Goodbye Promise

File:GoodbyePromise.jpg

Theatrical release poster.

Goodbye Promise is an independent feature film that premiered on June 1, 2012 at The Downtown Independent in Los Angeles. It was directed by David Branin. and stars Gregor Collins, Sarah Prikryl, and Brian Ronalds.

In April 2009 the film was among the first crop of indie features that flocked to crowdfunding - a relatively new concept at the time - to fund their film. They raised $16,203 on the platform Kickstarter, which had launched just a year earlier. On August 13, 2012, Goodbye Promise, this time using Indiegogo, became the first ever feature film to use a crowdfunding platform to distribute it.

Production

The actors never used a traditional script, working solely off a one-page general outline of the plot, and improvising all the dialogue.

The film was shot during the 2009 California wildfires. At one point the fires were as close as a thousand yards away from the house at which they were filming, in Sunland, California, and they were encouraged to evacuate by local authorities. Instead of evacuating Branin and Collins decided to rush to incorporate the fires into the plot of the film in order to finish it before they were forced to evacuate.

Press

The Los Angeles Times called Goodbye Promise "a simple, richly emotional look at a failed actor's introspective last days in Hollywood."

Film Producer Fred Roos said: "On a micro budget they've created a perceptive and touching portrait of the lives of struggling actors working on the fringes of Hollywood."

Television Producer Elizabeth Yoffe called it "a great, realized directorial vision and a story that is completely accurate both in its harsh quality and sense of continual possibility."