Watch Martin Starr and Brett Haley Interview Old People In the Cutest Kickstarter Campaign Video Ever
What is the best way to get your crowdfunding campaign showcased on Film School Rejects? Cast Martin Starr (Freaks and Geeks; Knocked Up). What’s the second best way? Make a sales video that’s clever, original, basically something unlike everything else on Kickstarter, Indiegogo, Seed & Spark and the rest of those sites. The effort for a new narrative feature called I’ll See You In My Dreams, which just launched yesterday with a goal of $60K, has done both.
The film will feature Starr as a pool boy who has an affair with the main character, played by Blythe Danner – yes, still-gorgeous 70-year-old co-star of the Meet the Parents franchise and real-life mom to Gwyneth Paltrow and Jake Paltrow. That plot with that duo has me hooked enough as it is. But Starr and director Brett Haley (The New Year) have made a pitch trailer that shows none of that. Instead, their video is basically a little documentary in which a bunch of elderly folk are interviewed about “the golden years” and asked for advice to the younger generations on how to live a full life before you get there.
If you’re a fan of HBO Documentary Films and/or Oscar-nominated shorts, that might sound a tiny bit like Kings Point, which was one of the Academy Award contenders last year (and is currently available on HBO Go, where I recommend you check it out). This is much simpler, though, serving mostly as a set up of the tone and themes this new movie will presumably be working with when it begins shooting this Spring, as well as a way of proving that the production is serious about doing research while also having some fun.
Most importantly, it displays a lot of heart, which the filmmakers are sure to bring to the final product (I wouldn’t be surprised if this video wound up incorporated somehow, also, maybe into the end credits?). We expect Haley to infuse his films with heart anyway. A number of us here at FSR loved his previous feature, The New Year, which was full of it (stream it now on Netflix). He also has a good, silly sense of humor, if his being A.D. on the comedy short The Walken Dead is any indication (watch it on YouTube).
I’ll See You In My Dreams is cowritten by Marc Basch, who also collaborated with Haley on the more recent short film Three (watch it on Vimeo, where you can also find Haley’s other shorts) and produced by longtime industry vets Rebecca Green and Laura D. Smith, both of whom are also currently working on the latest from David Robert Mitchell (The Myth of the American Sleepover) in partnership with Part 2 Pictures, which is mostly known for documentaries like The Redemption of General Butt Naked – might this explain why the Kickstarter video for this film is a short doc?
The pledge perks on this project could, frankly, be a whole lot more interesting given how much thought went into the campaign video. Not that I personally ever care for much more than the promise of some way to view the film (here it’s merely a stream rather than a download to own). The rest is mainly set visits and premiere attendance, which is okay but always an iffy incentive given the lack of travel for the contributor. Here’s a perk I’d be up for: a night drinking keg beer out of little baseball caps with Starr while watching the original Dallas series (that’s for us Freaks and Geeks fans).
Through the perks that are offered we can at least tell when the film is expected to be finished. Looks like shooting will wrap by April and the film is expected to be unveiled in a year, meaning there might be hopes for a Sundance debut. I wish the production luck on the campaign, which ends early next month, as I’m already a fan of the doc short they’ve made in conjunction and hope the feature is equally good.
Without further ado, watch the cutest Kickstarter video ever made below.
Do you want to see this film? Enough to help fund it?
