Creating Fantasy Films Featuring Other Creator OCs

Do you wish there were more awesome Fantasy-themed media in the world? Have you seen some of the incredible original characters that the best cosplayers / creative content creators have made and wondered what it would be like to see them in a cinematic movie? YOU can help make that happen, and every bit truly counts!

(Also, a "Too Long, Didn't Read" (TLDR) is provided at the end of each section, but I encourage you to enjoy the journey and be as excited as everyone else is about this!)

This video goes over a lot of it, but it may also be what brought you here in the first place!

Ahoy! If you don't already know me, my name is James T. George. I'm an actor, filmmaker, and a massive fantasy nerd overall. I love storytelling in its many forms, but my greatest passion is telling stories in front of and behind the camera. I've done the screenwriting, pre-production, cinematography, directing, and acting in a lot of my own projects, and am excited to focus those skills towards making stunning fantasy films with other creatives to feature their original characters. These films will be shot all over the U.S. (and some of Canada too!) throughout my travels. Speaking of travels...

~(TLDR: James is a filmmaker who wants to make fantasy films with content creators' original characters all over North America)~

One of the greatest hurdles for collaborations on creative works that have a larger scope is proximity. Social media has granted many of us an awesome avenue where we have been able to become great friends with many incredible people from all over, and engage in various virtual collaborations over time. Inevitably, as these connections build, people always bring up the dreams of all of the great things that could be created if we all lived closer or had the chance to meet. My solution to this is to travel out to each of the creators involved and do the collaborations in their area!

I am the proud owner of a van that is being converted into a mobile tiny home from which I can transport myself, Saphira (my pup), and all of my equipment to wherever each of the collaborations may take me. (#VanLife - Something I've always had the itch to do!). With these travels, inevitably comes the content surrounding the journey to each destination, and then my interactions behind the scenes once there, which I'm so excited to share as well!

So, what are these fantasy short films going to be about?

~(TLDR: James has a van that he can use to travel out to each creator and make these films in their area, solving the biggest collaboration problem: distance.)~

What is "The Paladin Project"?

When I began to seriously consider traveling to do these film collaborations that include other people's original characters, I had to think on what the best way to tell each potential story effectively would be. In my creative work, and I'm sure as many other creatives can attest to within their own work, I've found that sometimes a flexible sandbox serves as a much better breeding ground for creativity than a limitless open world. That is when I started to consider the perfectly suitable fantasy storytelling conditions - "The Paladin"

The Paladin has been a series concept I've been developing since early 2016, one of many passion projects I plan to bring to fruition in my lifetime. This works excellently as a baseline for developing the stories for the films as it has nuance enough to always bring life and intrigue to the screen, but is open enough to fit many different fantasy characters and story dynamics.

In The Paladin universe, the Paladins are the celebrity status heroes of the realm, much like the Knights, but also trained with some magical powers and they serve from the Temple, rather than a Lord or King.

They take "tithe missions" (a convenient rephrasing of bounties) to go deal with villages' ghoulies and baddies in their travels. You may already see how this framework is highly compatible with countless possibilities... but, in terms of what is already established for the planned series - there is a perfect block of time that is untold and free to be explored as the "prequels" of the eventual series proper. Thus, "The Paladin Project" is born - an episodic collection of all the different tales of our Paladin protagonist's travels. Some of the stories I've already had a chance to explore to different depths are all incredibly exciting!

~(TLDR: "The Paladin" will eventually be a produced regular series show, "The Paladin Project" serves as the episodic prequels featuring content creator original characters)~

Now, before I go further... let me at least show you some of my previous work! You can watch my fantasy short film "Clemency" here:

I want to note that the entire film was made in only 2 different days with 7 people in total. Everything that was just the soldier or the elf lady was done in 1 day with 4 people total, and everything with the soldier and the general was done in 1 evening with 3 people total. All with no budget, as well. My point is: if you enjoyed that, this is the minimum kind of quality you can expect from these films, but likely even better - as each location and collaboration will provide new opportunities with different production quality elements.

With the recent regular collaboration content you can see some of the potential even from just mostly phone footage and clever editing techniques, but each expresses a small glimpse of the greatness to come for the properly produced and filmed projects!

~(TLDR: James has specialized in creating a high budget cinematic feel, from low budget productions, and you can watch some of the previous work and be involved early on too!)~

What is the purpose of my donation goal? While of course, I would love to have a massive budget to take things even further in each film, my experiences in filmmaking have taught me a lot about how to get away with little and still have an incredibly high-quality cinematic experience. For me, it is absolutely not about the money, it's about the art of it and the passion I have for bringing these characters and stories to life on the screen in compelling ways. With that, I've opted to turn to crowdfunding rather than seek out any kind of deals with producers or investors that could potentially bastardize the vision and then distort the intimacy of the storytelling medium itself which I feel has been greatly sacrificed in this day and age.

The donation goal I have set is merely to allow me to go forth with all of my creative energy and to travel freely to each of those excited to collaborate and MAKE. GREAT. FANTASY. I already live very frugally, so this covers over a year's worth of my living expenses while on the road and the common general production costs. Every. bit. helps. I can't express that enough. Every amount compounds and allows me to continue to focus all of my energy towards creating these incredible films with everyone.

~(TLDR: James can't do this without your help! All support goes towards allowing him to drive out to each creator and focus on producing these films.)~

So, what else is in it for you? Besides the films themselves and the content surrounding my travels, I also want to offer plenty of incentives beyond that as well! In my brainstorming of ideas, I've chatted with other creatives that could be brought in to make it an even grander collaborative project! Some of the ideas suggested are:

~(TLDR: There will be even more than just the films themselves!)~

Lastly,

To anyone who has made it this far... Thank you. I hope you are as excited about this as I am! Thank you for your time, and I understand if even a small donation is hard right now, but at the very least I would ask that you share this with enthusiasm to spread the word and let others know that this project exists and that they can help support it as well! Every little bit helps.