Kickstarter

Hi all,

A quick update on Everything Went Down:

The film is currently being mastered for DVD and for hosting on the web, to submit to film festivals.  We'll be sending the film first to Sundance (a bit of a pipe dream, but you can't win if you don't play...) and some other major festivals in the hope of giving the movie a high-profile festival premiere.  This means that its festival premiere may be a little ways away (Sundance, for example, is in January), but the waiting is a small price to pay if the film can play a major festival.  Cross your fingers for us!

The Kickstarter rewards all went out about a month ago - if yours got lost in the (e)mail, let us know and we'll gladly re-send.

The film was just featured on a cool music therapy blog from Austin, alongside a new project from one of our favorite artists, Ben Folds!  Check that out here:

http://musictherapyservices.net/k-is-for/

Everything Went Down writer/director Dustin Morrow and co-lead actor Kate Tucker collaborated on a music video for a song that is featured prominently in the film, which is now up online here:

https://vimeo.com/41122063

And Dustin also recently directed a new dance film called "Forest of Sorrows," which you can watch here:

https://vimeo.com/44683378

And remember, it's still possible to support the film and to get some cool rewards, so if you have any family, friends or co-workers that you think might like our film, please don't hesitate to pass on this link:

http://everythingwentdown.com/support.shtml

I hope that you are all enjoying your summer.  Thanks again for supporting the film, we'll be in touch.  

best,

The Everything Went Down Team

Hello Kickstarter supporters,

First of all: your rewards!  Watch for an email from everythingwentdown@gmail.com that will detail how to collect your Kickstarter rewards. You should receive this email in the next two days. If you don't hear from us, it means your email didn't go through for some reason. Feel free to drop us a line if that's the case.

And a word about moving forward:

In the research we did before we launched our Kickstarter campaign, we came across some advice from artists who’d run successful campaigns, as well as advice from Kickstarter itself, that said that 30 days was the ideal length of time for a Kickstarter campaign.  Running a Kickstarter campaign is a pretty ridiculous amount of work, and very stressful (because of Kickstarter’s all-or-nothing structure), and it’s hard for me to imagine running a campaign longer than 30 days. Having said that, the social media producer, Lisa, and I agreed that the campaign took about 3 weeks to really pick up steam – in the fourth week we felt like we were beginning to get noticed outside of our personal circles of friends, family, and colleagues.  It felt at that time that more and more people were starting to find us through word-of-mouth and through the higher volume of press we were getting.  To that end, a part of us wishes the campaign had run longer.

We’ve also received a few emails from people expressing regret over having missed our Kickstarter deadline.

So we are going to provide an alternative way for people to continue to contribute to the film, and to further help us with the film’s distribution.  We will not be promoting this in the way that we promoted the Kickstarter, but if you wish to contribute further, or should you happen to know anyone who might want to pledge to the film, but missed our deadline, please feel free to direct them to the support page at our website:

http://everythingwentdown.com/support.shtml

On this webpage are instructions for two easy ways to contribute to the film, Paypal and Snail Mail.  While most of the rewards we offered through Kickstarter, like the soundtrack album and the skype consultations, had to be Kickstarter-only, we will continue to offer pre-order digital copies of the film at the $25 contribution level, DVDs at the $100 contribution level, and an Executive Producer credit on the film at the $500 level.

1. Personal checks made out to our producer, Dustin Morrow (please put something to the effect of ‘film’ or ‘Everything Went Down’ in the subject line) can be sent to the following address. Please include your email address with your check, so we can send you your rewards!

Prof. Dustin Morrow

Portland State University

Dept. of Theatre and Film

PO Box 751

Portland, OR  97207

2. Contributions can also be made to the producer, Dustin Morrow, via Paypal, at the account: morrow4@pdx.edu

Thanks again for your support. We’ll be in touch as the film undergoes the long road of distribution, and you can always find updates at our website and our tumblr, twitter, and facebook.

Support the arts, fight the good fight.

Best,

The Everything Went Down Team

Late last night the film’s Kickstarter campaign ended, and we were successfully funded.  We can’t express how humbling it has been to receive such overwhelming support and good wishes.  We have worked very hard on this film, it’s a true labor of love, and to know that so many people believe in it makes us all warm and fuzzy inside.

Running a Kickstarter campaign is more work than you probably imagine, and Kickstarter’s all-or-nothing approach to funding projects is utterly nerve-racking.  We started out pretty slow, and we’d especially like to thank our early supporters for giving us the confidence that we might just make our goal, when at times it felt unachievable.  The end of the campaign was a real rollercoaster – we lost a $500 pledge just hours before our deadline, then we gained a new one!  Watching our total go up and down so dramatically was crazy, and for all of her support yesterday and throughout the whole process, I would like to single out Lisa Molinelli, who was not only our very first backer, but singlehandedly built and ran our twitter campaign, as well as helped immensely with the other social media through which we found most of our pledgers.

Speaking of social media, it is going to be the best way for you to receive updates about the film.  When really significant events happen, we may send you a message through Kickstarter, but we’d prefer not to contact you through email, because we know everyone has crowded enough inboxes as it is (and we’ve certainly been clogging yours during our Kickstarter campaign – sorry about that, and thank you for bearing with our constant promotion – to run a Kickstarter successfully, it’s sort of unavoidable).

You can find us here:

'Like' us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/EverythingWentDown

Follow us on our blog: everythingwentdown.tumblr.com

Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/EWDFilm

And of course, you can always find us at our website, www.everythingwentdown.com.

Our Kickstarter supporters came from far and wide: musicians, filmmakers, friends, colleagues, family, fans of Kate, journalists, philanthropists, teachers, music therapists, cineastes… This shows us the broad appeal of the film, and the idea behind it – that music is a bond, a bond between friends, a bond between strangers.  Music can heal. Music can be therapeutic. Whether or not you realized it when it happened, it’s been there for you: when you went through a tough time and found solace in an album, a song, an artist’s lyrics and voice.  Even when you just find your mood lifted a bit as a song you love comes on the radio, you’re feeling it.  And there’s nothing like it. 

That’s our film, and that’s why we made it.  As a nation, we’ve suffered a decade of heavy cutting in arts and music programs.  It’s our responsibility as artists and as supporters of the arts to remind everyone why they matter, why they make our lives better.

All of you have some terrific rewards coming your way. As we recover from the Kickstarter rollercoaster, we’ll begin to assemble those and get them out to you in the coming weeks.  Please be patient, we’ll be working as quickly as we can. 

On behalf of our lead actor Noah Drew, our lead actress and composer Kate Tucker, our associate producer Kacey Morrow, and our social media producer Lisa Molinelli, I thank you again for your support of the film.

It means a lot to us.

Take care, and we’ll be in touch soon.

Best,

Dustin

writer/director, Everything Went Down

Hi Backers,

We're coming down to the wire - tomorrow is the LAST day of our Kickstarter campaign.  If you can think of anyone with whom you might share our link, it's now or never!

Here's the link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1289514220/everything-went-down

We can't express enough our deepest gratitude to all of you for your support of the film and its mission to create an awareness of the healing, therapeutic value of music and art. It's because of people like you that independent artists like us - musicians, writers, filmmakers - are able to do our work, to tell our stories, to attempt to leave the world a better place than we found it.  

Smile. You've done a good thing.