ready to fly executive summary

8/8/2019 Ready To Fly Executive Summary

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2. OTHER CHARACTERS

READY TO FLY

A film by William A. Kerig | page 5

“Not appropriate for ladies . . .”

—Gian-Franco Kasper, 66,FIS president/IOC member

Sarah Hendrickson is sixteen years old, a protégé

of Lindsey Van’s, and the heir apparent to her

mantle. Though she’s currently ranked 5th in

the world, she just barely passed her driver’s ed

test. She can fly 100 meters through the air but

parallel parking gives her fits.

Deedee Corradini, the former mayor of Salt

Lake City, is an officer for the International

Women’s Forum as well as president of the

non-profit group Women’s Ski Jumping USA.

Raised in Syria and Lebanon, she speaks fluent

Arabic, French, and international business. Theonly woman to ever be elected mayor of Salt

Lake City, Corradini was the unstoppable force

that brought the Olympics to Utah. Now she’s

dedicated to bringing women’s ski jumping to

the Olympics.

Dick Pound is a 68-year-old lawyer and former

vice president of the International Olympic

Committee who negotiated the television

and sponsorship deals that transformed the

Olympics into a multi-billion dollar enterprise.

He’s issued not-so-veiled threats to the women’s

group that they’d better know their place.

Anette Sagen is a 24-year-old Norwegian ski

jumper who has been Lindsey Van’s toughest

competition and closest friend in the world of

ski jumping. Just as Lindsey has been the face

of the fight in the U.S., Anette has been leadingthe charge in Scandinavia. In March 2010 she

made a major breakthrough by being elected

to be the first ever ski jumper (man or woman)

to fly off the New Holmenkollen Ski Jump in

Oslo, Norway.

Jacques Rogge is the 68-year-old Belgian

yachtsman who serves as president of the

International Olympic Committee. Based on his

observations of the 2011 World Ski Jumping

Championship in Oslo, Norway (in February

2011) this grand patriarch of the sporting

family will make the unilateral decision as to

whether women will be allowed to compete in

the Olympics.

Gian-Franco Kasper is the 66-year-old Swiss

president of the International Ski Federation

and a member of the International OlympicCommittee. He says the Olympics are a private

club and no one can force their way in.

Peter Jerome is a 54-year-old airline pilot

and the father of jumper Jessica Jerome.

Eight years ago he bought a Non-Profits For

Dummies book (really) and started Women’s

Ski Jumping USA. The group raises money

to pay for the women’s coach as well as their

travel and training. The women pay for their

own equipment. WSJUSA has become the de

facto women’s ski jumping team.



READY TO FLY


3. OUR STORYTELLING STYLE & APPROACH

O n a relative scale of social injustice, gender

inequality in ski jumping is no Dafur. And

we’re not going to try to make it one. The idea

that any Olympic sport would still allow men tocompete but not women is ridiculous. While it’s

surely wrongheaded and anachronistic to prevent

women from jumping alongside their male peers,

we see that conflict as a nightly news piece, not

a film. We consider that our context, not the

primary content. We’re not interested in making a

noble should-see documentary that preaches to a

small choir and simply stirs righteous indignation

from a victim’s perspective.

Instead, Ready To Fly will be character-driven,

verite-style feature documentary about tough

and resourceful people who help themselves and

change their corner of the world in the process.

It will answer the following questions: Who are

these athletes who continue to give their young

lives to a sport that’s been gut-punched and bodyslammed repeatedly? Who are their supporters

and how have they fought seemingly unbeatable

foes? What kind of person keeps knocking when

the doors have been slammed in their face, glass

ceilings dropped on their head?

The group involved in women’s ski jumping is

a great and special family. They are conflicted,

valiant, flawed, beautiful, complex, and passionate.

Through the eyes of our lead characters, Lindsey Van and Sarah Hendrickson, we will tell their story,

a tale of inspiration, pluck, and determination.

Ready To Fly is a stand-up-and-cheer movie.

4. RIGHTS & ACCESS

I n March 2010 we purchased life-story rights

from World Ski Jumping Champion Lindsey

Van, her protégé Sarah Hendrickson, and the

nonprofit Women’s Ski Jumping USA. We have

also been in contact with most of the sources

of archival and stock footage needed to tell

the story. Most are willing to sell us footage at

standard rates (which we’ve budgeted for). We

may not get every source to sell us footage at

reasonable rates, but we will get plenty. We are

augmenting the action footage (both archival and

material we’re currently shooting at the events)

with behind-the-scenes verite material and highly

produced sit-down interviews.

Due in part to his experience with previous films

in the mountain sports world (STEEP and THE

EDGE OF NEVER), and his background as a ski

journalist and professional skier, Mr. Kerig enjoys

a strong working relationship with the athletes.

5. THE PRODUCTION TEAM

WRITER/PRODUCER/DIRECTOR:William A. Kerig is an award-winning writer, producer, director, and former professional skier. He wrote

the book, THE EDGE OF NEVER, and was the writer/director/executive producer of the Showtime Net-

works 2009 documentary feature film THE EDGE OF NEVER. He co-produced and was second-unit direc-

tor of the 2007 Sony Pictures Classics film STEEP. In addition to producing for CBS, ABC, and Fox Sports,

he co-produced, wrote, and was second-unit director of NET WORTH, a 1999 Blockbuster Entertainment

feature film starring Daniel Baldwin. He is a member of the Director’s Guild of America.

PRODUCTION TEAM continued on next page



READY TO FLY


5. THE PRODUCTION TEAM continuedEXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Bo Landin has 30

years of experience in producing and directing

award-winning international documentaries for the

National Geographic Society, The Discovery Channeland network broadcasters in Scandinavia, the United

Kingdom, Germany, France and Japan. An expert

in international co-production, Bo is the founding

partner of Scandinature Films.

PRODUCER: Scott A. Zeller, Esq. has a background

that includes high-tech startups and owning/

operating an independent record label and recording

studio. He was Executive Producer of THE EDGE OF

NEVER. A graduate of New York Law School, Scott

provides producing as well as legal services.

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Peter Pilafian

was the director of photography on DOGTOWN

AND Z BOYS, RIDING GIANTS, and THE EDGE OF

NEVER. He was second unit director on K2, THE

EIGER SANCTION. He was a cinematographer on

A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT, BREAKDOWN, and

DANCING AT THE BLUE IGUANA.

LEAD CAMERA: Scott Simper is an Emmy Awardnominated cinematographer who has shot for

National Geographic, Discovery, The History

Channel, the BBC, and CBS. He is also a world-class

climber and rigger.

EDITOR: Steve Haugen has cut seven feature films,

including THE EDGE OF NEVER, as well as more

than 50 primetime shows for CBS (he was one of

the lead editors of Touched By An Angel), National

Geographic and Discovery Networks. Specializing

in longform editing, Steve is a consummate

storyteller who brings 20-plus years of on-deadline

experience to READY TO FLY.

PRODUCER OF MARKETING & DISTRIBUTION:

Anna Bloom is a multimedia and video producer

who produced a video on the women ski jumpers’

fight to compete in the Olympics for MSNBC.com

in advance of the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver.

She has worked with The New York Times,

YouthRadio and most recently for YouTube, where

she worked on two innovative citizen reportingprojects. She holds a master’s degree from UC

Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism.

MUSIC SUPERVISOR: Chad Davis has been

music supervisor for more than 70 action sports

films, including Jack Johnson’s THICKER THAN

WATER, SWIFT SILENT DEEP, and THE DRIFTER.

ASSISTANT EDITOR: Adam Van Wagonner

(SLC Team) has worked as an assistant editor

on three feature films, four one-hour NationalGeographic shows, and THE EDGE OF NEVER.

He is an expert in organizing massive amounts

of material, converting to a universal format, and

creating multi-format feature-film output.

LUSTRE COLORIST: Tom Rovak has worked

on countless feature films. He is one of the best

colorists in the business, working on the best color-

grading machine available today.

FIELD SOUND ENGINEER: Brian Whitlock wasthe lead sound engineer on documentary feature

films STEEP, THE EDGE OF NEVER, as well as

several seasons of Survivor and The Amazing Race.

FOREIGN DISTRIBUTION AGENT: Richard

Propper’s Solid Entertainment represents the

best and most marketable documentaries

in the world, including many Academy

Award winning and nominated films. Solid

Entertainment is currently representing THEEDGE OF NEVER.

INTERNET DISTRIBUTION CONSULTANT: Adam Chapnick. For the last six months, Mr. Kerig

has enjoyed a productive and enjoyable working

relationship with IndieGoGo’s Adam Chapnick.

We have been working with Mr. Chapnick on

honing our approach on READY TO FLY.



READY TO FLY


6. PRODUCTION PLAN

T he following lays out a 16-month production plan (please note that in order to properly manage

our fundraising needs, we’ve structured our Budget and Cash Flow Analysis to coincide with each

stage of production):

A. MAY 15 - JULY 31, 2010:

PRODUCTION/RESEARCH 1

• Shoot early interviews with principals

• Shoot lifestyle, training

• Shoot July 14 fundraiser

• Shoot U.S. Nationals in Park City, UT

• Assemble all film, video, stills, print material

• Log, load, convert to 1080p

• Screen all material

• Begin writing script

• Legal & business (life story rights, etc.)

• Website construction

• Begin social media/PR efforts

B. AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2010:

PRODUCTION 2

• Assemble & organize dailies

• Footage conversion

• Begin off-line editing

• Continue social media

C. OCT. - NOV. 2010: PRODUCTION 3• Training in Park City

• One trip to NYC for gallery fundraiser

• One trip to Lake Placid, NY

• Continue off-line editing

D. DEC. 2010 - FEB. 2011: PRODUCTION 4, OSLO• Begin music clearance process

• Begin animation creation

• Begin title and graphics creation

• World Championships trip in Oslo• Scene augmentation

• Final interviews

G. MAY 10, 2011: ROUGH ASSEMBLY LOCK

H. JUNE 1, 2011: PARK CITY TEST SCREENING

I. JUNE 10 - AUGUST 1, 2011: RE-EDIT

J. AUGUST 14, 2011: PICTURE LOCK

K. APRIL 16, 2011: ONLINE & SOUND MIX BEGINS

L. SEPT. 13, 2011: PICTURE COMPLETE

7. DISTRIBUTION & MARKETING

W e will pursue a hybrid distribution strategy

that engages the core audience first and uses

its energy to springboard into the mainstream.

As outlined below, we plan to use a short festival

window, and a major non-theatrical screening

campaign, followed by a national television

broadcast to maximize impact.

The first audience for our film will be winter sports

enthusiasts. Going back some 20 years to when Mr.

Kerig was a featured skier in movies from Warren

Miller and the like, we have deep experience in this

realm. We will begin in core-market ski towns and

then spread to cities on our non-theatrical tour.

Mr. Kerig followed this strategy with considerable

success with THE EDGE OF NEVER.

As we move to the mainstream, we plan to partner

with women’s rights groups and girl’s sports

organizations to ensure full theaters for our tour.

We are currently in distribution discussions with

such groups, as well as several prominent ski

industry companies and organizations.

DISTRIBUTION AND MARKETING continued on next page



READY TO FLY


As we view our crowd-funding initiatives as the beginning of our marketing and distribution plan, we’ve

included it here, in the planned schedule:

7. DISTRIBUTION & MARKETING continued

• June 1, 2010

Launch Ready To Fly website

• October 1, 2010Launch ReadyToFlyFilm social media

(Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, PitchEngine)

• October 4, 2010Launch GetReadyToFlyFilm.com

crowdfunding site

• June 1, 2011

Park City Test Screening

• Sept. 9, 2011Toronto Film Festival

• Sept. 13, 2011

National Theatrical Premiere

• Sept. 15 2011

On-site & Amazon DVD release

• Oct. 15, 2011 – Jan. 15, 2011

Mini Tour

• Oct. 30, 2011

Banff Film Festival

• Dec. 7, 2011

Whistler Film Festival

• Jan. 2012

U.S. Pay TV (Showtime) release

• April 2012

MIPDOC, Cannes, France

• Sept. 2012

Domestic Retail DVD release

• Sept. 2012

Internet Download Release (iTunes)

8. FUNDING

T o date, Ready To Fly has been self-funded

by Mr. Kerig. As we move further intoproduction, we are seeking sponsorships,

individual investors, and (through a fiscal

sponsorship with the International Documentary

Association) tax-deductible donations.

In addition, we are excited to pursue a crowd-

funding initiative. After extensive research,

however, we’ve elected not to go with

existing platforms (such as kickstarter or

indiegogo). Instead, we’ve built out a website

to accomplish our crowd funding goals

(www.GetReadyToFlyFilm.com).

In addition to using the database that Mr. Kerig

has formed from grassroots engagement on

his last films, we are partnering with several

advocacy groups and outdoor industry sponsors

that are offering outreach, back-end, and

database support. Of course, we are also using

social media to Facebook and Twitter our way to

people’s pocketbooks. We launched this effort

in the second week of October 2010.

9. BUDGETBudget, cash flow analysis, and ROI projections are attached in a separate PDF.

ready to fly executive summary

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