work all along. That being said, the business of filmmaking has thrown me a ton of curve balls so far—the cost of submitting to film festivals, obviously, being the latest. We expected it to be somewhat expensive, but didn’t expect the process of submitting two films to 37 festivals to cost nearly $6000. There have been several jaw-dropping moments like that over the past year, mostly concerning the cost of things. It’s an incredible time we live in though, with sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo giving small productions the ability to gather the funding needed while still maintaining creative control.

From a technical side, the equipment is essentially the same. There’s been a bit of a learning curve, especially when it comes to learning the editing softwares, but that’s a learning curve I’m very much accustomed to. In any visual arts field these days, a professional very quickly becomes adept at learning new gadgets. Learning the technical side of something has always been a joy for me.

What is your ultimate goal for these films?

My ultimate goal is very simple: I want to get them out in front of as many people as possible. I really don’t have any idea how that will manifest, but that’s definitely the goal. For short films, the best chance for that is film festivals, so we’re definitely hoping to be picked up by a few. Nearly 80-plus incredibly talented people have thrown their full weight behind getting these stories told, and we’re continuing to work as hard as we can to make sure these films get the opportunities that we all think they deserve.

If you want people to take one thing from these films, what would that feeling or their thoughts be after viewing “A New Life” and “without”?

[With a laugh.] Tough question! It’s a little different for each film. I obviously want a recognition of them being beautifully shot. Both Winston Hearn and Kris D’Amico (the Directors of Photography on these projects) did an amazing job with them.

As far each film individually… “A New Life” is really a story about the struggle between the responsibility to fulfill our obligations and the desire to pursue that which we are truly passionate about. It’s a balance that all of us have to find, but in that balance there’s a dangerous area full of fear and, essentially, self-doubt. The recognition of how important it is for us to recognize that place of fear and perfect that balance is a takeaway that I’d love to see from this film.

“without” explores a similar theme, but kind of in the reverse. And although the script for “without” was written on one late Friday night, only four hours before we shot the film, the writing team definitely layered it with some strong themes about modern relationships. There’s a schism in this country about what the definition of love can be, and this film subtly explores the problems that can arise with that.

Above all else, what we wanted with both of these films was for them to somehow ring true with the audience. No one wants to watch a narrative that builds and builds just to fall flat. We believe that we’ve succeeded there, and the true hope is that reactions from our audiences will validate that.

If you would like more information, feel free to contact us at Sitka Creations and we can put you in direct contact with Chad McClaron. Follow him on Twitter @chadmcclarnon.