Tag: Fundraising

Production Update #12

9 June 2026

This will be my final “non-update” update. I swear!

I’ve had this film project on the back burner for well over a year and made very little progress on it during this period of time. There are several reasons for this extended hiatus – including dread over how the story would be perceived in the current political climate, my struggles to raise money and expand my network, and debating the best way to go about producing the film.

But another reason why the film has been stalled so long is because I’ve always had a queue of other projects to work on. “Socks” has always been my most important project, but it’s also been the biggest project. I always wanted to get the other smaller projects done and out of the way before proceeding on to “Socks”. Problem was – all my life, I’ve had this bad habit of coming up with new ideas for projects faster than I could complete older projects. So my queue was ever-present and always growing.

Until a few months ago, that is. I finally snapped that habit. I’ve been able to stop inventing new projects to work on, and I’ve been plowing through my older projects to finally get them done once and for all. Accomplishing this has been the first phase of a six phase plan to get me = ultimately – to retirement. Phase II is going to be finishing both the film script for “Socks” and the novel version, which I hope to have done by the end of the year. Phase III will be producing the film, which I hope to have done by the end of 2027.

As for the production… I suck at fundraising, and given current economic conditions, I think it would be unwise for me to spend my life savings to do a proper film shoot. So the film will be an animated slideshow, and I’ll hire a handful of people to voice the characters.

So… this “update” is to announce that I am done with Phase I. I have cleared my project queue and have no further distractions to impede this film project. No more excuses. No more delays. “Socks” now has my undivided attention.

Production Update #10

18 January 2026

It has been nearly eight months since my last production update. I apologize for the lack of updates during this time period. Progress on this film project stalled due to three main factors. Let me catch you up.

First. Just a few weeks after my last production update, I suffered a minor medical issue. I say minor now, but at the time it was pretty traumatic. Worse still, I had been gambling for years on not needing health insurance, and my luck finally ran out. The medical bills were a huge setback, and almost all aspects of my life came to a screeching halt as I tried to focus on my health and recovery, as well as my financial recovery.

Second. What I described in my last production blog hasn’t gotten any better. In fact, I’d argue the political climate is worse now than it was a year ago. I fear the general public lacks the minimum necessary empathy and compassion for the story of “Socks” to resonate. I fear that the message of the film will fall on deaf ears.

Third. Despite this being a microbudget film, the bar to entry on this film project is still too high for me. To do this film right, I would have needed to raise at least $67,000. That price tag doesn’t count (1) hiring more experienced crew members in key positions, such as a cinematographer / DP and a sound mixer on set, and a colorist and sound designer in post, (2) publicity costs, and (3) distribution costs.

I managed to save up a little over $40,000 for the film, but the bulk of that came from my own savings and the sale of my house last year. At $40,000, I would have had to ask the cast and crew to work for free or – at best – hope for residual income from distribution of the film. I loathe asking people to work for free.

In another reality, I might have been happy to sink my life savings into this project. But given the current political and economic environments, it would be unwise for me to do so. Setting aside my own life savings, I have managed to raise a whopping $70.

I suck at fundraising. It has always been my Achilles’ heel. I hate asking for money. I hate asking for favors. It’s just baked into my psyche. Even if I could somehow overcome this problem and raise the money needed to fund this film, it was always going to represent a significant delay in forward progress on this project. Similarly, trying to network and assemble a crew – given the significant commitments necessary – was also going to be a challenge without money to pay them with. My friends who would probably volunteer their time have their own responsibilities and commitments.

So what does this mean for the future of this film project?

I assure you that I am not giving up. This project is too important to me.

But I need to lower the bar to entry on this film project. I need to reduce or eliminate this project’s dependence on my ability to raise money or assemble a crew. If I don’t, this film project will continue to stall in Development Hell. The longer it takes for me to produce the film, the more likely it is that I’ll get hit by a bus before this story sees the light of day. And even if I don’t get hit by a bus… there are other things I want to accomplish in my life. As important as this project is to me, I don’t want it hanging around my neck for the rest of my life.

So… in the interest of forward momentum, I’m going to make some compromises. Painful compromises.

Rather than produce a live-action, feature-length film, using real actors, real locations, real sets, real costumes, and real props… I’m going to animate the film using… Open AI.

(Excuse me while I throw up in my mouth a little.)

It turns my stomach to use AI in a creative project, and I never thought I would ever resort to doing this. But it’s a low-cost way to produce the images of this film. Not only does it save tens of thousands of dollars of pre-production, production, and post-production costs, but I don’t have to negotiate access to filming locations, I don’t have to coordinate the schedules of a dozen members of a cast and crew that I can barely afford to pay, I can avoid some of the very real hazards of filming in the desert and filming a dangerous knife fight, and so much more.

I still hope to hire voice actors to read the script. But the commitment in both time and resources will be considerably less. And then I’ll distribute the film on YouTube. Going this route, I should be able to complete the film with just a fraction of the money I already have saved.

I will also be converting the script into a novel and self-publishing that to Amazon. That was always part of the plan. But people don’t read as much as they used to, and I’d rather not have the legacy of “Socks” be dependent on a shrinking literate population.

By the way, none of this precludes the possibility of “Socks” being turned into a proper film someday. In fact, producing it in this animated form and getting it out there in front of the eyes of potential investors and producers might be what gets the influx of funding and personnel that the film project needed. And if it doesn’t? Well, then, the story is still out there – and that’s what’s important.

With all of that in mind, I have overhauled this website and relocated it from https://leathertrampproductions.wordpress.com/ to https://socksfilm.wordpress.com/. The YouTube channel has also been rebranded, and a new Facebook page has been setup.

Next steps… I’m working on a third (and hopefully final) version of the script. The first draft was done in July 2024 and the second draft was done in April 2025. So my goal is to have the third draft done by no later than June 2026.