From left, Peter Jason, director Orson Welles, Peter Bogdanovich and Neil Canton on the set of “The Other Side of the Wind.” (Photo courtesy of Larry Jackson)
Updated on May 30: The Indiegogo drive has been extended by an additional 20 days.
Updated on June 5: The goal was revised to $1 million with the hopes of obtaining matching funds.
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By RAY KELLY
Producers of The Other Side of the Wind have launched a crowdfunding effort to complete Orson Welles’ long unfinished movie.
The 40-day Indiegogo drive, which kicks off today, seeks to raise $2 million to digitally scan the 35mm, 16mm and 8mm negatives and early videotape used by Welles and edit them into a finished film, producers Filip Jan Rymsza and Frank Marshall told Wellesnet.
Affonso Gonçalves has been tapped to edit The Other Side of the Wind. Gonçalves is best known as the editor of Beasts of the Southern Wild and Winter’s Bone. Recently, he earned an Emmy Award for his work on HBO’s True Detective.
Sample scans of the negative have been done in Paris, but the 1,083 reels of negative footage will soon be sent to Los Angeles, where the only labs that can scan 8mm footage are located, Marshall said.
The negatives have been put on new cores, leader added, catalogued for content and date filmed, and packed for shipping so 4K scanning can begin immediately upon arrival, Rymsza said. “It’s in mint condition… beautiful, pristine condition.”
Indiegogo first approached the producers in December offering to help fund completion. It became apparent that crowdfunding would allow producers “to retain control over the project and that is one of the goals of this… and partner with the distributors we want to partner with,” Rymsza said.
Indiegogo, the world’s largest crowdfunding site, recently raised $4.4 million for the upcoming Super Troopers 2. Indie filmmakers like Spike Lee (Da Sweet Blood of Jesus) and Rob Thomas (Veronica Mars) have crowdfunded big screen efforts.
Crowdfunding will engage fans and is in the spirit of Welles’ independent means of financing his films, Rymsza said.
Perks will be offered to those who donate between $10 and $50,000. Among the 18 perks being offered are:
- Digital download of the finished film for those who donate $30.
- Theatrical posters for $40 and $100 contributors
- DVDs and Blu-ray of the finished film for a $50 donation.
- A coffee table book of behind-the-scenes photography of the making of the film and other perks for $150
- Invitations to premieres in Los Angeles and New York for $1,000 contributors.
- Original canister’s that housed the film’s negatives will be sent to donors giving $5,000.
- A 35mm print of the finished film for a $25,000 donation.
- The first $50,000 contributor will receive Welles’ personal Citizen Kane scrapbook, donated by his youngest daughter, Beatrice.
Beatrice Welles, his longtime companion Oja Kodar, and The Other Side of the Wind actor Peter Bogdanovich support crowdfunding to finance the editing phase of the project.
“My father struggled his whole life to find funding to finish his pictures, but never as much as he did for this one. He would truly be ecstatic to know that it was ‘the people who really cared about his work’ who, in the end, brought his last dream to fruition,” Beatrice Welles said in a statement.
Of the money received, 40 percent will be used for scanning and processing the negative; 20 percent for editing and post supervision; 10 percent for color correction; 10 percent for music composition and licensing; 10 percent for perk fulfillment; and 10 percent for taxes and fees.
Asked why none of the Hollywood hitmakers who frequently pay tribute to Welles did not offer to finance his final film with a single check once the rights were settled, Marshall, who was a line producer on the shoot in the 1970s, replied, “I have been trying to do this for the past 35 to 40 years and nobody stepped up, so I am not surprised now.”
Crowdfunding allows everyone from film enthusiasts to Hollywood directors to become involved, Rymsza added.
The Indiegogo site lists 10 prominent filmmakers as endorsing The Other Side of the Wind crowd funding campaign, including J.J. Abrams, Clint Eastwood, Steven Soderbergh, Brett Ratner and Brad Bird.
“I think this is the way to do it,” Marshall said of crowdfunding. “We are going to ask everyone out there who loves Orson Welles and is a fan of cinema to help us finish this.”
Orson Welles, Peter Bogdanovich and John Huston on the set of “The Other Side of the Wind.” (Photo courtesy of Larry Jackson).
Advanced discussions have taken place with a handful of potential distributors, who want to see footage from the 40-year-old negative, Rymsza said.
While none have asked to see a specific length of film, it is in the best interest of The Other Side of the Wind to present them with sequential footage that conveys what the movie is about, he added.
Rymsza and Marshall insisted they never set a May 6 release date nor Cannes Film Festival debut, though those dates had been bandied about by media outlets. (Editor’s note: Both men told Wellesnet in October 2014 that there was interest in a 2015 release, the centenary year, but no date was set in stone).
Marshall said he would not commit to a timetable for completion because there are always unknown factors and he did not want the project to be deadline driven. He added, “We still think we will make it this year.”
Gonçalves’ editing will be guided by a 42-minute work print edited by Welles, as well as scripts and notes left by the late director.
“Affonso is an editor of impeccable taste, feel and intuition,” Rymsza said. “Having worked with a disparate array of filmmakers such as Todd Haynes, Jim Jarmusch, Ira Sachs, Cary Fukunaga, Debra Granik and Benh Zeitlin, he possesses the right blend of dogged structure and freewheeling adventure to collaborate with us on this monumental undertaking.”
A composer will be hired at a later date to score the film, the producers said.
The producers declined to discuss who will determine the final cut, the film’s total budget, or the role to be played by Bogdanovich and other Wellesian consultants.
“Nobody has an exact role on this movie… It’s really a group effort,” Marshall said.
Rymsza added, “Peter, every day, is asking when he can get into the editing room. He will certainly be a vocal participant in that, as he should be.”
Rymsza, Marshall and German co-producer Jens Koethner Kaul secured the partial ownership rights for The Other Side of the Wind that were held by Les Films de l’Astrophore and the late Mehdi Boushehri. Agreements were reached last year with Beatrice Welles, who heads the Estate of Orson Welles, and Kodar, who inherited the late director’s ownership.
Principal photography wrapped on The Other Side of the Wind in 1976. The film takes place at the 70th birthday party of director Jake Hannaford (John Huston), who is struggling to complete a youth-oriented comeback during the rise of New Hollywood. 
The party is attended by young directors, like Brooks Otterlake (Bogdanovich), hangers-on, critics and movies freaks – many of whom are patterned after people in Welles’ life. Hannaford dies at the conclusion of the party. His final hours are recounted in footage shot at the party, interspersed with scenes from his unfinished comeback movie.
Welles struggled to edit the film until his death in 1985. The Other Side of the Wind was partially financed by the brother-in-law of the Shah of Iran, and its ownership was called into question after the Islamic revolution of 1979. The negative has remained in a Paris vault and untouched until recently.
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