It’s one of the first questions facing every filmmaker – do you cross your fingers and wait out the lengthy process of securing production funding through the traditional avenues, or do you take the D-I-Y method?

Film grad and Foundation instructor Chad Costen chose the proactive approach for financing his sci-fi feature The Coming – start a grassroots campaign and invite all… well, comers. I Am Canalien asks people to pound the pavement, gathering names (“specimens”) and 11 bucks apiece, with the goal to collect 1,111 donors in all.

There are a bunch of prizes to be had, as well as tickets to an advance screening of The Coming – “a story about the end of world as a result of humanity’s fear of itself” – in 2008. The film’s crew includes literally two dozen grads and instructors from Film, Foundation, EBM, Makeup, Classical Animation, 3D, and Acting – a real testament to the kind of networking that happens here. You can bet we’ll be following this one closely.

The deadline for collecting specimens is August 22nd, 2007, so get cracking – you can find all the details you need in this handy PDF. And want to see a nifty poster for the project? All you have to do is…