A Canadian film-maker has adapted the idea of the Million Dollar Home Page for the big screen by asking people to invest in his yet-to-be-made movie in return for a share of the profits.
Casey Walker, a television director, is hoping to raise a million Canadian dollars (£506,000) by ‘selling off’ the individual frames in an as-yet-unfinished film. In return, investors will receive a cut of any profits, in proportion to the amount of money they invest.
A single frame, which will be on screen for 0.04 seconds, costs CA$10 (£5) and investors can buy as many as they want. As well as effectively becoming shareholders in the film, they will also be entitled to display an image or video on a website related to the film, which can link back to their own site.
The idea echoes the Million Dollar Home Page - the brainchild of the British student Alex Tew, who in four months sold off a million pixels on a single web page at $1 each. Several of the world’s most recognisable brands, including The Times and eBay, bought space on the site as a way of advertising to large, global audience.
The film will consist of 144,000 frames, meaning that the amount raised - assuming all are sold - will in fact be CA$1.44 million. People who buy frames will essentially become shareholders in the film, holding two thirds of the equity. The remaining equity will be held by the cast and crew.
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Profits - assuming there are are any - will be split equally between the production company and the equity holders. Investors will also be allowed to have their name appear in the credits of the film, but they will have to pay entry like everyone else, assuming it is distributed.
In an interview with Times Online, Mr Walker, 32, said: “I’m trying to change the process by which films are funded. When I prove that this model can be successful, I plan to open a larger, online studio, where investors can buy a stake in any film they choose, by genre.
“For too long film has been a club that only the big boys and the rich boys are part of. Now the little old lady in Arkansas, too, is going to be able to see her name on the big screen.”
The film, which is called Free For All ... But You!, tells the story of a man who falls for a woman but is rebuffed because she is already committed to an “eight-sided relationship”, meaning that she can have guiltless sex with seven other people.
“It’s a romantic sex comedy in the vein of There’s Something About Mary and Chasing Amy,” the film’s website says.
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The story was written nine years ago by an associate of Mr Walker’s, and the first draft of the script was finished in 2001. Since then the project has been lying dormant, its producers having been unable to raise the funding.
On his website, My Million Dollar Movie, Mr Walker describes an evening in January 2006 when, “up late, drinking cheap Scotch,” he hit upon the idea of basing the funding for the film on individual frames. Around the same time, he saw a report about the Million Dollar Home Page, and the plan fell into place.
So far 16,391 frames - or 11 minutes and 23 seconds - have been sold. The largest single investment has been $52,560, which will give its holder about a 1.25 per cent stake in the film’s future profits.
Mr Walker, who is from Ontario, said he would be casting young Canadian actors who had “made their name in the US,” but declined to give any names. He said he planned to start filming in the autumn.
The project is reminiscent of a music site called Sellaband, which allows fans to contribute to the cost of producing an album in return for taking a share of the profit from any future sales.