CAMPBELL ROAD PRESS NORTH
Syracuse, NY
GOAL: Find Investors to be part of creating a film production company (with two great film projects ready to produce).
Q/A
1. Who is behind this project?
The first Film project is based on my book: The Onion Picker: Carmen Basilio and Boxing in the 1950s. The Boston Globe said I nailed the brutish and politics of the postwar fight game. which is the basis of our script. Good versus evil, with a very sympathetic figure, Carmen Basilio.
2. Describe your film company.
The skyrocketing growth of streaming and mobile video represents a ground floor business opportunity. US consumers now pay about $2 billion monthly for subscription-video services, up 22% since 2015. Our company has two completed screenplays, each with large built-in audiences that check all the boxes for appealing streaming films. The pandemic has drastically changed how we watch movies and the need for intelligent offbeat stories with interesting characters and sub-plots drives entertainment companies to compete for original content to offer to their customer base. Our two films fit perfectly into this niche.
3. What NAMES are involved?
The characters in the first two films, Carmen Basilio and George Halas will attract much interest in Hollywood, because they are very famous to their sport, Boxing and Professional football. It is not an issue to attract name actors, it is more about the budget, and negotiation.
4. How much money will you need?
Again, getting back to budget, we need to raise from venture capital $500K to go with pledged$250K. Because we have enormous contacts in Syracuse, NY, we can make a million-dollar film for $750K. Also, because Carmen Basilio is so popular here, there is tremendous interest seeing this film about him made. Huge opportunity for local corporate participation.
5. How do you expect to return the money?
There will be no profits calculated prior to all expenses to vendors, actors, crew, taxes are paid. Venture Capital contribution will then be in first payment position to be paid, prior to any profits/dividends are released. The investor will hold 30% shares and 30% profit participation of the net profit of the business yearly as dividend payment.
6. How Large Is Your Target Audience?
Carmen Basilio is a legend in the sport of boxing, and truly the real "Rocky," whose determination is head shaking. His struggles with the mob, lousy management, and his bitter battles with Sugar Ray Robinson, (inside and outside the ring) culminates with their legendary fight in Yankee Stadium, June 23, 1957. This is the perfect streaming film, with a built-in audience of millions boxing fans world-wide, besides those who love a good story, a sympathetic figure, who achieved his dream of becoming a world champion boxer and creating a better life for him and his family. The American Dream.
7. What Is Your Marketing Strategy?
Once 'BASILIO' is completed, we will seek a Distributor to release the film to different markets. This film could secure one single distributor who handles all markets (US and Foreign) and all formats (theatrical, DVD, cable, digital) OR the film could end up with 5 or 25 different distributors, all of which could serve a different format and/or a different territory. Good distributors know their markets and know their formats and territories. A good distributor will know what to do with a film: how to market it, how to get people to view it, and most importantly how to make a profit from it. A typical cut for a distributor is 35%, plus marketing expenses.
The beginning film project Basilio (Boxing) will have a total capital requirement of $750,000. The continued interest for boxing films (Creed, The Fighter, Southpaw) has remained strong world-wide because of the sport’s appeal to a large cross section of the populace.
The second film HALAS (Football) will have a total requirement of 1,2000,000. 'Halas' is a compelling look back a much different and difficult period in our nation's history, which in its telling reinforces the enormous footprint George Halas had on the growth and development of professional football in America. There has never been a movie about George Halas. He was there from the beginning to create a league which has grown enormously, with its popularity stretching around the world. He still remains the most influential man in the history of the NFL.
SYNOPSIS
BASILIO: The Truth is in his past...
The beginning film project ‘BASILIO' is a compelling melodrama of good versus evil. Set in the backdrop of the early 1950s when boxing was king, run by ruthless con men who answered to mobsters who controlled the sport. Enter Carmen Basilio the son of an immigrant onion farmer from Canastota, New York. Dirt poor, Basilio turns to boxing, dreaming of a better life for him and his family, but his career is held back at every turn encountering people who are more interested in making a quick buck off him versus helping him build a career.
After losing a fight in New Orleans, breaking his hand in the first round, he is forced to drive back to Syracuse alone, in a beatup old truck, fifty bucks to his name. Arriving home, despondent, he takes a job shoveling snow for.75 cents an hour for the City of Syracuse. Six months later he decides to give boxing one more try, now under the tutelage of Johnny DeJohn, who molds him into a dangerous fighter. Basilio quickly moves up as the number one contender in the welterweight division, but the mob holds him back. Finally in 1955 he gets his turn and wins the welterweight championship before later going on to defeat Sugar Ray Robinson in an epic fight in a packed Yankee Stadium. This film has all the key elements, a large fan base (boxing), a true story, and the mob’s involvement within the story. Most importantly Carmen Basilio is a very sympathetic figure, a true Rocky Balboa, someone who is easy to root for which often generates the most appeal. 'Basilio' is about commitment, courage, never giving up on your dream to be a world champion boxer, and a better life for you and your family.
HALAS
Our second completed screenplay HALAS is on George Halas, the iconic owner of the Chicago Bears and co-founder of the National Football League, as he prepares his team for the 1963 season. Halas at 68 years old knows this is his last hurrah as a head coach. His beloved Bears over the past three years have taken a backseat to the Green Bay Packers and their coach, Vince Lombardi. Halas will leave no stone unturned to defeat his arch enemy, Lombardi, and return his team to prominence. The story begins in a small automobile showroom in Canton, Ohio in 1920, culminating in December 1963 when the Bears play the New York Giants for the World Championship. In between we meet some of the true legends of the game, Jim Thorpe, Red Grange, Mike Ditka, George Allen, Johnny Unitas, Doug Atkins, who in their own unique way contribute to the richness of the script. Halas is a compelling look back a much different and difficult period in our nation's history, which in its telling reinforces the enormous footprint George Halas had on the growth and development of professional football in America, and his unyielding drive to make his Chicago Bears best in football.
OUR TEAM
GARY B. YOUMANS – PRODUCER – AUTHOR – SCREENWRITER -
Gary has written and published four books, including:
• The Onion Picker: Carmen Basilio and Boxing in the 1950s
• '59: The Story of the 1959 Syracuse University National Championship Football Team
• '63: The Story of the 1963 World Champion Chicago Bears
• Life and Love in the Adirondacks: The Jasper Day Chronicles (Volumes one and two).
Gary’s books have received starred reviews from Amazon, On-Line-Books, Boxing.Com, Boston Globe plus numerous other newspaper reviews. He has written/cowritten three screenplays. He has one son Matthew, who lives in Columbus, Ohio. He has a B.A. in education from Ashland University in Ohio in 1970. Gary resides in North Syracuse NY.
OWEN SHAPIRO Director – PRODUCER – SCREENWRITER - has been retired Director of the Film Program at Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York. Since 1969 he has made over 30 films and a dozen videos on a wide range of subjects, all exploring the boundaries between documentary and fiction. He has received many honors and awards including the first ever Mario Dall’Argine award from the San Gio Verona Video Festival (2011), Italy. In 1976 Owen was honored by Henri Langlois with a retrospective, Homage - Owen Shapiro, at the Cinematheque Francaise in Paris.
His films have been in festivals in Edinburgh, Athens, Hong Kong, Israel, England, Germany, France, and throughout the USA. In 1987 he was honored with a Fulbright Fellowship to be a guest professor at Tel-Aviv University, Israel. He is co-writer of the feature, “Session” directed by Haim Bouzaglo. Owen is also co-founder and Artistic Director of the Syracuse International Film Festival. Along with the legendary Italian filmmaker Gian Vittorio Baldi, he has just created the International Filmmaking Academy that launched its inaugural program in June 2013.