The winner of the CNU18 sweepstakes is Mike Wells! Just like before everyone who contributed $35 or more (unless you requested not to receive a reward--and there were some of you in that category), was entered into the sweepstakes. We again used the online sweepstakes service "Random" to do the drawing. To check whether you were entered into the drawing you can go to the following website http://www.random.org/draws/details/... and enter your name in the "entrant identifier" box exactly as written for your Kickstarter pledge.

You'll be interested to know that in just two weeks we're very close to 7000 unique YouTube views. If you're interested, google "Sprawlanta" and see what the buzz is--there's some great stuff out there.

Chris

Thank you so much for believing in our vision! Because of your support we’ve successfully Kickstarted American Makeover! Your pledges demonstrated not only to us, but also to larger funders, the new urban message we were trying to communicate had an audience and grassroots support. Because of your support, and the momentum generated by organizations and individuals spreading the word about the series via blogs, tweets, and other social media (especially after the release of “Sprawlanta”), a convincing case was built to keep American Makeover alive. And that’s what CNU has able to do via their pledge today, keep the project going.

We would also like to meet our backers and thank you personally, so we will be hosting a backer get-together in the cities where we will be filming. We will send out invitations when we know our shooting schedule. Hopefully we will be coming to a city near you.

Thanks again to each and every one of you who joined this successful fundraiser, it was a team effort. We look forward to producing five more episodes you’ll enjoy and be proud of.

Chris, John, & Drew

We've hit 1400 views and getting rave reviews on YouTube, in the blogosphere, Twitter, and so on. It's early days yet and we are sending out press releases and so on to ramp up the PR and hit the mainstream media. Here's a few examples you might want to check out:

http://blog.smartgrowthamerica.org/2010/05/03/forget-home-and-plastic-surgery-makeovers-new-online-video-series-promotes-an-american-makeover/

http://narrowstreetsla.blogspot.com/2010/04/thursday-do-overs-american-makeovers.html

Keep passing the word around, and thanks for your support!

The first episode of American Makeover was posted online this afternoon! You can view "Sprawlanta" on our website at www.americanmakeover.tv. You helped make this happen!!
Thanks!

The winner of the CNU18 Sweepstakes was drawn just after midnight on April 7th (so actually April 8th). We used an online service to ensure the drawing was completely random and verifiable. You can check out the results at this link http://www.random.org/draws/details/.... If you want to check that you were in the sweepstakes use your name exactly as listed in the "backers" list (it will be case sensitive). Also, note all backers of $35 and over were entered unless you explicitly requested not to receive a reward for backing the project (there were two of you in that category).

So who was the winner? It was Jessica Haller. The bad news is CNU18's dates are really bad for her and she is unable to attend. So Jessica has generously donated the pass back to American Makeover so we can do another sweepstakes drawing. So that's what we are going to do. We will pick another date to draw a sweepstakes winner (TBA), and again all sponsors above $35 will be entered.

The other good thing is that we're quick learners (we're filmmakers not sweepstakes organizers after all), and next time we will randomly pick a first, second, third, and fourth winner (and maybe more) so if for some reason the first winner cannot accept the prize we will offer it to the second winner, and so on, until the free pass has a good home.

Thanks for your support, and thank you Jessica for donating your pass to American Makeover so we can do another sweepstakes.

We're gaining momentum thanks to you! On Monday the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture became our patron sponsor http://architecture.nd.edu. We're extremely chuffed, and very encouraged by their support. Like all our sponsors, they see the value of what we are doing and want to be associated with this project and see it come to life.

We have also received sponsorship by Green Party Kits. They have a great story about winning National Geographic's 2009 Green Effect competition, and what's happened since then. You can check that out at http://www.greenpartykits.com/.

Big or small, we're grateful for every sponsor. Please keep spreading the word. Thank you!

One final note of interest. Ellen Dunham-Jones (Retrofitting Suburbia) who we interviewed in Atlanta, will be interviewed live on radio tomorrow 1-2 EST (March 18). You can catch a live stream at http://bit.ly/6ZBXXg. Callers are welcome.

We wrapped up our Atlanta shoot on Friday night. John retuned early Saturday to Buffalo to do another job Saturday evening, and Chris returned to San Diego. Filming is hard work, so we were both exhausted, but extremely happy. We have great interviews and footage of Glenwood Park and Atlanta. It was a bit touch and go whether we would be able to film Glenwood Park, but the motion picture crew finished on time and we had free reign to shoot all day Friday.

If you're not already a Facebook fan of the project check out the our posts from Atlanta at http://www.facebook.com/pages/AmericanMakeovertv/290123687855...

Now we're looking ahead to editing the pilot show as soon as possible, and planning the next American Makeover city to visit. New Orleans and Denver are on the list, but we're looking for other cities to add to the list. Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks again for your support!

John and Chris are in Atlanta filming the pilot show. It's going great so far, and we encourage backers to follow us on location at our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/pages/AmericanMakeovertv/290123687855...), or on Twitter (http://twitter.com/americanmakeovr.

It's been really encouraging to get new backers each day as we've worked. Thanks backers, old and new! We're working hard to create you a great video.

The CNU18 free ticket sweepstakes has been added to the pledge rewards. Every pledge of $35 and above will be entered into the sweepstakes for the free ticket. The drawing is April 7, 2010.

The annual congress for new urbanism (CNU 18) is the leading venue for new urbanist education, collaboration, and networking. People come from around the world to discuss new urban ideas and public policies, learn from recent innovative work, and advance new initiatives to transform their communities. For more information go to www.cnu.org/cnu18.

Thank you CNU for your generous donation!

Our pilot show is in pre-production. We will be filming in Atlanta Feb. 23-26. We're already lined up some amazing interviews, including Charles Brewer, the innovative developer behind Atlanta's Glenwood Park (www.glenwoodpark.com). A major motion picture is being filmed at Glenwood that week too, so we have to shoot after they wrap up. There's tons to film apart from Greenwood, so we'll be busy all week capturing Atlanta's "American Makeover" story. We'll keep you posted.

The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) www.cnu.org has become a supporter of American Makeover!!! They have given us a FREE PASS to this year's congress in Atlanta May 19-22 to use as a pledge gift. This is a $585 value for non-members. THANK YOU CNU! We'll be posting this new pledge gift on Kickstarter soon.

If you don't know about CNU, they are the leading international organization promoting new urbanist ideas, policy, planning, education, collaboration, and all good things new urban. We encourage you to check them out at the above web address, and if possible go to this year's congress, and/or become a member of this vital organization.