$20,000! This is not a small sum, I know, and that's exactly what we need to raise for the production of my first feature, The Very Last Day. Some of you are probably wondering why the amount when the average budget raised on crowdfunding platforms such as Seed&Spark is less than that? Well, in the spirit of full transparency, the total cost of production will be more like $200,000 with the remaining $180,000 coming straight out of my own pocket: roughly 15 years of savings. While $180K may not be a huge sum of money to many in this movie business, to me it's enormous. But I believe in this project and when I told my wife that I wanted to invest our nest egg in my first feature film, her first (and only) reaction was: “Go for it!”

Looking at the Wish List on this campaign you can see exactly where that $20K will be spent. So again, for the sake of transparency, here’s where the other $180K will go:

– hiring all the actors (the script has 28 speaking roles),

– hiring the whole crew, that’s 20+ people for 5 weeks,

– hiring the director of photography (DOP),

– hiring the composer,

– hiring the special effects makeup artist,

– hiring the production and marketing teams,

– purchasing a digital cinema camera with lenses,

– covering all production expenses such as insurance, legal fees, accounting, etc.,

– sustaining myself (the director) and my wife (the producer) throughout production.

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ABOUT ME:

I'm not just a director, I'm also a film buff. Since a very young age, I've been drawn to so-called genre movies. First for their ability to ignite primal reactions in their intended audience, but also for their tendency to invite reflection on the world we live in. The rape and revenge thrillers, even though they are often labeled exploitation, are precisely that kind of movie in my opinion. And even though some of the most famous and recognizable titles of the genre might be considered exploitation, such as Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left (1972) or Meir Zarchi's I Spit on Your Grave (1978), others take a very responsible and respectful approach to their subject matter. Of the latter, I would cite Gaspar Noé's Irreversible (2002) and Adrea Arnold's Red Road (2006) as excellent examples of regard within the genre. When done well and with the proper consideration, this genre is also likely to attract top rated talent as well as international recognition and spark social debate as Paul Verhoeven's Elle (2016) does.

There's also a particularly personal note to this story that makes it vital for me to tackle this particular subject and see that The Very Last Day is made. I may not advertise or speak freely of my experiences, but I will say that writing this script had a decidedly cathartic effect on me. Of course, I would never kidnap and torture anyone to make them pay for what they did as in the story, but instead I choose to claim this tiny flicker of retribution through my art. Though it should also be said that The Very Last Day isn't so much about senseless revenge as it is about confrontation along with trying to understand the perpetrator's psyche as well as the victim's. I personally prefer to think of The Very Last Day as a rape and revenge tragedy as opposed to just a thriller.

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ABOUT THE MOVIE:

Summer is coming to an end. 15-year-old Xiao Mei has arranged a secret meeting with A-Long, the 19-year-old boy she adores. The four years that separate them translate into dramatically different concepts of love. For her, it’s spending time together and maybe even holding hands. For him, it’s something else entirely. But the teenaged girl doesn’t understand and the older boy doesn’t realize until it’s way too late—and the unforgivable happens.

This is the story of A Very Cold Summer, Paul Wang’s new novel and predicted bestseller. With a charming wife and a beautiful daughter, it appears that the famed writer has it all, but things are rarely as they appear. Behind closed doors, his marriage to Violet is a cold and loveless void so Paul takes solace in lavishing all of his attention in fatherly affection on 16-year-old Virginia.

Just when it seems Paul is at the height of his career, Julia enters his life. Despite never having heard of him before A Very Cold Summer, she’s now his biggest fan and she’s gone back to devour all of Paul’s previous novels. But Julia is not just a fan; she’s also a very beautiful, very seductive woman. One that could bring Paul the intimacy, the excitement, and the inspiration he so desperately needs and the promotion tour for the new novel gives him a perfect excuse for a lovers’ weekend with Julia without raising his wife’s suspicion…

…But the lovers’ weekend turns into Paul, confused and terror-stricken, tied to a bed in a remote house after a night-long ride in the trunk of a car. And Julia isn’t at all the lover Paul thought he was meeting. In fact, she’s become his scourge, torturing him every time he regains consciousness. But why? She says Paul’s novel is true and accuses him of profiting from the atrocities he inflicted on her through book sales. Despite Julia’s torment, he swears it isn’t true and that the book is nothing more than the product of his imagination.

Who lies? What is the truth? Soon it’s The Very Last Day when all appearances will shatter for Paul and everyone around him.