• 🇳🇿 🇲🇲 🇯🇵 🇨🇳 🇦🇺 🇦🇶 🇮🇳
    Australian & Asian
    Drug Discussion

    Welcome Guest!
    Posting Rules Bluelight Rules
  • AADD Moderators: swilow | Vagabond696

Marijuana Australiana Documentary

Last edited:
Looking at that website it does seem legit, I don't know why they would put their names on it if they were out to scam people...

The page is over a year old thought and it says they were basically done filming and just really had the editing process to go, I struggle to see how legal issues could get in the way of them proceeding. I hope they solve whatever issues are holding them up and get this out sooner than later.
 
In my experience, films take fucking years to write, get funding for, shoot, edit, find distribution for etc etc - and I'm talking about films with a budget much lower than that.
I wouldn't suspect them of ripping people off unless there is evidence for it.
As bit_pattern said, it's a documentary about weed culture. It's gonna take a while (if they're doing it right!)
 
Look how many weed culture documentaries have come out of the US alone in the last few years, and not just ones that could have been in the pipeline for years but documentaries responding to the legalisation of pot in Colorado for example that were clearly able to be produced in a short amount of time. That show Drugs Inc knocks out more than a handful of episodes from locations all over the World every year, now I realise there is a big difference between Nat Geo and the guys producing Marijuana Australiana but 13 months to edit a couple hours worth of footage seems excessive to me, I admit I know very little about what goes into producing this type of work though.

As I already stated, I am by no means accusing the people behind this documentary of a scam, I am merely acknowledging that this could be a possibility, given they took 25 thousand dollars off people over a year ago, have seemingly gone nowhere with it and their main website is down, I don't think acknowledging there is some chance that is what has happened here is unfair.
 
bit_pattern said:
They're just pledges - I'm not all over how Pozible works but raising $25K in pledges isn't the same as being handed $25K

EDIT: http://www.pozible.com/faq/index/1

Oh, OK, it probably is a scam then, lulz =D

This seems to be his email

[email protected]
Click to expand...

Yeah, I have pledged on other pozible projects before and when the target gets met (like the 25k in this one) THEN then money (that you have pledged) comes out from your pay pal or CC, if the target isn't met by the set date then the money doesnt get taken out from anyones accnt and the project isnt crowd funded. The project has to get over the mark set to go ahead (or for them to get their money).

The person or ppl responsible for this would have got 25 k and may be still doing stuff, when I looked I couldnt find their FB anymore tho.
 
drug_mentor said:
Look how many weed culture documentaries have come out of the US alone in the last few years, and not just ones that could have been in the pipeline for years but documentaries responding to the legalisation of pot in Colorado for example that were clearly able to be produced in a short amount of time. That show Drugs Inc knocks out more than a handful of episodes from locations all over the World every year, now I realise there is a big difference between Nat Geo and the guys producing Marijuana Australiana but 13 months to edit a couple hours worth of footage seems excessive to me, I admit I know very little about what goes into producing this type of work though.

As I already stated, I am by no means accusing the people behind this documentary of a scam, I am merely acknowledging that this could be a possibility, given they took 25 thousand dollars off people over a year ago, have seemingly gone nowhere with it and their main website is down, I don't think acknowledging there is some chance that is what has happened here is unfair.
Click to expand...

I know nothing about this project, but most projects of this type (indie productions relying on donations) take well over a year to get from concept to completion (meaning screenings, etc).
It's a pretty involved process. And documentaries - without the backing of a major network, company or cashed-up producer - even more so than most film productions.
Never mind the fact that we are talking about a seasonal (?) crop...

But again, I know fuck all about this project....just my 2c from experience working with independent filmmakers.
 
It is well past concept stage though, as I recall from reading the page the other week, they had successfully received their funding over 13 months ago. In the post requesting donations for the project, which is not dated, they claim to have essentially wrapped up filming and be getting ready to edit the footage. I feel like it is safe to assume it took several weeks, if not several months for them to receive this funding, which means they claimed to have been finished filming this thing 14 months ago or more.

I know very little about making documentaries but I did do media in High School, as far as I can tell it shouldn't take well over a year to do some editing for a production that I am assuming was intended to be a few hours long at the most, and probably less than that. Not to mention it is also very odd and suspicious how they have taken down their website and facebook page as well.

There is the chance they have finished everything and are now just having a bit of trouble finding a way to distribute it, that is certainly a possibility, it just seems odd if that were the case that they wouldn't keep their web page and/or facebook site functioning and update it to this effect.
 
Last edited:
Certainly the last bit is the stickler. Publicity should be picking up at this point...not mysteriously vanishing.
But I don't really know anything about this doco so I can't really comment on the particulars.

For a bit of perspective though (I don't mean to disagree but rather to offer a different point of view - I have been involved in the making of a [professionally made, low budget/crowd sourced] short film for over a year, that is still a fair way from completion).
$25k might sound like a lot of money, but it ain't going to feed the director/crew/editing people etc for months on end.
Journalistic documentaries might be shot in a matter of days (to meet deadlines etc) - but these are made by people who are likely on salaries, have technical staff available to them and so on.

Independent filmmakers, on the other hand, very often have a day job or other obligations to meet - $25 000 isn't going to allow people to drop all that just to work on their film full-time.

Feature length documentaries can take (literally) years to shoot - and that's a shitload of raw footage and sound to edit.
I saw a documentary about patti smith recently, for example - and it was shot over 10 years.

If you were looking to unearth some folkloric/mythical/counterculture/underground information - like some interesting - and illegal information or 'colourful characters' - I imagine it would be a pretty time consuming process; gaining enough trust to get access/consent to be filmed and interviewed etc.
I'm really just playing devil's advocate (so to speak) - but personally if I were in any position to be of interest to this film project (a grower? Or someone with intimate knowledge of some sort) - I'd be uncomfortable with the filmmaker having a big online/social media presence. It makes you so much more traceable, and i tend to think anyone involved in 'the industry' (cultivating/producing/selling illegal substances) worth their salt would want to avoid engaging or associating too much with anyone with much of an online footprint.
Just a thought, really. I'm sure there are plenty of reasonable ways to interpret the disappearance of this doco's info online.
It does look a little suspect - but I would also tend to think that a project like this could involve either disengaging with the online world for purposes of security and protecting your subjects' anonymity - so while it may look shifty, it could possibly have more to do with the project specifically.
For me, Facebook and 'unlawful activities' are a great big no-no; and I certainly know plenty of people (who live much riskier lives than myself - in a legal sense) that like me, wont have anything to do with it.

It certainly seems like a good way to draw the attention of law enforcement by posting stuff about Australian cannabis culture/history on Facebook.

Who knows?
It would be a real shame if this is a scam. But it would also be a shame if it isn't, but people keep reading online speculation that it is...
You guys' guess is as good as (or better than) mine - but when it comes to something as nebulous as a documentary film project - these things can - and do - take years to complete.
And with the added complexity of an illegal subject matter....I personally wouldn't write it off on that evidence alone (creative ventures can be flaky indeed...and how often do you hear of film projects - even in Hollywood - being aborted for one reason or another?)

I do hope that my optimistic spin is accurate (I'm not trying to suggest that my inferences are correct...!) because for one thing, it seems like a really interesting film - but also I think the idea that people might using crowd sourcing for a worthwhile project - then run off with the money - would ultimately be the death of crowd-funding more generally. Who wants to throw in some $$ for something that might be some bogus scam?

Either way, I too hope the worst-case-scenario isn't the truth in this matter.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for your insight, I had failed to consider a few of the things you have mentioned which go into making a project like this.

In these circumstances the skeptic in me can't help but remain slightly dubious, but I have voiced my concerns in that regard enough, and the odds are that this project is still coming but has just hit some bumps on the road.
 
It seems very odd to me to pull the FB (if it is gone) and the website. I mean the idea is to let people know what's going on, not get the money then not let people know what's going on.

Still seems fishy to me. Hopefully we find out what is going on and if it's still going ahead, if it's not surely all the people who pledged should be refunded.

I know the project I pledged to is still keeping us updated with fb and twitter, they reached their 30 grand and the project is supposed to be ready by december. With the project I pledged a few months ago my money didn't go out of my paypal until the project reached it's goal (of 30 grand).
 
Last edited:
I contacted the maker through Pozible last week, had no reply so successfully arranged a refund. I've pledged 7 other projects on Pozible and about a dozen across Kickstarter and Indiegogo and never had one take this long and never had one without a single update for this long either. If it were legitimately taking a long time they could at least take 5 minutes to write a post telling us that.

On the bright side, at least it was surprisingly easy to arrange a refund.
 
Cool, glad you were able to easily get a refund, thanks for letting us know.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top