The Art of Film Funding
Discover the secrets to funding and creating successful indie films with The Art of Film Funding Podcast. Join Carole Dean, President of From the Heart Productions and author of The Art of Film Funding, and Heather Lenz, director of the award-winning documentary Kusama-Infinity, as they chat with top film industry pros. Get practical insider tips on crowdfunding, pitching, saving on budgets, marketing, hybrid distribution, and the latest in A.I. filmmaking. Whether you’re funding your first project or navigating new trends, this podcast has everything you need to succeed. Subscribe and let’s get your film funded!
The Art of Film Funding
Puzzle Theory is a New Platform for Filmmakers to Market & Find Distributors
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SPEAKER_03Hi and welcome to the Art of Film Funding. I'm your co-host, Claire Papan. Along with Carol Dean, author of the best-selling book, The Art of Film Funding, Carol is also the founder and president of From the Heart Productions and the host of this show. Helen Hall is a filmmaker, composer, and researcher. She's currently in production with Pictures of Infinity, a feature documentary about Nikola Tesla's discovery that the earth produces an unlimited reservoir of natural electricity and the system he invented to harness it to provide an infinite non-toxic and renewable resource for the shared benefit of humankind. Helen's previous film, Power Lines, an award-winning documentary about the mystery of electromagnetic fields that she wrote, directed, produced, and composed music for, has been screened internationally, and the soundtrack has been released on CD. Her music has been performed and broadcast in North America and Europe in festivals such as New York's Bang on a Can and in prestigious venues such as Merkin Concert Hall in New York. Her writing and research has been published by MIT Press, and her music will be published by DaVinci Edition in Japan. And Carol, Helen, Helen Hall won your Roy Dean grant for her feature documentary, Pictures of Infinity, right?
SPEAKER_04Yes, Claire, we're so proud to be associated with Helen and her important documentary. So thank you, Helen, for joining us.
SPEAKER_05Thank you for inviting me.
SPEAKER_04Yes, we're gonna have a lot of fun today. We want to hear about your experience with Ina Sophia Cahlo. She's the creative woman who st uh built puzzle theory. And we we want to learn how it works, Helen, and what the benefits are because uh we think that it has so much for um filmmakers, so much me so many benefits for filmmakers. And we want to hear the story uh about your feature doc and where you are and how you're using puzzle theory. Because sometimes back I um I interviewed uh Ana Sophia um on Puzzle Theory. It this is an innovative platform that she's been developing for filmmakers, and she created this to encourage filmmakers to secure their audience while their film is still being made. I think that's really important. It's to help filmmakers find and engage their audiences early, because the audience is uh key to your film success, and often the audience will help fund the film as well as uh buy the download afterwards. So they are a major asset to you. Sophia says on her website that w uh what if you can witness how something is being created, see it come to life and grow up, then it's not a thing at all. Puzzle theory lets you build your audience while your film is in the making. So the creator, Ina Sophia, has agreed that anyone today who hears this interview and emails Ina Sophia at her personal email will get special attention. In other words, if they if you mention your name in the subject line, that would be from the Art Productions interview on Puzzle Theater, Puzzle Theory, then you send this email to Sophia at puzzle theory.com, P-U-C-C-L-E-T-H-O-R-Y dot com. You will get a direct response from the creator, Ina Sophia, and she'll set up a Zoom meeting with you and answer your questions. So be sure and write in your subject line from the Heart Productions and put something in there that you like about From the Heart Productions, and she will be thrilled to set up a personal consultation. I think this is really fortunate for all of us to have. And uh Helen, you were the first to receive our uh$5,000 puzzle theory grant. So tell us about your experience with it.
SPEAKER_05Yes, so um I have to say the first thing that I really felt that's that was very a very transformative experience is that it's it's giving so much um to the filmmaker just in the process of using it because uh all of the things that we think of are I I guess I should speak from my from my own experience, but um and I'm sure that other filmmakers share that experience, the many obstacles. In fact, I've heard filmmaking being described as a s a series of obstacles. Filmmaking is a series of obstacles. And so and and we think of those obstacles as being setbacks and being something that's holding us back from the end result, which is the product, as Ina said, you know, that the film is the product. And that's also reinforced by the way people speak to us about it, you know, where where's the film? Is it made yet? That sort of thing. And it it's always the goal to have the end result, the the product. Um but at the same time I think most filmmakers will agree that we love the the the whole process of filmmaking. We love being immersed in the subject of the film. So um but but there's a lot of pressure too to you know to arrive at the end result. But um with the obstacles, the this platform gives the obstacles a place in the story of the making of the film. It gives um it gives it um it makes it part of the filmmaking process where often we we dismiss it or we uh block it out because it's we think of it as a setback. So that was the first thing. So I I think I would encourage everyone to try that to really it's it's really an incredible thing to um with the platform itself, um one of the highlights, one of the highlighted features is something that Ina call I believe she calls it the timeline or the storyline. So it's it's a little bit like a slides function where you can put a series of images together. You start building the story. So the story is about the making of the film. And so um you begin um wherever you do, you know, with with what you consider important, but at the same time, at least in my experience, it's it it brings um all the things that you think about. Why am I making this film? Uh what are you know what what was important to me and and I found in my experience that it brought a lot of things to the surface that I hadn't really thought about as being a part of the story or even maybe of interest to other people and then I realized, yeah, that's really interesting. So um it's it's fantastic to experience that and to make that part of the story and to realize that other people would find that interesting too. And then it it's not a setback, it's part of the story, and it's part of when you're when you're doing something and especially a film, I think. It's it's often uh it's often um against all odds or dealing with considerable obstacles just as part of the the nature of filmmaking itself. So it's um I find that that's an incredible experience. These are behind the scenes stories that you're talking about. Behind the scene stories. Yes, exactly. For example, um one of my early experiences, you know, I had wanted to I had dreamed of of visiting the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade to do research in their archives where they have more than thirty thousand of Tesla's unpublished scientific documents. And I was studying the work that Tesla devoted the last part of his life to, and I knew that those documents were in the Tesla Museum. And even though I started when I got early uh funding for development, I started researching in the uh Butler archives of Columbia University, where they have on microfilm a lot of Tesla's personal correspondence and all his artifacts from his years in New York, and that in itself is really interesting. But it you know, uh the solid gold I felt was in the in the archives at the Tesla Museum. And I wrote to the the museum director early on when I knew that I would be traveling there in the neck in the coming months, and I didn't receive a response for for a long time, and then when I did, it was from an assistant who basically told me in so many words that that the archives are not accessible, that um that they're in the in the process of microfilming them, which they had been apparently since the 1980s been uh working on. But um and and that I was welcome to visit the museum shop and that they had postcards. And I mean, uh maybe that wasn't exactly what she said, but I I interpreted it that way. That you know, you're welcome to uh to visit the museum itself. Um but in any case, um and then of course I did visit the museum and uh and it was it's it's extremely valuable to go to the museum, so that's not it, but but my original intent and my dream was to actually have access to the archives. So instead of that seeing that as as as a setback, I saw it as an interesting part of the story, and it is it has become an interesting part of the film too because that is is something that of course is still very much going on and uh we d we don't have access to the archives. We don't um those documents are there and they're not accessible and uh and why is that and that sort of thing, but um so so that right away was something that I could just um a a story, a behind the scenes story, while also showing uh what I did find in the museum because of course I it was an extremely valuable resource for visual research. So but that's a little story there. And then it you know, it didn't occur to me at the time when I was location location scouting in New York and I found the perfect location for the recreation, uh dramatic recreation of Tesla's historic um lecture and demonstration that originally took place at Columbia University. So I visited the physics um building of Columbia and they were very w welcoming and um and helpful and I found the perfect lecture hall and they were very excited and very, very supportive of what I was doing, and then I came up against the university administration who said that um you know there was a twenty thousand dollar location fee. I remember that. Yes, and then and and then and then I of course I thought I remembered, yes. Well I uh so I I said, well, I have nonprofit status. Um and they said with from the Heart Productions and and then they said yes, okay, then then we it's it's only twelve thousand. And so that was of course impossible, that's for one day of shooting. So um it's so so the next year, I mean and I didn't know it was gonna be that long, but in retrospect, it was a year. It took a year of letter writing and phone calls to and they waived the fee. So the the final the the final piece of the puzzle, and so I'll share this and hope that other people will will do this instead of um yeah uh working in other ways because th there was a lot of effort put into uh making that room available, including um that the the present chair of the physics department formed a committee with past chairs of the department to to try to get them to waive the fee and and and then the university administration told me that they don't have the power to affect anything on that level. So um but there were people trying to help. And uh and finally I wrote the president of Columbia and it was that letter that um that ended up uh in which after that and I did a lot of research for that letter. I researched all Tesla's many connections to Columbia and why I want I was trying so hard to reproduce that historic lecture and demonstration there that it was a way of honoring his legacy. And uh yeah, so it worked and the fee was waived. So I include in my timeline I include a copy of that letter. Oh good.
SPEAKER_04Good, because this is what we need is one filmmaker sharing with the others.
SPEAKER_06Yes.
SPEAKER_04Tenacity is the backbone of the filmmaker, and you proved that and with your intent because that's like getting a twenty thousand dollar donation to your film.
SPEAKER_05Uh I didn't think of it that way, but it's true. But also I think the other st part of it is go directly to the top, find out who's who's in charge and start there and then work down. Maybe that was something too that would have been you know, but it but whatever it is, it uh the result was what we had hoped for. So that was absolutely amazing. Oh, and so that happens so that becomes part of the story. And then I have, you know, so I have the behind the scenes at Columbia and you know, we had to call for extras. That was something I also really it was an important thing for me that but to share that is something really special, you know, to have the opportunity to share because I really wanted to film there too. This was something I didn't often speak about, but I really wanted to bring Tex Tesla back to Columbia to the physics students today. I wanted them to care about his lecture, to be there and care about it. And so I I put in I put up a call for extras to the physics students and I gave them instructions about how to dress, you know, because it's you know, we're we're doing so we're doing something that's uh that's really uh recreating that time period. So um so they had they had to show up in costume. And but I really wanted that and it and they did, and so that was that meant a lot to me to have their participation.
SPEAKER_04And how many did you have show up, Helen?
SPEAKER_05Oh, we didn't have we had maybe about a dozen. I mean I have to say that there would have been a lot more. It was actually Thanksgiving, American Thanksgiving, so it wasn't you know, it was at the end of November. Um so it was amazing that we were able to have people uh show up on Thanksgiving. Yes, but that was great.
SPEAKER_04Yes, it was. So this is the type of information that you put on puzzle theory, right?
SPEAKER_05Yes, so so it's not information that I would share anywhere else because first of all, it never even occurred to me that that would be to do that, but also it's because I th I think the best thing about this of the of the many things about this platform, it's that um it i it it we learn from it. So I think the best way to approach it is to not not to think too much about what you think y you want to do, but to interact with the software itself and f and discover where it takes you because it has that potential. It um because it allows you you you can put pictures up, you can um you can add text, but only f I think it's five lines, five lines of text. And there's there's a word count limit. I don't know what it is, but you know, you you find out that you can't say all of that, so you have to find another way. So it it gives you these tools that change the way you would do things normally, too. So you're finding something that you're not that you didn't know was there. And I think that in itself is extremely valuable. So so that's what happened to me. I found that okay, it's you're building something and you don't know exactly what you're building because this is a platform that you it's it's something un it's something different than what you've experienced before. So I think it's important to be open to that. And uh and so yeah, just f for me, I I think because i i it it's an unusual experience because it's putting pictures up, and I might do that on the website up for the film. I might put up, you know, location scouting, here are my pictures. But um but then you can put you can add a few lines of a story or or give a a bit of a description. So it's integrating all these different elements in an interesting way. And uh on one platform and on one page. Whereas on our websites, for example, we have different or at least I do, I have different categories. So I think, okay, these are my location shots, or these are my a couple of behind the scenes pictures, and I put them there, you know, that sort of thing. It's more formal. And this this kind of um again it it's called puzzle theory, so it's like pieces of the puzzle, and you're putting pieces of the puzzle together to tell the story, and maybe you don't e the story emerges from the process of doing this. And it might not be the story that you're familiar with, and that's what's really amazing. I look at it and think, Oh, I didn't think of that, you know? So I'm constantly seeing things that I didn't think of. Because we you know, we don't have, you know, the the perspective that someone else might have on our story and and it doing in the process of building something on the platform, on the puzzle theory platform, I found that that's that's what I discovered. I discovered new um new things about the making of the film. Um great yes.
SPEAKER_04Well uh and also look what you're doing with the market. In other words, you that story alone about Columbia gives you the opens the market for uh uh physics students worldwide. Columbia, Columbia um and other an MIT and other associated university students, lecturers, physicists, and people who are interested in these issues, so that you have really I don't know that you've ever expanded on that audience before, but just that posting would include all those people, they would find that really important, and all of the people who've been to Columbia who are attending now and past students would l be attached. So all of these are people who would want to see your film, even if they weren't studying physics, but they had gone to Columbia or MIT or one of those type of of educational facilities, they would be saying, Oh, this is of interest, and look how she overcame that obstacle, which is what it's all about, right?
SPEAKER_05And I never thought of that until you just said it. I never thought any of those things. So there you go. I mean it's just it's like that. It opens so many possibilities.
SPEAKER_04Yes, it brought your film down from uh only for those who are really interested in Tesla's theories and appreciate him as a scientist to uh to everyday people, all of us now I think uh are more interested because we realize your dedication to the subject, because to fight that hard, to spend a year trying to get that room to shoot in is quite an achievement. And so this is something you could never really expand on on a website. Nobody on a website is ever gonna give you that much time. But in puzzle theory, they're going to spend the time uh to learn about it, right?
SPEAKER_05Yes, but but it's also it's putting the tools into the hands of the filmmaker. It's it's really um shifting the you know the balance that from you know to to so that we it it gives us the opportunity opportunity to present what we think is important or what we want to share with others. And and we can grow it and change it in as we wish. So we have we have that um incredible power with this software.
SPEAKER_04So it's like watching a child grow, right?
SPEAKER_05Y Yes, I would say that, yes. And that's the part that we love. And we can share that with people. We love it and we struggle with it too, but um but it's interesting for others and and it's the idea too that as again with Ina saying that, you know, to take the focus away from film as a product. And it's true that there's an interesting story about the making of the film and there's uh uh people love to hear, you know, and to be involved and to see the progress. You know, it's really interesting for others and it it doesn't you know there's a whole story that about the film that um that began when when it was being made and and all the things that arise as a result, you know, during the process and the things that don't make it into the film and all of that. There there are people who who would really be interested in knowing more. So another something else I discovered recently and I I hadn't thought of it again. I hadn't thought of it as being I mean it was something that was again I w I didn't I I didn't share it anywhere. I I didn't even think of it that way, although it was I I I loved it, you know, it was one of many powerful experiences but when I was location scouting in Colorado Springs, so that was you know, so I have a lot of pictures from that where I was um f you know filming um and taking pictures of specific locations w where we will be recreating experiments and also that were significant to Tesla's time there. And um and then at the same time I would there's an archive at the Pikes Peak Library and I absolutely love that library. I think it's the sec my second favorite library after um the New York Public Library which I also love but um incredible archivist there who was so helpful and um a a great archive of material about Tesla because of course he spent a year there developing and um important doing important research and you know had incredible experimental work that he did there. So um but as a result of that I I came across an essay that someone had written about Tesla and it was called Tesla as Naturalist and it was published by the international an international Tesla Society that was based in Colorado in the 80s and um in this essay so this person had a a very deep understanding of who Tesla was and and what his work was about and he wrote he actually traveled to Croatia to Tesla's birthplace and spent some time there and and um he took pictures of at that time because it apparently Tesla's home was in the mountains of Croatia, a little town called Lika and during the w the wars of the nineties um most of that home and and it was a parish home so it was a small church. His father was an Orthodox priest and so they had there was the church and then a small wooden house there and uh but th that most of that was destroyed during the wars of the nineties but it's been re since been rebuilt but this person was there in the eighties and took a picture of what was left of it of the uh church and the home and but he uh shared the the the information that Tesla was as a child that Tesla was was a bell ringer at the church. And I didn't know how luckily I didn't know that. But this but see putting this timeline together this story this behind the scenes story because I start with I start with a bit of text talking about how um uh I don't talk about my background but you know that because of my background I was looking for underlying principles that were informing Tesla's understanding of the world and these relate to acoustic principles of energy and I think that's mostly known by people who understand Tesla but um but this was was really this was really meaningful to me because he does have a a very deep connection to sound. So the fact that he was a bell ringer also because he uses he speaks that way too he's he spoke after his experiments in Colorado Springs, he said he spoke of the earth as being like a giant bell and so it does connect to his experience and that people bell ringers have a very visceral experience of the power of sound.
SPEAKER_04Yes, and vibration he was I mean i because he is all about vibration. He really experienced it as a child when he was ringing that bell the vibration.
SPEAKER_05Yes right and then and then in Colorado Springs he he wrote in his journal about the ringing the earth that the earth was like a giant bell and he discovered the resonant frequency of the earth while in Colorado so that's also something he would be aware of as a bell ringer, you know that the resonant frequency of the bells or he would yes even if he didn't understand it mathematically or whatever.
SPEAKER_04Mm-hmm absolutely so great so um it's so really working with puzzle theory is uh a matter of setting up uh of those signing so many hours a month and uh and to give it so that you are donating or devoting your time to puzzle theory but it also uh it it allows you to think laterally about everything that's going on with the production of your film in that is this something that uh that people would enjoy is this something my tribe would like to see because that's what you're doing. You're building a site for people who want to know what's the story behind the story. Because think about Criterion, Helen I love to watch films on Criterion because then uh you can go and uh listen to audib uh audio interviews or video uh interviews with people in the film right uh and the producer the director the uh the cinematographer they'll all talk about the film and the stories and that enhances the film tremendously. So this is the Criterion collection.
SPEAKER_05Okay I have to look that up I'm not familiar with it.
SPEAKER_04Oh my gosh well it's for older films and Criterion is uh a company that takes films uh so they from the beginning when they were s uh no there was no sound, I mean they go way back with their films and uh the most fun part is all of the extra information Criteria Criterion gives you about the making of the film. And that's why you pay a fortune when you buy uh a Criterion collection on DVD for example.
SPEAKER_05Oh wow that's fantastic. I mean it's a fantastic resource.
SPEAKER_04Yes, yes so I'll I'll introduce you more to that but that's what this reminds me of. Um it's a it's a one it's one place where people can understand more about uh the essence of the film, the full story of the film because sometimes in movies the backstory is not always present in the film. You have to research and get the backstory and then the film becomes clearer or more uh personal you can attach to it better. Yes, exactly. Yes. So alright so you say would you say fifteen or twenty hours a a month that you would need to put into this puzzle theory.
SPEAKER_05I think that's a good estimate. Um I everyone works differently so um I personally the way I work is I I need to be fully immersed in whatever I'm doing. Often if I'm updating my website I need to be focused exclusively on that. But because every every platform we have to think the way the platform does, if you know what I mean. And and as filmmakers we're involved in so many different aspects of our film um especially when it's in production or I imagine any stage really but um I don't know maybe other people are better at juggling um but I think there's everyone has their own approach. Um but yes um great becomes great it becomes it becomes another dimension of what you're doing.
SPEAKER_04Right. And then you get ch soon r to recognize something uh as oh that could go on puzzle theory, right?
SPEAKER_05Exactly. But especially once you shift or in my experience shift to uh to realizing that I can share that, you know, that that's something that I didn't realize I could share and and I could, you know, that sort of thing.
SPEAKER_04Oh well I I from Ina I know that she wanted to get um have distributors around the world looking on puzzle theory for new films being made and you couldn't ask for a better platform than this because that's right that's what you want. You want people all over the world to know what what you're doing and how you're making this film. So um and this is while you're in production so that distributors can find you and connect with you. So do you think that that's a benefit?
SPEAKER_05It's totally a benefit, yes. Um because again she e what Ina is is changing for filmmakers is that I I assume that the um the the traditional way to find distributors is when the film is in festivals and you uh you meet with distributors there because they are also attending the festivals looking for films and this way you you find distributors you you engage them early on and the platform is there for distributors to discover films. So that's exactly what it is it's a it's a great marketplace for distributors.
SPEAKER_04And filmakers to find distributors yes and you know um people who are um professional marketing salespeople will look at that information you have and say oh this is this makes the film more saleable look at this or that that's what we're going to use in our marketing campaign. They'll pick up things that you might never have thought of as a marketing tool. So what you're doing is you're giving marketing professionals mi uh many opportunities to market your film in ways you would might never have told them about because usually by the time you get a distributor they're only interested in you know what is the price what are you going to deliver and you get into the final discussion and uh seldom do they get these backstories.
SPEAKER_05Right, interesting and and also I mean we we haven't touched on this yet but there's many levels to the platform too so it can be for example you can share the link and it's it's like a one page that that gives the you have the trailer there because you link to it and then it shows up on the page. You have the trailer for the film you have all the information that they ask for the log line, the synopsis, who who's you know the the team, everything you have all all the information that you would have um if you if you were to to give you know a one or two page uh which which is normally what you would do at festivals and that sort of thing. So you you have it all in that link. You you have you have so much information to share with with podcasters, with distributors, with anyone who's funders, whoever is interested in your film.
SPEAKER_04Right. So yes I'm w so are there other tools the platform has?
SPEAKER_05Well I know Ina's working now on another powerful feature which is integrating social media. So she is working to make it possible to integrate for example Facebook posts for the film. You can you can actually schedule them and put them and have them appear on the timeline. And then Instagram same thing posts from Instagram and then Twitter. So it will be possible once those are working you can actually think about you know plan for the future that that when there's an event and and you that that you'll have the um you know the Twitter feed will will be will go to the timeline, that sort of thing. And the Facebook page and so those are are more pieces of the puzzle. And being uh creator she's constantly um developing new tools that we can't imagine but that she is w thinking of because she's constantly uh she's very creative and she's um always thinking about new approaches to um to to doing you know to presenting these um stories of the of the making of the film.
SPEAKER_04Yes and laterally she's laterally expanding it.
SPEAKER_05Yes, yes. And great the the other part of it is that it it it becomes a legacy. It it has a life of its own. It becomes an in something enduring. After the film is made after the the festival run I you know it it's something that that endures.
SPEAKER_04It would be there for for eons and that way people who are interested in the film but they want to read everything. Believe 'cause yeah I saw a nineteen seventies film last night, Elaine May's uh Mickey and Nicky and uh I was then I had to listen to Peter Fox's interview about doing the part and listen to other people talk about it because it only enhanced the film and it meant so much to me. So this um is never going away this is a very important platform to contain the history of the film. And you'll have so much that the filmmakers the audience wants to know that you would have never thought would interest them. Mm-hmm. I doubt if Peter Falk when he made that interview what fifty years ago in the seventies that um he would think that people fifty years in the future would be listening to it.
SPEAKER_05But we are right that's so interesting.
SPEAKER_04So um now let's talk about your newsletter because you'll be able to share um your puzzle theory in your newsletter to your audience right?
SPEAKER_05Yeah yes. Yes so I I have a newsletter and um I was telling you that I I have um several distributors on the newsletter, you know, who are subscribed to the newsletter so that's how I keep them updated on the progress of the film. And this is an important new tool and so I'm sharing that um link with them.
SPEAKER_04Well would you be shell uh sharing um the fact that you've uh uh Melanie Wallace is uh consulting on pictures of infinity would that be part of it?
SPEAKER_05Yes I'm very excited about that um yes I will be including that too that's a very important update for the film and I'm so excited to have Melanie with all her years of experience at PBS Nova as executive producer and her depth of knowledge about um uh all of the subjects that I'm exploring and you know the theme of the film uh th the world of science and uh factual broadcasting right this is a great move Helen congratulations thank you so now now that COVID's over are you starting to schedule to shoot again? Yes we're working on the next film shoot which is in Colorado Springs and uh it will be next um the fall next May because we've had to wait until the restrictions were lifted but then also we're working with um we're recreating some of Tesla's experiments one of which is one that that's not known about um that directly relates to my research and um but but yeah so we need very specific atmospheric conditions and also even for one of the locations it's not accessible for parts of the year because it's it's um at an elevation of 14,000 feet and uh it's yeah they closed the roads um during at certain times of the year because of um weather conditions.
SPEAKER_04Now and you're recreating it uh this experiment in the original location right and you're doing that because the atmospheric conditions are unique there right that's yeah that's exactly why Tesla why Tesla was there to begin with that's why he chose that specific location and that specific elevation.
SPEAKER_05It was and I just to a little aside because I we were talking about puzzle theory, um it was the the writer who wrote the essay that I discovered in the archive of the Pikes Peak Library called Tesla's Naturalist and that was the first time that I read because someone else who also made the connection that Tesla grew up in the mountains of Croatia and the environ the atmospheric conditions and the the you know the geography of the land where he grew up is very similar to Colorado Springs. Oh is it how amazing yes in fact I was thinking that when I arrived there I was thinking Tesla must have really felt at home here because it looks so much like you know I've only seen pictures of his um uh the the you know the place where he grew up but it's it's very very similar. It's in the mountains also. Very similar ki it looks it looks it looks so similar. And what is the experiment? Can you explain? I can't go into too much detail because it's um we're doing it for the first time but I can say that it's very similar it's very much related to all of the work he was doing and you know that he was he was verifying all these principles um in Colorado Springs when he was there. I can say that it relates to radio with a he has a a sender and a receiver and he and he's transmitting a signal not a radio signal but a signal. He's transmitting energy from one location to the next and it would seem impossible but uh he made it work.
SPEAKER_04Because there's land in between there's a mountain in between it's it goes through the mountain. Yes. How amazing oh that'll be wonderful. Yes well that is certainly something for puzzle theory to talk about because uh uh it's phenomenal uh and the weather conditions have to be just right for that to happen I guess is what you're saying. Yes the yes great so um and now uh you've got um you you're scheduling a new shoot and you've got m uh Melanie to help you and um and what uh is your next move? What development are you working on? What um aren't you going to the Toronto uh film festival? Oh confirmed that yeah.
SPEAKER_05Um good I but that's a possibility is one of the next possibility, yes. Yes I was very fortunate to to be at hot docks this year and I was also at um the sunny side of the dock in France which was an incredible experience earlier in January.
SPEAKER_04That must that must have been in January. Oh, had to be cold over there. Oh, it was online.
SPEAKER_06Oh, it was online. Oh, that's good.
SPEAKER_05We were still uh we still had travel restrictions, but it was an incredible experience.
SPEAKER_04I'm loving these online portals because um we we saw uh films at Cannes, we saw um chart films, we saw people talking about their uh films and and standing in front of a uh uh screen that had an AI analysis of their script and and they gave a a potential return on investment, Helen. Really? Yes, and I thought I have to find that company. How am I gonna find the name of that company and interview them? And would you believe they c they had contacted me from how they found my name, I don't know. But it's wonderful. So I'm going to get to interview them and find out how this works and uh and what happens because uh sometimes they would have fifteen hundred percent return on investment. I mean sometimes AI was giving extraordinary potential for return. And uh and so if you don't get that return, who do you sue? Or you know, we'd love to know a lot of things about that because sometimes filmmakers feel that they have the they know they have the potential to make an incredible return uh if everything goes right. But they can't tell an investor that because the investors will think that you are exaggerating and you frighten off investors. Uh so now we have uh besides our own uh analysis of what we think can be done, we have an electronic analysis which is gonna change the whole way films are made, Helen. Oh, interesting. Wow Yes, and how that works with documentaries, I don't know, but we'll find out. Mm-hmm. Yes, I'm looking forward to hearing more. Online festivals are really fun for everybody, and that C is the same thing as you're doing with the puzzle theory. We can go online and uh and it's almost like getting an interview with you. We can see what you've been through and where you are now, right?
SPEAKER_03Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_04Yes.
SPEAKER_05And and all the things that you can't share in other places, as I said, it it it you know, it highlights a lot of the things that we that we might not have thought to share.
SPEAKER_04Tell us what in uh as a recap, what you think are the benefits then.
SPEAKER_05Well, uh I again I would say that that in itself is a huge benefit is to to really to to put so much value on the time that we're spending now in the process of making the film. And taking that so that the the life of the film begins when when you start documenting it on the platform. At least as far as the platform is concerned, you know, but but you're giving it a life that it didn't have before right away by by putting it there. And um and that is just so extreme you know, extremely transformative to do that. So that it's uh right away you're not um you're not just working for the final product. You're you're valuing every step of the way. And and you're realizing that other people value that too because you're sharing it with them and they appreciate it. And they're learning about you and all the the the distributors who are normally at festivals looking for new films and and they can they can come in early and see the films that are being made. And they can find them on the platform. And you can find I imagine there'll be all kinds of things that happen as a result that you can't anticipate. Exactly. We don't know exactly what opening up a new territory and so it's it's new and it's uh it's full of possibilities. Right. Oh it's so exciting. Yes, it is, and and of course at this time too, and so much is changing in the in the world of documentaries and this is this is part of it. And this is c helping to create it too.
SPEAKER_04It's helping to create it, right. Well, um what is and what's next for you is your uh shoot in May. Is that it? Anything else about your film you would like to share with us?
SPEAKER_05Um no, not not that I can just that that Melanie is involved, and that's a huge um benefit benefit and event really in the life of the film that's very meaningful. And uh that everything's opening up now. And it's it's been a r a time of it's been an extremely valuable time for um you know, with puzzle theory as part of it, but also the other um having the opportunity to as you said, to participate in festivals. I I I also had the opportunity this past year to participate in the World Congress of Science and Factual Producers, which is a festival, an annual festival, and it was online this past year and um it was extremely um ex exciting and stimulating. And productive and and perfect for your film. That is right. Yes. And really it has such a a beautiful community associated with it. And I you know, I can't compare it to um the you know, the real life events because I haven't um I haven't been to um a festival before the pandemic or a an event with them, but um it's it's a very welcoming um place for filmmakers.
SPEAKER_04That's great to know. Well, I just want to repeat, um, should anyone want to learn more about puzzle theory, this is how you get that um email, you send your email to uh Sophia S-O-F-I-A at puzzle theory.com. And you want to mention in the subject line from the heart productions interview on puzzle theory and ask for more information. And if you want, put in there what you like about From the Heart because I know that she would love to hear that. She is giving From the Heart another$5,000 grant that we will be giving away. Uh so you want to watch for our newsletter coming out in uh July to talk about that. But in in the meantime, uh it's a great source of information and uh marketing possibilities for all filmmakers, don't you think?
SPEAKER_05Yes, and I want to add that um w I asked Claire and she did put um uh a link to puzzle theory. You have to copy paste it, it's in the description for this show. So that that that that will take you to the home page of Puzzle Theory. And then there's also a link. Ina has a Zoom meeting for everyone interested in puzzle theory. It's on July 29th, and I believe it's at um 9 a.m. Pacific Standard Time. I could be wrong, but check it. Um it's on the it's on the the front page the page for this the description of this interview. And uh yeah, so that I would encourage people to uh to be there and learn more about the platform. It's such an amazing tool.
SPEAKER_04Yes, and to send uh it's Ina Sophia. If we're confusing you with her name, she goes by either one, INA or Sophia. So Sophia at puzzle theory.com, and you'll get special attention and an answer direct from the creator, uh, Ina Sophia. That's being very really considerate to all of our followers of From the Heart and the Art of Film Funding. Well, uh Helen, I'm so honored to have you on the call. I really appreciate the work you're doing.
SPEAKER_05Thank you.
SPEAKER_04You can bring us some shocking uh information on Tesla and some of his ideas that could take us into a new millennium that uh could solve our energy problems. It's all there, isn't it? The solution. It is there. That that's his true legacy. Right. Thank you. And that's what we're going to learn. All right, lots of good luck to you. And thank you, Kellen. Thank you, Carol, and Claire for Kellen.
SPEAKER_03Oh yes. Uh very grateful that you could join us today and share all the wisdom that you shared today. And of course, Pictures of Infinity is going to uh really inspire a lot more study into this work and more action taken, hopefully, very soon. So thank you for the good work you're doing with that. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Lots of good luck. All right. Bye-bye. Bye. Bye. Be well, everyone. Thank you.
SPEAKER_04Thank you, Claire.
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