IMPORTED - basketball docu-series

Hi hoop family,

thanx for checking this out ... help us bring to life these amazing storylines about the American influence on Australian men's basketball.

My name is Chris Appleby and I'm a film maker in regional Victoria with a long history in basketball, AIS and Canberra Cannons player (you may be aware of my career-high 8-point explosion against Perth in 1987), wrote for Australian Basketballer and ONE on ONE mag, Herald Sun journo covering NBL and national team during the 90s, wrote Luc Longley's book Running with the Bulls and was at the '91 NBA Draft, worked at the NY Post covering NBA and spent a season as a producer/editor on the Miami Heat pre-game show.

SYNOPSIS:

Largely based around the 1990s when basketball in this country took off, IMPORTED looks at the American influence on the game here - the US imports, their sons now having an impact in the NBA, NBL and national team, the moments like Shane Heal and Charles Barkley, Andrew Gaze at Seton Hall, Darryl McDonald's back story growing up in Harlem, Luc Longley being drafted in 1991, the St Mary's University Australian pipeline ... the list goes on.

The inspiration for this project came about after the Boomers beat Team USA for the first time at Marvel Stadium back in 2019 - I thought "how did we get to the point where we could beat the Americans at their own game?" Turns out the Americans have been helping us every step of the way.

IMPORTED will be a two-part series (2hrs) unless a broadcaster wants more.

Unfortunately when our production/funding partnership fell over and then Covid tuned the world upside down, all financial input for this project fell on me. And so I have funded this to date including a three-week film trip to the USA in late 2019 San Francisco, Philadelphia, New York, Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, trips to Sydney, Perth, Denmark in WA and all around Melbourne.

Now I just can't sustain anymore of my own finances for this and that's where I'm hoping the basketball family across Australia can help.

You've seen the teasers, on Longley, Ben Simmons at Box Hill High, Gaze at Seton Hall, Dmac and his brothers on the playgrounds of Harlem, the alley-oop phenomenon with Gaze and Copes, Doug Overton, the first NBL import to make it big back in the NBA, Saint Mary's, the tiny private college in the hills outside SF that has delivered Aussie BB Patty Mills, Matthew Dellavedova, Jock Landale, among others. 

There's so much more great stuff from the likes of Andrew Bogut, Lanard Copeland, Ricky Grace, Scott Fisher, Bruce Palmer, David Patrick, Brett Brown, Brian Goorjian, Andrew Vlahov, Shane Heal, Patty Mills, Matthew Dellavedova, Jock Landale, Gregg Popavich, Mike Dunlap, Adam Caporn, Randy Bennett, Cecil and Dante Exum - , too many to list here, but believe me if you've loved the trailers, this series will be brilliant!

I've collated over 70 interviews so far for this project.

PRODUCTION TEAM:

I'm going to prove engaging, high quality documentary content doesn't need million dollar budgets or endless numbers of hangers-on doing nothing but clog up the available spend.

This hoops doco IMPORTED has been created by me, produced and directed by me and I will be the primary editor for this project. I've had some wonderful cinematographers capture the content like Aaron Bickford, as well as Wayne McPherson who accompanied me to the US to capture some great interviews and B Roll that will bring to life some of the awesome storylines that highlight the incredible influence Americans have had on the game here - both the national league and national team.

Production money raised will also help with some extra filming days, the editing, required audio engineering, colour grading and mastering that needs to take place to get the project ready for broadcast. And licensing game vision is the most expensive component from here on in. There will be graphics needed too, but all that's laid out in the outline below,

WHY MAKE THIS FILM?

Many of the great moments that were poignant to our basketball history, have never been told in film.

Like the hotel room conversation between Boomers teammates to take it up the 1996 USA Dream Team before the Olympics - the ensuing match-up gave us Heal vs Barkley. IMPORTED looks in to the back story. Or how Ben Simmons' American coach put the ball in his hands all those years ago at Box Hill High - and the rest of history.

Australia's basketball development didn't happen by accident. We've been great at nurturing our local talent but looking back over time, the American inflluence on our game has been critical to this nation being so highly respected on the world scene today.

PRODUCTION TIMELINE:

August 2019 - starting filming content and interviews, including the Boomers vs Team USA series at Marvel Stadium.

October 2019 - headed to USA for three-week film trip to Saint Mary's in San Francisco, over to Philadelphia, NY, Salt Lake City and LA.

January 2020 - funding stopped.

March 2020 - hello COVID-19 and production was parked.

June 2020 - I regained the full rights to my project, but that also meant finding the funding to finish it and also responsible for securing a broadcast platform. That was to b the domin of my previous production partner. So the key now is to finish the series and get it out there.

June 2021 - initiate crowd fund campaign, raise necessary step 1 finance and resume production to complete the editing process. Look ahead to step 2 and 3 of funding.

Late 2021 - premiere release of IMPORTED.

WHO IS THIS DOCU-SERIES AIMED AT?

These stories will resonate with everyone who remembers the 90s and the players who made the league what it is today.

Many of the young playes today won't remember too much about the great American imports who graced the NBL hardwood on the 80s and 90s, but they helped lay the platform for today's NBL. The 1990s was the golden era for the NBL and so many seminal things happened in the 90s that were important to the growth and development of the game here.

IMPORTED is those stories.

Like many of us in the media game, COVID-19 has had a devastating effect on production and so my US funding was cut. With 95 per cent of filming complete and to date all funded by myself, including a 3 week trip to the US, I'm trying to raise the necessary finance to finish this production and get it out there for you all to enjoy.

This project is going to need the power of the people to get it up. I've attempted to glean broadcaster support but a finished product is what they want to see before cimmitting. I've also tried Screen Australia but I don't qualify - go figure. These stories need to be told. Appstarmedia, my production business has funded the first 50% of this production, so ...

WHAT WE NEED NOW:

Step 1 - $35,000 

This allows completion of the pre-production that will entail approx. seven more days of filming in Canberra, Brisbane and maybe Adelaide and then in to the post production process, including starting the edit and determining how much game vision will need to be licensed from the NBA and NCAA to bring these stories to life. It's really expensive per minute, so we'll be prudent with our request.

Step 2 - $70,000

Once we've secured $35,000, we will launch step 2 - a further $70,000. This strictly covers fees for the legal rights to broadcast NBA and NCAA game vision. It will make a huge difference to the visuals of this series and well worth the effort in securing. We want to inject some Bulls championship vision with Luc and MJ, or Gaze at the Final Four with Seton HallI, Shane Heal taking on Charles Barkley in that warm-up match before the '96 Olympics. If you loved the teasers, imagine those with game vision edited in? I've been in touch with NBA Asia who will help secure me what I need.

Step 3 - $35,000

Now we are the home straight. If we can get to this stage we are on track to finish the entire edit, recruit some editing and post production help to then get the series mastered (audio / colour grading / gfx) and ready for delivery to the right platforms and broadcasters. From here we will have a 2 part series (2hrs) or longer if a broadcaster requests it.

If you've pledged $50 or more, you get access to the entire digital series before it goes live, $250 or more I'll open up the vault to unseen vision and interviews and over $5000 if you're a business for example, your name will be on the onscreen show credits.

And with the All or Nothing campaign, your pledge isn't deducted from your account until we've reached the initial step 1 goal and so on for ensuing steps. Let's Do This!