In 2014, three Chicago-based filmmakers raised close to $78,000 on Indiegogo to fund their first feature film. The sketch comedy artists known as FND Films had a popular YouTube channel and collected the cash quickly using a goofy plea video. No details were revealed about the promised film aside from the title: It's All Good.
Then with the money in the bank, the guys fell off the map. Two years passed, and there was no update, no movie. A few photos surfaced—one of the guys drinking on a boat, a travel pic from Italy—and hundreds of angry contributors start littering their social media accounts ("Are you fucking serious???? Where's the fucking money??"), while others threaten with legal action. Finally, a video apology from FND Films president Aaron Fronk emerges: "I'm so sorry to announce that due to complications and things beyond our control," he says, "the movie can no longer be completed." In a Fox news segment, Fronk admits that the group ran out of money before even a fraction of the film was completed.
It was a great stunt, because the FND guys actually have made a film—about not making a film. (Yes, so meta.) The film, still titled It's All Good, is an action comedy out on Oct. 21 about what happens when three dudes crowdfund a movie project and then run away with the cash. The plot mirrors the filmmakers' experience on Indiegogo and dealing with angry contributors, but spins off into a fictionalized account of how they blow it.
A two-and-a-half year viral publicity scheme that somehow didn't get totally sussed out by an online audience that loves tearing apart a hoax with their bare teeth—that's hustle. (We're better than we were when The Blair Witch Project came out, but TBD if those recent freakish clown sightings are related to Rob Zombie's film 31…) We threw a few questions to FND President Aaron Fronk about his life as a professional liar.
Congrats on an excellent troll. Was the prank planned from the start?
It was, though on paper it kind of looked like a terrible idea, like social suicide. But we felt this was a unique move, something that had the potential to get big, so we ran with it. The whole thing has been a tricky process—we were constantly worried about blowing it. We needed a catalyst for why the money was gone, but you have to ride the line where it's a believable scenario. We couldn't just disappear with the Indigogo money and then post Instagram photos of mounds of cocaine and sports cars, because that gives it away. So we posted stuff that looked a little fishy—hashtags like #tooexpensive or me in Italy from a trip I went on with my wife—and then deleted them to make people even more upset.
Online audiences are pretty good bullshit detectors—how hard has it been to keep this a secret?
It's been awful. So stressful. Lying to people for two and a half years is rough—we've had to take a hit in our careers because we wanted to make it look like we disappeared. We couldn't tell certain actors in the film what the movie was about, and you've got these people who donated thousands of dollars based on the most vague pitch that you can't clue in. I've so badly wanted to say, "No no no, it's just a joke."
Some of these online comments from contributors…that's rage. How bad did it get?
The ugliest email I got was someone who wrote the word MURDER, like a hundred times over, in the email. So—not that bad. I don't fear my safety. We've had a lot of people let us know they're contacting their lawyers to get their money back, but that's the crazy thing about crowdfunding—there's no repercussions in place. People can't do anything, aside from like, stalk us down and kill us.
Are you dealing with any guilt-fueled PTSD? Regrets?
I think I need to send the reporter who interviewed me at Fox a gift basket. It would have been easier if he was a total dick—I envisioned him as one of those typical aggressive investigative reporters bursting through the door, but he was just really nice and I lied to his face. I need to make it up to him. And I'm sure there will be people who are forever rubbed the wrong way from this, but I think most of our followers who know us will get it, they'll be fine with it. It was a passion project for us, and hopefully they'll enjoy the roller coaster of emotions we took them on.
