MorallyAmbiguous

Random Image - Washington

Fuelled By:

Yearbooks
Details

A little blurb on crowdfunding of web series:

TLDR: Supporting a crowdfunded project is good, if you're smart about it.
 
Here's how it works. Someone comes up with an idea for a short, movie, or series. It's going to cost far more than any individual or small group can manage for themselves as it takes getting or renting the appropriate gear to film, props, sometimes location fees or at least filing for the ability to shoot in places, getting to locations, feeding the people on the shoot...... Basically everything that a TV show would need, just in a smaller scale.
 
It also takes time. A short will take a few days of shooting time, plus time to edit and otherwise produce the final product. A movie or series will take weeks. The higher the production values, the longer it takes. This is time that people who typically have day jobs, so that they can do optional things like eat and have a place to live, have to make for the production to take place.
 
So what do people who have a vision like this do? Well they either burn with resentment over not being able to do the thing they dream of doing, or they try to find others who would like to see their idea come to fruition. They take what little money they do have and put together a 'proof of concept' then present it to the public through a site like Kickstarter.com or Indiiegogo.com , hoping to convince YOU that you should help them to create the end product. If there are enough YOUs out there, even kicking in as little as a couple of bucks, it means that person or group gets to make their vision become reality.
 
To thank all of the YOUs out there, they give you what they call 'perks.' This can be as little as a digital thank-you or listing your name in the credits as someone who supported the project, up to copies of the project in digital or physical (DVD or Blu-Ray), or even an appearance in the project at the high end. The biggest perk is actually getting to see a production made, that you wanted to see. Obviously that's the point of the whole thing.
 
Because without the support, the thing doesn't get made.
 
Something to be aware of: In a normal campaign you pledge your money and if the campaign isn't successfully funded to the level they want, they don't get your money. It stays in your pocket. Indiegogo, however, has this option that they call "flexible funding" in which the people running the campaign get your money, whether they reach their goal or not. Watch for it, when you think about pledging to a campaign. Not all campaigns use it, but an increasing number are. Govern yourself accordingly.
 
In the relatively brief time that I've been supporting crowdfunded productions I've backed 39 projects; 3 are currently running, 28 have been funded, and 8 failed to obtain their funding goals or were cancelled.
 
Of the ones that obtained their funding one was a Star Trek based project that is currently in litigation with CBS/Paramount. I knew that could happen going in and it was spelt out in the 'possible issues' by the producers, so that's on me.
 
A second one, somewhat ironically produced in the Toronto area, produced their series and then failed to substantially fulfill the perks that they promised (in my case a full set of DVDs, of all three of the series' seasons). It's more than 2 years after their original promised date for delivery and they have completely stopped communication. I see that they're up for a Canadian Screen Award in the Digital Media category. Nice. Where's my stuff?
 
But that's 2 bogies out of 39 tries. Not bad odds.
 
 
Right now I'm supporting a couple of currently running crowdfunding efforts, on Kickstarter, because they interest me.
 
 
"JourneyQuest" is going for its third season and I've really enjoyed what they've done so far. I haven't been involved in supporting the previous seasons, because I only found out about the series a few days after they closed their season 2 Kickstarter. I had been aware of stuff these people had done in the past but in digging into "JourneyQuest", I discovered the whole world of crowdfunded production.
 
JourneyQuest - The Series, seasons 1 and 2:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVORGr2fDk8&list=PLB600313D4723E21F
 
JourneyQuest - The Kickstarter
 
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zombieorpheus/journeyquest-season-3
 
"Lost Hope" is an animated series project that sounds very interesting to me. The people involved are enthusiastic. The premise is good and funny. The amount they're asking for, for a first outing, is reasonable.
 
Lost Hope - The Kickstarter
 
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/losthope/lost-hope-animated-sci-fi-comedy
 
Details

Jackassery XII - My Latest Video of Stupidity Around Toronto

 The latest video in my Jackassery series, highlighting the general idiocy on the streets in the Greater Toronto Area.

 

Details

JourneyQuest Season 3 Kickstarter is Now Live

Zombie Orpheus Entertainment and Dead Gentlemen Productions are now running their Kickstarter campaign to fund the third season of their popular webseries "JourneyQuest." It's an ambitious campaign, at $420,000.00 to fund it, but this is a high quality webseries with experienced actors. It's well worth supporting. While they obviously hope for some high dollar support and provide bigger, and better perks for higher donations, even a buck or two adds up. 

The Kickstarter Campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zombieorpheus/journeyquest-season-3

The Pitch Video: 

 

Details

A Little About JourneyQuest
(Kickstarter for Season 3 Coming Soon)

 

Before the JourneyQuest season 3 Kickstarter gets under way, in a couple of months, I'd just like to introduce you all to what it's all about. It's a fantasy comedy series that is produced in the Seattle, Washington area by Zombie Orpheus Entertainment, whose mantra is "No studio, no network, no cancellation. Creator distributed, fan supported." The concept is that good content can be sustainably created with direct fan support, cutting out the middleman. I think that they've proven this with their previous work, but they get even better with time and experience.

To make such productions isn't cheap, if people are actually going to be able to make a living doing it, but it's also far less expensive than big studio or even TV production costs. Projected costs for a season worth of JQ episodes is something just over $420K for what would presumably be, in total, something more than an hour of entertainment with good production values and an original script. Season 2 had a run time of 94 minutes. (I've seen the script for the first episode of season 3 and it's hilarious.) These days one half hour episode of a sitcom can run in the million+ range, without breaking a sweat.

This will be their most ambitious and expensive project so far, partially due to the reality of increasing production costs. The link below will take you to Youtube, where you can watch seasons 1 and 2 in their entirety, for nothing. DVDs are available through Fansupported.net at very reasonable prices. If you watch it and enjoy it, please consider helping to fund JourneyQuest when the Kickstarter campaign drops in January. Even a couple of bucks helps, though higher levels of support can also get you some swag like DVDs and suchlike.

Enjoy.

 

JourneyQuest: Complete Seasons 1 and 2

 

 

Rob MacLennan