Project summary:

“Build Responsibly” is a documentary project looking to highlight the current state of the AI industry through a very grounded, human perspective. 

To do this, we will follow the daily life of an individual working at an AI startup. In addition, we are going to sit down with researchers, politicians, and those affected by AI to highlight their perspectives as honestly as possible. 

While this documentary is in production, we will run parallel social media campaigns around the production to build noise and gather attention before release.

On completion, we plan to run “Build Responsibly” through film festival circuits in addition to posting teaser clips across social media channels to garner further attention.

We are looking to raise a minimum of 5k to create a cinematic trailer + mini doc. As funding scales the project can grow to its full length, reaching maximum cinematic value at 100k, and engagement at 150k.

What are this project's goals? How will you achieve them?

1. Similar projects are academic in framing and tone, making them less appealing to a general audience. Entertainment is an essential vector to capture attention for an important and serious topic.

2. Use “Build Responsibly” as a launching point for a non profit organization called “Aelus”, which will continue with the mission to use media to bridge the knowledge gap between AI builders, policy makers, and the general public.

3. To collect multiple longform interviews with a wide breadth of subjects, bringing this information to policy makers and the general public. This will be done through the documentary itself + blog posts, long form podcast interviews, and irl events spawned from content gathered through the doc filming process.

   • We will be interviewing:

     • AI researchers & engineers

     • Corporate leaders

     • Investors

     • Policymakers

     • Civic Leaders

     • Artists

     • General public

4. Generate massive buzz around the topic of AI safety to capture the attention of people who may be affected by AI and its broader impacts.

   • Enter the cultural zeitgeist: ‘Build Responsibly’ is an idea represented by a memorable tagline.

     • We can give AI safety a household name leveraging the use of the phrase like “Build Responsibly” which has prior notoriety and social capital playing off of “drink responsibly”. 

5. We know we can achieve these goals - Why? :

   Previously, we ran a media production company in Upstate NY. Out north project spend is low and competition is high. We were able to make the following documentary-ad for $2,000 in under a month.

   Freedom Run Winery Mini-Doc

   Additionally, Nick has agency experience working with some of the biggest marketing/brand driven orgs on the planet - Anheuser-Busch (beverage conglomerate), and Girl Scouts of America.

How will this funding be used?

Production Budget - $100k - necessary

Equipment Costs - $27,000

• Cameras - $16,300

  • Bodies

  • Support

  • Lenses

  • Storage 

• Lighting - $3,800

  • Support

  • Modifiers

  • Lights

  • Electrical equipment

• Sound - $3,800

  • Microphones

  • Support

  • Recorders 

• Misc. - $3,100

  • Rigging

  • Filters

  • Batteries

  • Media

Crew - $21,500

• Director/DP creative fee - $10,000

• Sound recordist - $500/day x 10 days = $5,000

• PA - $250/day x 10 days = $2,500

• Production Intern - $150/day x 10 days = $1,500

• On-set meals & crew needs - $2,500

Travel & Lodging - $20,500

• Flights (4 people) - $9,000

• Hotels (2 rooms x ~14 nights) - $5,600

• Per diem meals - $3,600

• Local transport, permits, misc. abroad - $2,300

Space Rentals - $6,000

• Studio/Interview location rentals in SF + DC/Vatican/EU - $6,000

Production Insurance - $5,000

• Gear

• Liability

• Travel

Post Production - $15,000

• Assistant Editor - $6,000

• Motion Graphics/Animation (3-5 sequences) - $3,500

• Sound mix & mastering - $2,500

• Music & footage licensing - $1,000

• Storage - $2,000

Contingency - $5,000

• Covers unexpected changes to the production.

Marketing (Audience Growth & Org) - $50,000

Ad Spend - $25,000 - necessary

• Instagram, LinkedIn, Google, and Facebook ads - $8,000 

• Launch and pre-launch events to build and maintain buzz - $7,000 

• Content partnerships + UGC - $10,000

Org building & program continuation - $25,000 - 'nice to have'

• Yearly part-time intern to support outreach, social media management, and donor interfacing. - $15,000

• Web maintenance, SEO optimization, paperwork - $5,000

• ‘Build Responsibly’ donor dinners, gifts, and behind the scenes access. - $5,000

  • This is important to maintaining relationships with donors for the continued success of documentary visibility, and the greater platform it will be a part of.

Who is on your team? What's your track record on similar projects?

Nicholas Gerwitz ~ [Director & Producer] Linkedin

• Previously founded and led BlackPoint, a full-service media production and advisory company based in upstate NY.

• Produced several projects for luxury real estate, wineries, and private equity (pre-acquisition videos).

• Operations on brand strategy/social media marketing for Anheuser-Busch subsidiary and Girl Scouts of America at Mr. Smith Agency.

Shawn Kulasingham ~ [Strategy & Donor Relations] Linkedin

• Previously worked in policy on Capitol Hill, corporate strategy at a Fortune 100 automaker, and program management at Honeywell/CAES, and currently teaches via the Center for AI Safety (CAIS).

• Has a strong network in VC, government, and corporate ecosystems which will be leveraged to help draw contributors/interviewees.

• His org-level thinking will help magnify the impact of Build Responsibly by creating a program management pipeline to sustain and monitor engagement + generate further deliverables via UGC partnerships.

What are the most likely causes and outcomes if this project fails?

• No immediate virality

• No film festival acceptance

• Lack of funding

TLDR; Protracted Impact.

[Our Solution]: 

• Proper marketing allocation + UGC (user generated content) pipelines.

  • This dual pronged approach allows for impact outside of the traditional film festival circuit.

• Reach viewership and awareness goals over time.

  • Can be expedited via partnerships and additional operating funds.

• Program > Project.

  • The initial documentary content can turn into hundreds of hours of UGC and clipped short-form pieces.

  • Sustain this via social media using funds earmarked for this specific purpose.

How much money have you raised in the last 12 months, and from where?

We have been self funded, all deliverables thus far were created via personal time investiture. 

The project is now at a stage where funding would allow us to rapidly gain production momentum and scale up our outreach pipeline by hiring an intern + spending on relevant production costs.

Additionally, putting out bounties for UGC partnerships will help flesh out our dual-pronged approach to effectively maximize reach.

Our main priority is raising the initial 5k in funding to create a cinematic trailer + get some high quality interviews and b-roll. The goal with the trailer is to prove how effective we can be with our funding and demonstrate video quality for this specific project, to hopefully garner the additional donors needed to bring the vision to its full potential.

Additional cinematic stills from our B-roll efforts: