Constructing The Indestructable

geekologymag
Dec 4, 2014
4 min read

By Paolo Maquiraya

The escapism that comes from cinema is a feeling shared by both audiences and filmmakers alike. Forgetting about the real world and just immersing yourself in the vision of a director not only allows you to feel the passion of the filmmaker, but also ignite your own.

That was the case for Kalen Artinian, 25, a Toronto filmmaker who has worked on various freelance jobs from directing music videos and short films to sound editing and even cinematography.

“To me it’s the escapism of it where I can just forget about my real problems for two hours,” he said. “I did that as a kid if I were stressed out or something and I’d pop in something like Jurassic Park.”

It’s that sense of escapism in those films that finds itself as a thematic component of his latest short film project, The Indestructible.

“It’s about a teenager who loves to draw, gets bullied, but doesn’t care, he just loves to draw and he’s in his own little world,” Artinian said. “And every time he draws, we go into this animation sequence of this superhero he’s created (The Indestructible) that is the complete opposite of what he is.”

Artinian says it’s a project he’s been working on since December 2012, but because of his desire to blend live-action with animation the budget required wasn’t feasible back then.

“It’s a film we’ve been trying to make for two years now,” Artinian said. “It’s been so much where it’s too ambitious, [and] there’s a really big budget [needed].”

One of the people who worked with Artinian is cinematographer Matvey Stavitsky, 25. The two met during the premiere of Artinian’s first short film, Hellvitica.

“I first met Kalen a few years ago when I was doing some photography for his first film’s (Hellvetica) premiere,” Stavitsky said. “I took some pictures and went up to him. We started talking, and I asked him if he had any other projects he was working on and it became Ruby’s Secret.”

Ruby’s Secret went on to have a successful festival run during this past year. With its success and the desire to go back to The Indestructible, Artinian saw a different route for funding - Indiegogo.

Indiegogo is a crowdsourcing site similar to Kickstarter where he is hoping to raise, at least in part, the necessary funds for The Indestructible. Whether he meets that goal or not won’t ultimately dictate whether he goes forward with the project.

“Our budget right now on Indiegogo is $8,000,” Artinian said. “I don’t know if we’ll make it. Hopefully we do, but if not we’ll figure something out because [that figure] is a tight budget.”

Ideally, he would like a budget of $10,000 to do the short film really well, but he figures that he and his crew can squeeze out a lot of the current $8,000.

The decision to go through with Indiegogo wasn’t a no-brainer for Artinian, as he consulted with friends and fellow filmmakers who had previously used the crowdsourcing site for other projects.

“I asked a lot of people about it, like the people producing the film looked into all the options before we launched,” he said. “I also spoke to other filmmakers about what their advice was for this route.”

While Kickstarter has gained popularity and notoriety as a means of funding films like Kristen Bell’s Veronica Mars and Zach Braff’s Wish I Was Here, Indiegogo presented itself as the better option for Artinian and his project.

“Indiegogo just seemed like the friendlier option for us, and we chose the flexible funding option,” Artinian said. “So if we don’t reach our goal we still get a portion of the money we raised.”

“For example, if we reach our goal we’re deducted four per cent, but if we don’t make it the deduction is nine per cent, which were percentage rates more favourable than Kickstarter.”

The campaign for The Indestructible on Indiegogo lasts for 30 days. It started on Nov. 17 and ends this month on the same day.

Artinian and his team had the option of setting their campaign for 60 days, but decided against that on the advice that the shorter time gave a greater sense of urgency to the project.

Currently $1,496* has been donated to support the film through its first nine days. The costs are meant to alleviate some of the burden for Artinian and his team, including Matvey Stavitsky.

“We’re aiming to rent out equipment with this to make sure we’ve got great lights and lens with the equipment we already have,” Stavitsky said. “We’re not paying ourselves or anything. It’s just meant to cover the costs of rentals and locations.”

Costs and a lack of a stable job aside, The Indestructible comes off as a self-titled description of its creator as he pushes forward into unknown territory by taking the initiative.

“[Not having a full-time job], I treat [life] almost like a 9-5,” Artinian said. “When I’m home I’m usually working on editing a shot or searching for more jobs. You can’t just wait for someone to give you a job. You have to go after it.”