Hello there.  Here's an update of where we are with BAD FEVER.

After premiering at SXSW in March, we've been traveling to other festivals and universities screening the film.  We recently won a couple of awards out there in the ol' film festival world: Best Narrative Film at Dallas VideoFest, Excellence in Filmmaking at IndieMemphis, and Innovation in Direction at Eastern Oregon Film Festival.  And in the near future we will be finally having our international premiere somewhere in Europe.  It feels right now that we're in the middle of the festival run.

Early next year we will be distributing the film digitally and, hopefully, on DVD.  Those deals are still pending.  Once we have an official DVD, we will send out those as the promised Kickstarter rewards.

Sharing the film with audiences has been so rich and fulfilling for me.  Most of the time the audiences are receptive, and the film strikes a chord with the right people.  Often we've heard that the film and its characters continue to linger on in the mind and in the imagination.  The screenings have inspired me; sometimes when I feel hopeless and unable to even think about making another movie, we will have a screening and I'll feel ready to go out and get to work.  I've received continuing support and enthusiasm from a lot of people who have seen the film, and have even met some important people to help me make the next one.

Thank you for being one of the first people to help us out and keep us going during our rough post-production phase.  It made all the difference.  If you haven't seen the film yet, I can't wait to share it with you.  Please let me know if you have any questions, and I'll continue to update you with any further news.  You can also join our Facebook page to stay in the loop: https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Bad-Fever/194144290612452.

Yours,

Dustin

The success of this campaign means a lot. It pushes us forward to getting this labor of love finished! Thank you so much for contributing and taking part in this adventure with us. Having you participate has felt like great big YESes, over and over again. Every name put up as a backer here on Kickstarter has meant a big YES. It even means more than the money raised, it really feels like the support we need to finish the film. So thank you, thank you, thank you. I can't express my gratitude for every single person who donated. I will be thinking of you as we move through the rest of post-production.

I'm currently on the road and won't be able to send out rewards for a few weeks. But I'll get to it as soon as I can, I'm really excited to send them out!

I will keep you all updated on our progress and where/when the first premiere takes place. And again, I can't wait to show you the film. I hope that you will feel good about your role in making it happen.

Yours,
Dustin

Big shout out to all those who have pledged money to help this film get finished. We're at the three-day mark with $1,000 to go. It's an exciting weekend as we push toward hitting the goal. Sending out emails and Facebook alerts. Doing what we can to get this done. We're so close.....

Many thanks to those who came out to the event last night. We had lots of technical problems but lots of lovely people in the house. I wish I could have gotten to talk with more of you.

Here's to the last days of this campaign and to its (hopefully) crossing over the finish line.

Dustin

In appreciation to all those who have backed the film so far, here is a special two-minute scene directly from the rough cut of the film: Eddie Coopersmith (Kentucker Audley) visits a pawn shop. Enjoy!
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Once again, thank you so much for all the support.

Eddie visits a pawn shop from Dustin Guy Defa on Vimeo.

Dear friends,

Thank you so much to everyone for the successful first half of our campaign to finish the film. The outpouring of support & love has been so wonderful for us. We're in awe of all of the help that has been received, even by people that we haven't met! What a thrill to be working toward this goal and giving it all we have to make it.

WE'VE PASSED THE HALFWAY MARK! 54% of our goal has been reached, and we're just about halfway through our month-long campaign. In order to keep the ball rolling and reach the $5,000 goal before the deadline of midnight on April 19th, we're asking you to keep spreading the word to those who might support us in a donation. Word of mouth is vital to the campaign, so whatever you can do to let other people know about the film would be greatly appreciated.

Please check out our wonderful mention on the Filmmaker Magazine blog:
http://filmmakermagazine.com/news/2010/03/kickstarting-bad-fever/

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in deep gratitude to those of you who have pledged already (we wouldn't be here without you!), we'd like to share a sneak peek of the film. We'll share that with you tomorrow!

With lots of love and thanks,
Dustin