I, Graham-John, saw the genius at the core of Julien's idea and my mind went to work. I came up for the idea of sheeple, half human, half animal hybrids dressed in outrageous, Alice in Wonderland style fashions who would represent certain types of people. I changed the protagonist to Hoodie, a would be activist crippled with shyness (something I can relate to). I changed the focus of the film from the shooting itself to the circumstances that created the shooting and its predictable aftermath. Finally, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was coming out so I decided to change the antagonist into a monkey hall monitor with delusions of grandeur and call the film, Monkey With A Gun! Julien's initial reaction was, “HOLY SHIT! NO WE CAN’T DO THAT’S SO RACIST!” Then he realized that it wasn’t. It was just a film title that demands attention because of preconceived notions of certain words. Thus Monkey With a Gun was born!

His original idea for the film was set in a gated community of people who all wore Greek tragedy masks and hoodies. Everyone would be voiced by a different actor than the actor portraying the character on screen. Very try hard, artsy fartsy stuff Julien would later remark. The candy store, their equivalent of a bank, their currency was going to be candy wrappers, was robbed at the start of the film which threw the community into a panic! A snake oil type Salesman smells opportunity and comes to instill fear in the people and convinces them to buy a gun for the town's self-appointed security guard. There was going to be a huge point about the characters arguing about which candy bar they liked the best.

About a year and a half ago, we (Graham-John, myself, and Julien, my muse and best friend) were working on our last project, Sweet Meat, an alternative, experimental surrealist film (a man and his boy head off to the slaughterhouse, but who will end up on the menu? coming to festivals soon!). During this time there was another shooting in the United States. Julien was sick and tired of innocent people getting shot so he came up with the germ from which Monkey With A Gun sprang.

Risks and challenges

I have only put one film in a festival (and they didn't even notify me about it so I didn't come ;p) so that is Risk # 1 and a challenge to be overcome. Fortunately we will be free this summer so we can devote our time to producing the DVD and entering the film in festivals. As well, this is our first Kickstarter, so depending on how good the response is, getting our rewards out on time might be a bit of a challenge. From what we have heard it is more challenging than it can seem. So that is definitely Risk #2.

Our next risk is the possibility for controversy. Obviously the title and references to real events may be offensive to some, but the topic needs to be addressed. We proudly stand behind the film and its message 100%! As far as we're concerned, if FOX NEWS calls us racist, that’s a win in our book. Another possible point of controversy is that this film, which was inspired by the black lives matter movement and the fear mongering contrived around hoodies, was created by a White Jewish American and a White Atheist Canadian.

Monkey With a Gun has already been filmed and edited. The only things left to do is develop a soundscape and compose the Salesman's theme song. There is no risk whatsoever of the film not being finished. The biggest risk for this project is if it takes off and if we get a lot of attention, Julien will only be able to help out for a limited time (until June) because his green card will run out after he graduates this year. If the film does make it to TIFF he will definitely find a way to get back to Toronto.

The final risk we looked into are our plans of promoting the film through viral marketing on campus. Without spoiling our plans, there was a worry of being arrested or in Julien's case, deported. This would piss off his dad, yet another risk. Luckily our marketing plan was approved by campus security and we were informed how to go about our plan safely without interruption, or interference. This is a viral marketing idea for the promotion of the Kickstarter, to increase awareness, which will fail if no one takes it upon themselves to film what is going on. Or Snapchat it ;p.