Pop Friday: Indie Dystopian Film ‘Gray State’ Halfway to $50k Funding Goal
September 14th, 2012The Silver Circle Movie takes viewers to the year 2019, shortly after a fiat currency crisis. Heroine Zoe and the rebels are locked in a struggle for freedom against the oppressive forces of a government and Federal Reserve run wild.
Indie films present an opportunity to touch on themes that would ordinarily never appear in typical Hollywood blockbusters. Prior to the rise of web technology, it was difficult to find funding for independent media. However, entrepreneurs have created online microfinance and fundraising platforms so that individuals can band together and fund independent films, musicians, and even other initiatives such as scientific studies.
Gray State is another great dystopian, pre-apocalyptic film, currently in development, which shows viewers what it might be like if a societal collapse were to take place in the near future. They are currently raising funds on the Indiegogo platform and have reached $28,707 of their $50,000 goal so far. Check out the film’s riveting trailer below and feel free to contribute to their fundraising effort at the Indiegogo page for Gray State.
Microfinance: the Future of People-Powered Independent Media
In decades past, only central bank connected corporations could afford the type of funding necessary to put out a major motion picture or full-length album. Technology, however, has changed everything. The market has driven prices down on the tools needed to make films and record music. New software applications make it far easier for enterprising individuals to see their projects through, from start to completion.
When massive corporations fund films, they tend to intervene in the creative process. Everything must be poll-tested, and new ideas are unwelcome. Indie films can touch on any issue and challenge people to think. This is why it is so important to support independent media.
Microfinance and fundraising platforms take the power away from the media-industrial complex and put it in the hands of indie film buffs. That small $20 contribution may seem insignificant, but in combination with others, it can change the world.
Dystopian Films Put Present-Day Policies in Perspective
A screenshot from the upcoming film Gray State.
Books like 1984 and Brave New World are very entertaining, but they also contain important lessons. The authors intended to demonstrate the long-term consequences of political and social trends from their time. Since then, people have measured current events against those books to determine if society was slipping into the outcomes warned about in the plot.
This tradition continues with films like Gray State and the Silver Circle Movie. By demonstrating what could happen if citizens tune out and allow nefarious forces to gain control of government institutions, it allows viewers to reflect on this while being entertained.
This is the type of added value that indie films provide — substance. Themes ignored by the media-industrial complex can be freely explored by independent filmmakers who are funded by individuals. In fact, entertainment can in some ways be thought-provoking and educational, so long as it is done outside of the corporate, least-common denominator world of Hollywood films.
Support indie media, and please consider helping Gray State meet their funding goals.
