A post-apocalyptic comedy about the last
refuge for a seaside holiday
www.thefitzroy.com/ks
The final week of the Kickstarter Campaign
The Fitzroy, is black-comedy live action feature film set in a post-apocalyptic 1950’s, on board The
Fitzroy hotel, a leaky submarine beached just off Margate – the last refuge for a traditional summer
holiday
Written and Directed by Andrew Harmer and Produced by Liam Garvo & James Heath, the team
behind Dresden Pictures.
Short Synopsis:
Set in an alternative post-apocalyptic 1950’s, The Fitzroy hotel, a derelict submarine beached just
off Margate, is the last place for a traditional summer holiday.
Bernard, the hotel’s bellboy, cook, maintenance man and general dogsbody faces a constant battle to
keep the decaying hotel airtight and afloat.
But when he falls in love with Sonya, a murderous guest, he is thrown into a world of lies,
backstabbing and chaos. As Bernard struggles to hide her murders from the other guests and
suspicious authorities, the hotel literally begins to sink around him.
As his world implodes, Bernard must choose between the woman he thinks he loves and the hotel
submarine that is keeping them all alive.
THE FITZROY: ONE WEEK TO GO
The Fitzroy, Kickstarter campaign really caught alight in the last week. On Tuesday 11th December
we were delighted to be announced by Kickstarter as their ‘Project of the Day’ and featured on the
home page spotlight for the whole day, this led to over a £7,000 increase in pledges. Kickstarter
followed this up on Thursday 13th December by naming The Fitzroy as ‘Projects we Love’ in their
weekly newsletter, with the subject line ‘Hotel Submarine’. This went to everyone registered on
Kickstarter, and over the next 24 hours resulted in 200+ new backers.
To create The Fitzroy, Dresden Pictures are looking to raise £60,000 through Kickstarter. We’ve
had some incredible support and at the time of writing have raised 83% of the target, an incredible
£50,000. We really couldn’t be happier and now we are looking for one big final push to get us over
our goal.
The campaign finishes Sunday 23rd December at 6pm GMT. For The Fitzroy to happen we need
to reach 100% of our target by this time or we don’t get any of the money and none of our generous
backers will be charge and lastly the film simply won’t get made.
THE STORY SO FAR
One of the key reasons why we believe Kickstarter have got behind the campaign is due to our
eagerness to engage the audience throughout the campaign in new and original ways.
In the first weekend, The Fitzroy team was out in full force at the Sci-Fi London Post Apocolympic
event on Nov 9th & 10th chatting to the patrons about the project, its rewards and raising
awareness. This was followed by an open invite shindig, in Hoxton, London at the Underbelly on
Nov 19th and had the film’s soundtrack producers, the Green Rock River Band (GRRB) playing
their mean doom-folk sound.
On the weekend of 8/9th December we were brave (maybe foolish) enough to take on making a
short film in 48 hours based on ideas provided and voted for by our followers on Twitter and our
friends on Facebook – we called it the Mini-Fitz Challenge!
Still from the ‘Choke Mate’ shoot.
We wanted to give something back, so asked our fans for their favourite idea, prop, location and title
as well as calling them out to help out as cast and crew. The end result was a five minute film ‘Choke
Mate’ that premiered online on 10th December. It’s a much darker piece than the feature film but
one we are all very proud of achieving with no budget and very little time – check it out for yourself:
https://vimeo.com/55276148
On Sunday 16th December we went street busking, with the fantastic GRRB on the London South
Bank. We tapped into a new audience as the crowds gathered round and GRRB soon sold out of
albums. The band got a brilliant reaction from fans. The video of highlights from the day will be going
live in the last week of the campaign.
‘GRRB’ busking on South Bank
We really want The Fitzroy to be a film made by people who like us, at heart, are film fans. We want
them to be part of it and share the experience with us. For example, one of the cool rewards is an
animated cartoon version of you or your loved one, which will inhabit the opening title sequence.
We’ve really tried to tailor the Kickstarter rewards to be as exciting as possible. Our rule was if we
wouldn’t pledge for it, then how can we ask others to. So we feel there are some great rewards in the
form of posters, DVD box sets out of a Beach Survival kit and gas mask props from the finished film!
The full list is viewable on our Kickstarter page, as well all other details on The Fitzroy.
View the Kickstarter video for The Fitzroy
The DIRECTOR AND PRODUCERS
Writer & Director Andrew Harmer
James Heath (Producer), Andrew Harmer, Liam Garvo (Producer)