COLDSHOT PRODUCTIONS
5180 Canada Way
Burnaby, British Columbia
Canada, v5e-3n2
January 6, 2008
Prospective Investor,
Please accept this letter and accompanying documents as The Mario Coldshot Foundation/Coldshot Productions' application for a sponsorship with CLUB VIBES. We are a new Montréal-based charity dedicated to keeping kids off drugs and are in the process of making a drug-awareness documentary, Bring Your Own Brains, to be screened in Canadian and American schools. Distribution is already guaranteed.
The film is geared towards the same demographic that makes up CLUB VIBES CLUB's target customers: teenagers and young adults. Thus, a sponsorship with CLUB VIBES would only serve to aid us in our quest to appeal to the youth of today to keep them off drugs. As CLUB VIBES is a brand they are familiar with, the appearance of the label will only strengthen our realistic portrayal of teens. In addition, a sponsorship would provide us with the necessary resources to make the best film possible for both audiences across Canada and the United States. Both the subjects in the film and the viewers are North American youths who can benefit greatly from this project. In addition to this, a dramatic portion of the film features a cast of real teenagers. A CLUB VIBES sponsorship in the film could come in a variety of forms during this section; a character could wear CLUB VIBES gear; during a skateboard sequence in the film, a character could ride a CLUB VIBES board, any of your products could find its way into the youth-oriented scenes in the film. Regardless of where the promotion is placed within the film proper, the CLUB VIBES logo and brand name will be included in the scrolling credits at the end. Regardless of our humanitarian goals, sponsorship with us could provide CLUB VIBES with a great opportunity to promote their brand to countless numbers of teenagers and young viewers of the film.
Included in this package you will find a detailed project proposal. For more information and to view a teaser from the film, please visit our website at www.bringyourownbrains.com, or do not hesitate to call us personally at 778-688-4802
We look forward to hearing from you soon. Sincerely, Kyna Gaboriault
President
The Mario Coldshot Foundation: Official Project/Sponsorship Proposal
Please Visit: www.bringyourownbrains.com
Mission Statement:
The Mario Coldshot Foundation is dedicated to stealing young customers away from drug dealers and giving them the tools to have brighter futures. Through the creation of a fast-paced 25 minute documentary that speaks to youth in their own dialect and includes music from popular bands, the Mario Coldshot Foundation hopes to launch a counter-offensive against the music, films, television and other media which often show the drug lifestyle as desirable, harmless, and even cool. We are convinced that communicating disapproval of drug use does not and will never work and instead avoids patronizing, believing that teens must be empowered into making their own choice. The Mario Coldshot Foundation is not an anti-drug campaign, but a pro-awareness one.
Vision:
Our vision is one of a country, continent and world without the problems caused by drug abuse. Kids realize potential. Families are not torn apart by addiction and abuse. Communities are stronger.
History:
The Mario Coldshot Foundation is a new organization. After 22 years in the audio-visual industry, Mario Trottier wanted to give something back to the community and founded The Mario Coldshot Foundation in Montreal. Soon he traveled to New York, Los Angeles and all through his own city, Montreal, documenting personal stories from youth affected by drug abuse.
Specifics of the Project:
BYOB: Bring Your Own Brains, is a twenty-two minute drug-awareness documentary film to be screened in schools and accompanied with a question-and-answer period. For the past year and a half, filmmaker Mario Coldshot has begun to gather footage of youth affected by drugs on the streets of Montreal, New York and Los Angeles. Armed only with rollerblades, his camera and an unflappable determination to make a difference, Coldshot has recorded footage both heartbreaking and inspirational. He did not approach his subjects as a documentarian, but as a friend, not condemning them, instead trying to understand how drugs took hold of their lives. As members of an isolated faction in an already isolated generation, they were eager to tell their stories.
Demographic Information:
Under the supervision of the Film Advisory Board, the film will be approved for youth over the age of 14. While it is of course very true that those younger than 14 also encounter drug temptations, we feel that the years after 14 are some of the hardest to navigate. In addition, by gearing this at a slightly more mature youth audience, the film can be more honest in its take on drugs, more unflinching in its portrait of down-and-out drug-abusing youth. If the camera does not have to turn away then neither will the viewers. They will want to see exactly what is going on. By informing them entirely of what happens on the very streets they walk to and from school on, it will influence them to make their own decision. No longer will drugs be simply something that authority figures tell them to abstain from, ending any attempt at conversation with a No. This opens a dialogue between those youth affected by drugs and those youth for whom drugs have the potential to affect.
Problem Addressed by Our Project:
Youth substance abuse and addiction. This problem is of course also connected to various other social ills, such as homelessness, crime and delinquency. Drug abuse does not solely affect the user.
In addition, we see a problem in traditional ways of convincing youth to abstain from drugs. Communicating disapproval does not work.
Example of Individual Subject:
- Karen:
* All subjects have signed release forms consenting to their participation in this film. In many cases, they were eager to do so, wanting to make sure their story can be told as personally as possible, to strengthen the message.
Importance of the Project:
This film needs to be seen by teenagers. There is an alarming drug problem in our country and it must be tackled in original ways. Research and academic work is wonderful and useful, but it must be supplemented by emotional attacks as well. This is where BYOB, the drug-awareness documentary, comes in. Watching real testimonials from real youth (many of them Quebecois youth), discussing their ordeals with drug abuse will affect the young viewer on an emotional level. It will break even the hardest cynic, from the sarcastic class clown to the aggressive schoolyard bully. Statistics will not solely convince teens to stay away from drugs; they need to make the decision on their own. By showing them the truth behind what drugs can do to you, and having that truth delivered through the mouths of their own generation, the decision to abstain will be obvious.
Marketing Plan:
We are pleased to offer CLUB VIBES a wide variety of exposure. Most prominent will be the product placement within the film itself. During the fictional storyline of the film, a teen is tempted with drugs and eventually makes the decision to abstain. He is, for lack of a better word, the hero of the film. This character eventually leaves his friends behind on a skateboard---perhaps a CLUB VIBES brand board. It would not appear in bad taste or as an overly marketed move. This will simply present our character as your realistic teenage skateboarder who ride CLUB VIBES skateboards. It is a win-win situation; exposure for you and credibility for us. Distribution throughout schools around North America will give CLUB VIBES very large visibility and association with a socially-conscious cause such as ours.
In addition, CLUB VIBES will be acknowledged with a name and logo in the screening credits at the documentary's end. Logo and name will also be included on the website and in any other future endeavours related to BYOB that The Mario Coldshot Foundation undertakes.
Cost:
The suggested price for participation in BYOB is in two installments. CLUB VIBES would pay $2700 before editing of the film is complete and then $1300 at distribution for a total of $4000 CDN. We would be happy to accept the full sponsor cost in a lump sum if this is easier for you.
Work Plan
Film Synopsis:
In addition to the documentary footage, the film is book-ended by a fictional storyline. A child dreams of when he will be a teen and able to attend parties. This dream soon becomes a nightmare when a malicious drug dealer enters the party, tempting him and his friends with drugs. Will he make the right decision? Perhaps, if he had the knowledge provided by the documentary portion of the movie. So, the film cuts to the footage Mario collected of drug victims before returning once more to the child as he wakes up from his dream, now armed with the tools to prevent drug use. The film speaks to teens in their own dialect, includes music from bands they listen to and is told at the fast-pace that they are used to. Just as the real-life drug victims were eager to tell their stories, so too will real-life teens will be eager to hear these stories from members of their generation, people they can identify with, who have lost it all to drugs. Marriages ruined because of cocaine. Mothers abandoning families to follow their addiction to a different city. Teenagers escaping the world through a hit of a crack pipe. The film shows teens as they really are, and how they want to be seen.
Future Projects:
We hope to make the film the eventual centre-piece to a veritable drug-aware community of youths. There are plans to premiere the film at Shawinigan High School and take "reaction footage" of the students as they exit the film. This footage could eventually be edited into the credits of the film itself.
In addition, we hope to launch a skateboard competition travelling to schools under the banner of BYOB (and perhaps CLUB VIBES as well). The competition could serve as a beacon of respectability for adults who frequently dismiss this subculture of youth as troublemakers (and even drug users). For the youth involved it will be a place where they can feel comfortable, drug-free, and take part in an active sport, promoting a healthy lifestyle.
Finally, our website, once funding is secure, will undergo a major overhaul, moving from a promotion for the documentary and a call for donations, to being an online hub for teens, complete with message boards, chat rooms, blogs, information on drugs and a corresponding MySpace page.
Timelines:
Primary Filming:
The majority of the film's footage has been collected by Mario Coldshot over the last year and a half. However, there is a dramatic portion of the film, with a cast of real LaSalle, Quebec teenagers yet to be filmed. Funding is required for equipment, crew and permit costs. Shooting will begin in February 2008.
Post Production:
November 2007. Editing, addition of music (which requires securing rights from the artist's) and translation to French to be completed during this time.
Distribution: We hope to have the film released into schools for spring 2008.
Distributors Audio Ciné Films (the largest and most experienced non-theatrical distributor in Canada) Intermedia (from Seattle, a distributor of educational films) and Distribution Access have all contacted us with interest and desire to take our film on.
Kyna Gaboriault
Phone: 778-688-4802
Email: candy681@msn.com
Website: www.bringyourownbrains.com
