My name is Brian Ide and I have a film production company here in Los Angeles named Meriwether Productions (www.meriwetherproductions.com ) and I am excited to be heading up an extraordinary new film concept called “ReDistribute” (www.weReDistribute.org ). What makes this new concept a radical one is that 100% of all profits from the film will go to Charity. No tricks. No twists.Â
Unlike the profits of movies like “Avatar”, “Transformers” and “Twilight” which went to a handful of billionaire investors and conglomerates, our profits will be redistributed for the common good. This profit will realistically equate to tens of millions of dollars for the Charities and we want to bring this to Kansas City. (My brother and his family live in Lee’s Summit and I am from the midwest…)
With each film that we produce under the “ReDistribute” banner, we will be selecting one general “cause” to which profits will be directed. For this first film, the cause we have selected is: Primary Education.Â
I sincerely believe that if we are to properly address the myriad of challenges that face our country and our world, we must start by providing better education for our young people. To this end, our film’s profits will be primarily divided among charitable organizations supporting and serving the needs of students, teachers and mentors. We will be partnering with three national Charities whose mission is to provide services to our most vulnerable children within those categories.Â
85% of all profits will go to those three Charities, but we have reserved an additional percentage of the profits to go towards other organizations. One of the ways that we want to give back is by giving 5% of all profits to the location where we shoot the film. As you probably are well aware, most of the benefits that come from importing film shoots go to places like car rentals, hotel rentals, catering and established crew. While we certainly believe in supporting those folks, we also feel strongly about supporting the people who usually get looked over. With that in mind, our 5% will go directly to organizations like local food shelters, homeless shelters and schools.Â
It is our intent to try and bring this project to Kansas City and we hope that the script that is ultimately chosen will allow that. Even it that is not the case, if you partner with us, we would still like to give 1% to the Kansas City School District. There is no way to guarantee what amount this would be right now, but recognizing that the typical ’successful’ film in Hollywood brings in excess of $60 million in profits, this translates to over $600,000 in funds for the School District. If we were able to film in Kansas City, it would translate to millions of dollars for your local charities. In this time of significant cuts to education and social programs, we think that this can be good news for the school, the students and the community.
All that we need from you is to simply help us build our Cause. We are building this project from the ground up and the first task ahead of us is to collect one million ’supporters’ of the cause. To do this, we have two opportunities for people to help.
1) Go to our Cause page on Facebook at: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/466032 and click on “Join Cause”. We don’t want their money, need their political views or desire their home address. We just need them to be counted as a person who supports our movement to “ReDistribute” the profits from our films to our selected causes. (this is the preferred avenue because it will make the most impact).
2) If they are not a part of the Facebook wave, they can send a simple email to: filmprofits4youtheducation@gmail.com <mailto:filmprofits4youtheducation@gmail.com> . In the subject heading put ‘Supporter’ and in the body they can put their Name and your City/State.
Beyond this, we ask that they share this opportunity to make a difference with all of their friends and that they ask them to do the same.
What this does for us is show our potential investors and distributors that people are behind this film and that we can better predict its success. By doing this, it also allows us to get amazing actors and crew to work on this film for less that their usual rates which, in turn, allows us to funnel more money to the Charities that we are partnering with.
Over the course of the next weeks and months, we will be updating everyone through the Facebook page, a blog and the film’s website (www.weReDistribute.org <http://www.filmsforcharity.com/> ). We will post about the story itself, the people and organizations who are joining with us, the charities we have selected and future release information. We won’t badger them and again we won’t ask them for money. Ultimately, buying a ticket to watch THEIR film is all the financial support that we will need from them.
We are sending this out to a handful of communities to find the the best potential partner for this exciting project. We ask that you discuss this with the Kansas City Community and if you are interested in partnering with us, we ask that you reach out to us as quickly as you can. Unfortunately, we are only able to shoot this film in one city, so the sooner we have a response, the sooner we will lock in the location. This will make a significant impact on the lives of young people and will allow us to develop our second project which is currently slated to focus on Charities addressing medicine, disease and treatments.Â
Just to reiterate, all we need from a partner city is:
- Enthusiastic support
- Getting word to people in your area through the use of your media and social network resources.
- Asking them to join the Cause.
- Doing this in a thoughtful, yet motivated manner
- Willingness to work with us on tools to keep the budget low so as to better funnel profits to the Charities themselves.
So please, join us at http://apps.facebook.com/causes/466032 and ask your friends to do the same.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask myself or my partner, Spero Stamboulis.
Thank you!
Brian Ide
info@meriwetherproductions.com
310.795.4423
Spero StamboulisÂ
spero669@hotmail.comÂ
818.795.9099
Meriwether Productions L.L.C.
www.meriwetherproductions.com
