Beanduck's newest project, Comedium, is currently in development with help from the Independent Production Fund. We need YOUR help to make it a reality.

 

WHAT IS “COMEDIUM”?

"When an ambitious comedian discovers she sees dead people, a ruthless talent agent from beyond the grave offers to boost her career – but she'll only earn stardom if she faces her greatest fear: she’ll need to help others in order to help herself."

 

Comedium is a new web series by Beanduck Productions, co-created by Holly Brace-Lavoie & Tranna Wintour. Holly will be directing the series, while Beatrice Warner & Julian Stamboulieh co-produce. The project trailer stars Tranna Wintour, Nadia Verrucci, Fariba Bonakdar & Mike Paterson.

 

The series is in its development phase, and is aiming to be 10 episodes x 10 minutes.

 

WHAT IS THE IPF?

The Independent Production Fund is a web series funding body that is broken down into two phases: development and production. From across the country, 30 projects were chosen to receive the development grant of $30,000, used to create pitch materials including a show bible, 3 completed episode scripts, and a trailer to be posted online prior to the final deadline in early October (when all documents are due).

 

Of the 30 projects, 15 will be given production financing of $170,000. This is by no means enough to create an entire series, so it is expected that projects will seek the remainder of the budget through broadcasters, tax credits, and other means.

 

The trailer plays a key role in acquiring that production financing, and we are assuming in equal parts the importance of the quality of the video, and the metrics it receives online. 

 

WHAT DO WE NEED FROM YOU, OUR FAVOURITE PEOPLES?

While we have a small budget remaining for the promotion of our trailer, an enormous amount of its success will be made (or broken) through initial organic reach to build momentum and feed the algorithms. Our first and most successful series, LARPs, only achieved what it did because of our local community who championed the project. Before the 4 million views, came the 10 thousand views we received in days because of Montreal’s support online.

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In the end, with the film industry facing some of its toughest times with the continued strikes, influx of AI, unfair pay practices and limited financing opportunities for English film in Quebec, we are asking for simple, efficient and cost-free steps that can help make the show a reality, and create jobs for dozens of actors and artists in the city.

 

TIMELINE & TASKS

 

August - September 5th - Social Media Growth

Description: Posting of behind-the-scenes photos and other content.

 

Tasks:

• Follow our social media. The links can be found below in the SOCIALS & HASHTAGS section.

• Engage with the posts. Like & comment when you feel particularly drawn to something in the photos. Maybe it's the beautiful lighting by our DOP. Maybe it’s Tranna’s amazing dress. Maybe it's the stupid face Julian’s making in his one selfie. Comments are a HUGE help with engagement and can help get new eyes on our content and, by extension, the show!

• Spread the word. Do you have friends who like comedic series, or are interested in seeing more projects with LGBTQ+ representation on and off camera? Send them a link to our Facebook or Insta!

 

September 6th - Launch Party

Description: A launch party will be held at The Diving Bell Social Club. 

 

Tasks:

• If you are attending, please take pictures & selfies and share them on all your socials, tagging the show and using any hashtags you like from our list

 

September 7th - Trailer Launch

Description: Our trailer will be launching on Beanduck’s YouTube channel.

 

Tasks:

• Watch the five-minute trailer in its entirety. Viewer retention is a very important metric on YouTube when it comes to organic growth, and prematurely leaving the video could do more harm than good

• Like & comment on the trailer, as if you stumbled by (and not as if you were friends of the production). If it's as simple as a fire emoji or a “lol this was great”, or ask a question to encourage discourse

• Share the trailer. Either by grabbing the link and sharing it on Facebook, X (Twitter), or even direct messages to people you think may like it. We’ll also have a link posted on our Facebook, so you can just share directly from that post if you’d like.

Note: Sharing does not NEED to happen on the first day, but ideally within the first few days. Staggering the shares slightly at the beginning is often effective.

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September - October

• Upvote on Reddit. We will be making some posts on Reddit, another spot that helped launch LARPs in the early days. Those of you who have provided your emails, we will be reaching out when the posts are live so you can head over and upvote.

• Stay tuned! Having you all in our corner as we release more show-related content, interviews, media coverage, means the world. We will be sure to provide you with the tools you’ll need to help us get the word out.

 

SOCIALS & HASHTAGS

 

Instagram: @comediumseries

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/comediumseries

YouTube: https://youtube.com/beanduck

 

#comedium #comediumseries #webseries #indiefilm #trans #lgbtq #lgbt #queerfilm #queertv