Squid Brothers’ film tries new approach to pitching investors

Trailers and short promos are the standard formats used to intrigue investors into funding full-blown versions of the proposed indie film.

The Squid Brothers, however, have taken a different route. They shot in HD the first 23-minutes of their indie feature, “Contract Killers,” subtitled, “A hit comedy,” as their “trailer.”

“Killers” is the story of a young man who had been adopted into a Mafia family and his rite of passage is his first hit.

The opening will be screened every 45-minutes March 2 at Harry’s Velvet Room to what Squid Brother Craig James Pietrowiak hopes will be “a ton of investors there.”

Squid Brother, writer/director Craig James Pietrowiak

Investors will get a full-blown, well-written and passionate business plan and pitch during the first three screenings (3:15-4:45) in an effort “to raise money–$3 million?to shoot this as a feature with a name actor originally from attached,” Pietrowiak said.

The Squid Brothers, Pietrowiak, Dale Spencer and Louis Coty, have lofty plans that are not unlike those of scores of other filmmakers who fervently want Chicago glow as an indie film center and a magnet for talent. (Chicago, incidentally, does hold its own in indie filmmaking; 29 indies were filmed here last year, in keeping with the steady annual pace of indie output.)

Dale Spencer founded Squid Brothers with Pietrowiak.

The Brothers’ dream is to ultimately raise $100 million among local investors to finance a ten-year plan of making low-budget features. “It’s time to have our own studio providing resources to all filmmakers, that would permanently connect the talent we lose each year to the Coasts,” Pietrowiak noted. “Chicagoans are really the only ones we can and should count on.”

The “trailer” was shot in HD when a camera used to shoot commercials was available to them for four fast days. Pietrowiack and Coty wrote and directed; Pietrowiack also plays the young and potentially future hit man. Michael Dunne shot and edited. Score provided by What the Hale Music.

Actors, filmmakers and anyone interested are invited to the other eight screenings, 5:30-10:45 p.m. Harry’s Velvet Room is at 56 W. Illinois. For details: SquidBros@aol.com.