page_title: Lazer Team
section_title: Development
hierarchical_section_title: Lazer Team / Production / Development
caption_attribution_description: English: Matt Hullum - CEO of RoosterTeeth Productions, take in the Austin Convention Center at RTX 2013.
context_page_description: Lazer Team is a 2015 American science fiction action comedy film directed, produced, and co-written by Matt Hullum. The first feature film produced by Rooster Teeth, it stars Burnie Burns, Gavin Free, Michael Jones, Colton Dunn, Allie DeBerry, and Alan Ritchson. The film follows the Lazer Team, a group of four who find themselves responsible for the fate of the planet upon discovering an alien crash site containing a battle suit.
  The film was produced by Hullum, Burns, and Doreen Copeland. Burns and Hullum also co-wrote the script, alongside Rooster Teeth employees Chris Demarais and Josh Flanagan. Funding for Lazer Team was largely raised through a successful Indiegogo campaign, raising over $2.4 million in a month. Filming began in October 2014, with principal photography taking place in Austin and New Mexico.
  Lazer Team premiered at Fantastic Fest on September 24, 2015. Through Amplify and Tugg, the film was theatrically released on January 27, 2016 as a cinema-in-demand model. The film was also released onto YouTube Premium the same day, as well as being added to Rooster Teeth's FIRST streaming service on November 3, 2017.
context_section_description: The concept for Rooster Teeth's first live action feature was in development as early as 2010. It was first announced at Halo Fest during PAX Prime 2011. Burns stated they were drawing inspirations from, "a lot of the sci-fi classics that we've grown up with," but were, "not making a parody and we're not making a send-up – we're making our own movie." Influences on the script included "team movies" such as The Mighty Ducks and Cool Runnings. According to co-writers Chris Demarais and Josh Flanagan, the third act was completely restructured by them a week before shooting began.
  While writing the story, Burns did not imagine himself playing Hagan, saying "I tend to be a bigger, loud-mouthed, talk-fast kind of guy ... I had to essentially take it down a notch to play him."
  In February 2014, Burns confirmed the company was going to launch a crowdfunding campaign for the film as a way to offer more support options while gaining publicity. Freddie Wong was a consultant in shaping their campaign. The Indiegogo page for the film launched in June 2014. The fundraiser reached its $650,000 goal in under 10 hours and broke Indiegogo's record for the fastest film campaign to reach $700,000. Within three days, Lazer Team broke $1 million. Lazer Team holds the record for the highest funded film campaign on Indiegogo with over $2.4 million collected. On the final day of the campaign, Rooster Teeth released a special perk for a single fan to be cast in a walk-on role; within 20 seconds of the perk going live, 535 people purchased the perk, as it slowed the site's ticketing system. All 535 people were used for a crowd scene in the film. Hullum stated that the crew had been contacted by multiple distribution companies, media companies, and acting agencies since the campaign began. Burns corroborated, explaining that the film's budget increased as the campaign earned more money:
  The initial budget for talent was based on making the movie on the bare minimum with us throwing in the remainder of the expected budget. For instance, that meant using talent almost exclusively from in-house. As the budget grows, so do our opportunities to approach all kinds of talent. The same applies to Visual FX, quality of props and costuming, lighting, crew, etc.
  Casting calls and auditions for minor speaking roles in were held for attendees at RTX 2014. Additional casting for extras was held during shooting. Blaine Gibson also auditioned for the role of Zach.
caption: Lazer Team is the second feature film directed by Rooster Teeth CEO Matt Hullum.
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