About this project
Hawaii From the Underground Up is a project consisting of a documentary film and a compilation album of Hawaiian dancers and musicians. Our main focus with this project is to expose underground artists and inspire passionate living through artist expression. We will be revealing the life of independent Hawaiian dancers and musicians by highlighting their day to day lives, obstacles and successes practicing their art in Hawaii. We are focusing on dancers and musicians because we are an artistic family driven by dance and music.
Green Digi was cofounded by my wife Vanessa and I as a unified platform for our arts. I have been making Hip Hop music and Vanessa has been choreographing dance for 10 years in Eugene, Oregon. For the past 3 months we have been on a grassroots street performing tour across 13 States. We met many new artists (or at least “new-to-us”) who helped us out and in continuing our street performing for the next 3 months here in Oaho we wanted to create a project that we could give back to those artists. After a lot of thought and debate we came up with “Hawaii From the Underground Up”.
The dance portion of this project will highlight Hawaiian dancers’ choreography styles, practices, performances and their personal lives in a documentary film. The first thing we will be doing is hitting the local scene looking for all styles of dancers from B-Boys to Hula. Then we will interview these artists, capture some of their lives behind the scenes and show you some of their performance footage. Also, we will be taking class from these artists to learn more about their styles and see a glimpse of what their practices consist of. Finally we will be pushing for each of these dancers to create an original piece of choreography for the documentary that can be seen and learned by viewers. The result will be an inspiring collection of hard working individuals in the process of making their dream a reality through the art of dance. Also, this will be a unique adventure for us to open our minds to the many styles of Hawaiian dance.
The music portion of this project will capture the unseen lives of the Hawaiian musicians who are often overlooked, but who’s sounds are never forgotten. Not only will we be recording a compilation album of Hawaiian musicians, we will also be filming a documentary about all the trials and tribulations they have overcome to make it to where they are today. We will be looking for all genres of music and a wide array of artists. We want to connect with both the bands who have a huge local following all the way to the local unknowns who have talent, but lack experience. The album will consist of original songs from each bands’ current or past project plus collaboration songs with E.T. and Hawaiian bands. We will interview each of the bands about their past, present and future endeavors and what is it that keeps them passionate.
Both the documentary film and the album will distributed digitally and for donation only. Giving away the album and the film digitally allows to minimize costs and resources while extending our reach to the global market. Making the entire project available for donation allows everybody in that global market access to this great experience, while at the same time allowing all the artists involved an opportunity to make a little bit of money.
The most exciting part of our project is that it is 100% free for all artists to be involved. To fund this project we are collaborating with Kickstarter.com, which is a platform for independent artists to receive funding for projects that is used by all types of artists all over the world. The best thing about Kickstarter is it allows fans and artists to connect like never before and collectively create great artistic projects. So all the costs of recording, mixing and mastering of the album and the filming and of the documentary will be completely covered by donations.
How will we get these donations? Everyday Vanessa and I will be street performing, passing out informational fliers, visiting local businesses and meeting new artists to spread the word. Plus we are utilizing the full power of the internet to with fans through social networks, the media and other artists. With all this plus your help we are confident this project with be successful.
The total duration of this project will be 6 weeks long, commencing immediately if we reach our goal on our Kickstarter.com. Until then we will be in Hawaii spreading the word about our project, connecting with local artists and street performing. Beyond this project we hope to make lasting connections that will turn into a network of like minded artists.
For more information please see the sites below.
For a video description of this project visit:
www.GreenDigiEntertainment.com
For a more info about Aaron (aka ET) visit:
For more info about Vanessa visit:
FAQ
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Funding Unsuccessful
This project reached the deadline without achieving its funding goal on August 2, 2011.
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$1.00 – A big THANK YOU on Facebook and Twitter.Every amount helps us get closer to finishing our project!
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$10.00 Digital copy of the “Hawaii: From The Underground Up” Compilation Album
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$20.00 Digital copy of the “Hawaii: From The Underground Up” Documentary
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$30.00 – Both the digital copy of the “Hawaii: From The Underground Up” Compilation Album and Documentary plus a Wristband
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$50.00 – Digital copy of the “Hawaii: From The Underground Up” Documentary plus a limited edition “Hawaii: From The Underground Up” T-Shirt.
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$60.00 – Digital copy of the “Hawaii: From The Underground Up” Compilation Album, a limited edition “Hawaii: From The Underground Up” T-Shirt plus a signed physical copy of E.T.’s “pHone Home” LP
Pledge $80 or more Pledge $80 or more
$80.00 – Both the digital copy of the “Hawaii: From The Underground Up” Compilation Album and Documentary , a limited edition “Hawaii: From The Underground Up” T-Shirt plus a signed physical copy of E.T.’s “pHone Home” LP
Pledge $100 or more Pledge $100 or more
$100.00 – A limited edition poster autographed by all of the artists in the documentary, both the digital copy of the “Hawaii: From The Underground Up” Compilation Album and Documentary , a limited edition “Hawaii: From The Underground Up” T-Shirt plus a signed physical copy of E.T.’s “pHone Home” LP
Pledge $150 or more Pledge $150 or more
$150- ULTIMATE FAN PACKAGE: You will receive 2 tickets to our exclusive album and DVD release party here in Honolulu, HI. You will be able to meet all of the artists, see live performances, have picture opporutunities and enjoy delicious free food and drinks. Plus you will receive all the benefits of the $100 donor
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$250.00 or more – THE SPONSOR PACKAGE: Your name will be listed on our T shirts, featured on our website and in our online promotional materials, and we will also give you a personal shout out on the DVD Documentary! PLUS you will receive all the benefits of the $100 donor.
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About Us
Green Digi Entertainment was founded by Aaron Martin, aka E.T (more info at www.TheRealET.com), and Vanessa Martin (more info at www.VanessaMartinDance.com). We are an artistic family driven by music and dance. Aaron has been rapping and producing Hip Hop music in Eugene, OR for the past 10 years, while Vanessa has been dancing, teaching and choreographing in Eugene for the past 8 years. We have been married for about 3 years and have a one year old son Zeno, who is the absolute light of our lives.
About 6 months ago we were sitting down and discussing our futures and our hopes for Zeno when you might say we had a revelation. Both of us had been working at our art for a very long time and felt like we were running in place. So we decided that we needed a drastic change in our lives in order to feel complete. We were tired of just sitting and waiting for our careers, it was time to got out and start creating our careers. This is when we founded Green Digi Entertainment and began a plan to live our passions everyday.
Green Digi Entertainment is a platform and philosophy to unify our arts as a family. Our main focus with our company is to inspire as many people as we can, while conserving as many resources as possible. About 3 months ago we decided that we needed to lead by example if we’re going to inspire our son how to follow his dreams. That is when we headed out on a 3 month, grassroots street performing tour all around the nation with our one of a kind Rap Tap Duet. We had a great time, met a lot of awesome people and all in all it was a huge success.
One of the best parts of our tour was we were asked to join Zion-I and The Grouch’s “Healing of the Nation Tour”. It was amazing experience in which we learned a lot about the music business and about all the difference dance and music scenes through the nation. Also, E.T.’s first solo album “pHone Home” received national press from Okayplayer.com and reached the top 40 of the College Music Journal’s Hip Hop Charts. All these experience were proof that if we work hard and passionately pursue our dreams, good things will come of it.
So now we are in love with traveling and meeting new people and with this project would like to share some new experiences with you.
