Kickstarter

The EMPIRES Kickstarter campaign is over and a huge success thanks to all 220 of you who made it happen!! We are energized and ecstatic by your immense enthusiasm and support for the project, and it really validates our direction and approach. We can’t thank you enough.

Our next steps include some additional interview shoots whose voices need to be a part of this film and kicking off the editing process. We'll spend the next few months crafting our many hours of footage into the story of EMPIRES and getting the film ready for fall festival submissions.

We had some great press last week in the form of an article in Brooklyn’s Park Slope Linewaiters' Gazette

If  you haven’t checked out or liked our EMPIRES Facebook page, please do.

Finally, if you are in NYC, please come to  Marc Lafia and Matt Duncan’s Instascapes installation at the FIGMENT NYC show on Governor's Island this weekend, June 9-10, more info below.

Warmly,

The EMPIRES team

  
"Instascapes" are lightweight sculptural transparencies mimicking camera filters. They are designed to be interactive and social and are produced at varying scales from window size to billboard size. One of the most popular photo social networks is called Instagram, a "fun and quirky way to share your life with friends through a series of pictures." "Instascapes" extends this idea by setting up a series of lightweight sculptural "frames" or "filters" and placing them strategically in the environment for us to see ourselves, our surroundings and our photography at a new scale and at a heightened appreciation.
http://cargocollective.com/marclafia/InstaScapes
 

FIGMENT June 9-10, 2012 Governors Island, NYC

What:
FIGMENT is an explosion of creative energy. It’s a free, annual celebration of participatory art and culture where everything is possible. For one weekend each summer, it transforms Governors Island into a large-scale collaborative artwork – and then it’s gone.

When:
Saturday, June 9 — 10AM – 6PM
Sunday, June 10 — 10AM – 6PM

Where:
Governors Island, NYC… a free, short ferry-ride from lower Manhattan and Brooklyn!
Click here for directions.

Again, huge thanks and we look forward to keeping you updated as EMPIRES enters its next chapter.

Thanks to all of you for your generous contributions! You have indeed made this film possible, as today we met our Kickstarter goal of $20,000!! An incredible accomplishment, and we are so thankful to know that so many of you believe in this project and want to see it completed.

We are not going to stop here, however. With one week left, let's see how far we can go! There are enormous post production costs ahead of us and every dollar raised simply puts us closer to actually getting the film finished and gives us a bit more time before we have to begin fundraising again.

Continue to spread the word and let's keep the momentum going for these final 7 days!!

Again, sincere thanks to each and every one of you who has contributed so far.

The Empires team

Tremendous thanks to all 149 of you backers of Empires. Your support has gotten us to 60% of our goal. With only 14 days left, we continue our outreach campaign and have some exciting updates to share, but first we have a request for you. If each of you could bring 1 additional backer to Empires TODAY we will be within reach of our goal. Here’s a template for you to use: 

Now for some updates on the project:

Marc Lafia did a guest blog on the Huffington Post last week, an insightful look at the project and what it's all about. Read it here. 

We may be in the midst of fundraising but the production never sleeps. This week we interviewed two truly fascinating subjects for the film: Douglas Rushkoff (Cyberia, Life Inc) and Paul D. Miller (aka DJ Spooky). Not only were they generous with their time, but they provided us with a thought-provoking and insightful conversation that we can't wait to share. For the moment, here's a brief clip of DJ Spooky kindly helping us with our appeals to support the film.

And after our shoot Marc flew off to Shanghai where he was invited to give a talk and conducting a workshop on fashion and art at 2012 Trans Media Fashion and Art Exhibition.

Thanks again for your support, and for those in the US, have a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend.

Sincerely,
The EMPIRES team

Dear friends of EMPIRES,

As a result of your generosity we are nearly 50% funded!! To date we have raised almost $10,000. An impressive achievement and we couldn't have done it without you. Sincere thanks to all of you.

Now as we enter the homestretch of the campaign (20 days and counting) we are reaching out to you to help EMPIRES go viral! Please send the note below to 10 of your closest friends, with the subject line "Can one film change the way you think about our culture?" If we can get 1000 people to donate $10 we'll reach our goal!

Thank you again for your support and your belief in this film.

Sincerely,

The EMPIRES team

I'm backing EMPIRES on Kickstarter. For less than the price of two lattes be part of EMPIRES, an epic documentary film in the making about the effects of social media and networks on how we see ourselves and our future. View the trailer and contribute $10 on Kickstarter today.

THANK YOU and please pass this on to 10 friends. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1407330738/empires-the-film

Quotes on the project:
 ‘Seamless, tense and productive …This is what we have needed, an account of the contemporary not just through the probabilities of the future but the possibilities of the past.’ Nishant Shah, digital media researcher and theorist

'Truly timely. It addresses many of the issues and thinking that has emerged not only since the financial crash but more recently with the emergence of OWS.' Kevin Farrington, film critic

'A great collection of some of our most brilliant contemporary thinkers! …What a tour de force!!'  Magdalena Rangel, filmmaker