Greetings from Intrepid Herbivores HQ in beautiful Portland, Oregon!

Thank you again for your donation toward our TV pilot lo these many months ago. It was nearly a year ago today that we returned from our foray to Thailand. After a whirlwind successful Kickstarter campaign and a sensorily invigorating and exhausting month in exotic Southeast Asia, it has at times seemed like the intervening year has been a slow one with little progress or evidence of the cultural explosion lurking within the memory cards of Joe's camera.

OR HAS IT?

We met Jon Meyer and Rachel Sharkeye at a gathering at the home of a mutual friend on July 4. Jon and Rachel are the force behind the production company Day 1000 Films. They are remarkable media artists and besides being highly skilled in the craft of editing, have keen eyes and a wonderful energy that has infused a vibrancy into the project that even we didn't anticipate. Hiring them to take on our pilot was one of the best decisions we have made so far!

Cutting approximately 16 hours of footage into 26 minutes of artfully arranged narrative takes a long time. Our editors have been consistently astounding us with each revision and we are literally weeks (and a few voiceover pieces, some graphics work, and some original soundtracking) away from having a finished pilot! We are frequently asked when and where you can see the show. The answer is that we still don't have an answer. Once the final cut has been sealed up, we will start the process of selling it. We have a treatment written and some strong leads to contact as soon as we have the product to exhibit. Our hope is to sell the concept to a network and obtain funding to continue the series. It is unknown whether this specific episode will ever see the airwaves or if it will be just the audition piece that earns us the wherewithal to launch a full season, but either way we are very proud of what we have so far and assure you that you will get to see it someday!

In the meantime, your continued support means the world to us. There is a lot you can do to help us keep momentum building. We are confident that "The Intrepid Herbivores" WILL be the Number 1 TV travel show about vegan and vegetarian food! If you haven't already, please visit The Intrepid Herbivores on Facebook and "like" our page (and share it with all of your friends!). The more fans we have the stronger our proposals (both to potential distributors AND to the companies we are approaching for sponsorship) will be. We have been compiling demographic statistics about projected audience for this program, but if we can show that five hundred million people are already fans our case will be all the stronger! OK, maybe five hundred million is a little bit lofty of a goal, but please help spread the word (share it with friends!).

If you happen to live in Portland, keep attuned to our schedule of dinner parties. While Kickstarter raised us a significant portion of our field production expenses, post-production is also costly. We have been hosting fundraiser dinners both to earn some more dollars and to share our experiences with friends and supporters. We cook a four-course vegan meal of Thai dishes we learned from the cooking schools we attended and documented for the show. These dinners have been filling to capacity and have been nothing but fun experiences for us and our guests.

In summary, thank you again, and keep your ear to the ground. Updates should be coming with more and more frequency as things are coalescing ever faster now.

Thank you for being part of "The Intrepid Herbivores!"

xoxo

Sadie and Joe

PS--if you are still waiting for your reward t-shirt, please contact joe@intrepidherbivores.com

Friends, we are back from Thailand with hours and hours of footage in the proverbial can! With a good editor, the pilot episode of "The Intrepid Herbivores" will be ready to enter the arena as the number one travel show about vegan and vegetarian food! An intentional byproduct of our trip was some education on cooking techniques--we are now equipped with tools, know-how, and an even greater love of Thai cuisine and we want to share it all with you!

So, we are having a series of dinner parties to gather friends and enjoy the fruits of our travels, and to raise a bit more money to hire a professional editor. Here's how it works: you pretend you're going out to eat at a quality restaurant, but instead of paying a bill you're making a donation toward the next step of our project. You also get the benefit of a convivial atmosphere, and may even be regaled with photos and tales of adventure in the tropics of Southeast Asia. :-)

Space is limited so reservations are required--let us know which date you'd like to join us. Dinners will be held at Joe's house.

Tuesday, March 29, 7pm

Monday, April 4, 7pm

Wednesday, April 6, 7pm

Sunday, April 17, 7pm (more dates to follow!)

Donation: $20

Lemongrass tea will be provided, otherwise BYOB. You may encounter rich curries, spicy salads, flavorful stir fries, satisfying noodles, novel sticky rice, sweet fruits and lots and lots of coconut. Please indicate along with your RSVP your affinity for spiciness--we will have mild and not-so-mild options on deck. :-)

We're gonna make it afterall! Today we reached our goal of $3,000 (and then some, thanks to the very sweet friend who was about to order some take out but stopped, donated the dollars she was going to spend, and made herself a sandwich instead!).

This means that we WILL get the funding from all of these generous pledges. Thank you all so much for your support.

Just yesterday Joe and I were having a conversation about how many awesome ideas get wasted because one doesn't have the time, focus, wherewithal or follow-through to see it come to fruition. We all make statements that start with "Someday I want to..." or "Wouldn't it be cool if..." or "I wish I could..." We had the idea to go to Thailand and film a travel show about vegan food. Luckily we are an awesome team and are able to hold one another accountable for for making sure this idea doesn't get wasted but actually comes to life. But added on top of that is the wonderful opportunity to raise funds here on Kickstarter and see so many family members, friends, and people we've never met rally around and help make sure this idea actually comes to life. As much as the monetary donations will make a HUGE difference in the quality of the production and opportunities available, the outpouring of encouragement and zealous moral support that has been offered has enormously motivated our excitement and commitment toward the project. You have clearly spoken that you are behind this idea, that you want to see this show and want to see us succeed--and that makes it so much less about us just kinda wanting to do something cool, and makes it into something we're doing for you as well.

So thank you for the encouragement and for getting us to our funding goal with six days to spare. Our production budget is $6,000 so we've met our goal of raising half through donor support. The more we raise, though, the more we'll be able to invest in equipment, hiring a kick-ass editor, and marketing the finished product. So we've got until January 22nd to keep the Kickstarter momentum going! Please keep spreading the word about this sweet new show.

Thank you again; we'll surely enjoy some spectacular curry with you in mind.

Khap khun mak!
ขอบคุณมาก
Sadie and Joe

Sawatdee!

Joe and I leave for Thailand in just over three weeks! While there is still much to be done (so far I can only confidently count to 19 in Thai--can I make it to 20?!), there is much that we've already achieved!

Joe, the consummate professional, has been improving his finesse on some spiffy new recording equipment while I have been fussing over what to do with my hair. We've been watching dozens of travel documentaries to get ideas on camera shots, narrative technique, and what not to do. We've booked courses at the Chiang Mai Thai Farm Cooking School and May Kaidee's Vegetarian Cooking School in Bangkok. We've been researching road-less-traveled locations, getting psyched about ancient temples and giant Buddhas, and trying to find tigers. I have a textbook called "Colloquial Thai: A Complete Language Course" which simultaneously thrills and intimidates me. We have befriended an awesome fellow named Pete at Portland's Vege Thai restaurant who has agreed to tutor us on our verbal communication skills pertaining to food. I'm practicing how to talk to a camera without using my hands while Joe is practicing how not to eat with his dominant left one...there's a reason for that. We'll tell you why on the show.

"The Show," of course, is "The Intrepid Herbivores," a travel show about vegan and vegetarian food--discovering it, learning where it comes from, how to make it, how to find it and how to ask for it. We are about to film the pilot episode in Thailand. While we hope to have the show picked up by a broadcaster we are self-producing the pilot--and raising funds on Kickstarter. We only have until January 22 (at last count that's 13 days from now) to raise our goal of $3,000 or we don't get anything. Our friends and families have been amazing and the momentum has been building every day, but we're heading into the homestretch and it needs to keep going! Please keep spreading the word.

You'll also notice that Kirsten Sevig has designed an even more intrepid logo. Don't you just want to bundle that little guy up into your day pack and go on an adventure?

Thanks so much for your support. We have both been humbled and bolstered by the enthusiastic messages, words of encouragement, and generous pledges. Every day we are more and more excited and can't wait to see you all in Thailand!

<3
Sadie and Joe