Kickstarter

Hi everyone,

Sorry we've been so quiet since our last update in the summer. If there's one thing we've learned from this experience, it's that working on a project like this and relying on people who are giving their precious spare time and goodwill, it just takes a really long time to get things done. We have so many wonderful people who've been involved in the four new films we've been making, but most of them aren't getting paid and all of them have day jobs or other commitments which take up most of their time. As such, even though we wrapped filming on all four in the summer, we're still in post-production on all four films, though we're now nearing completion. Clara and the Trolls is essentially finished, Two Brothers is in the final stages of nailing down the music, the soundtrack for the Boy and the Tengu is being composed right now, and Stinky is almost ready for narration and music, so we're nearly there. 

We've also decided to overhaul our website, which was much needed, but also takes considerable time to get right. This week we've seen the first drafts of what it will look like, and we're really excited about it, but it will be several more weeks until it's ready.

As such, we're now hoping to launch at some point in the next two months. We'd originally hoped it would be early February, but it now looks like it may slip beyond that. But things are finally coming together, and we're hopeful that we'll soon be in a position to launch. Thank you again for your amazing generosity and for your patience over the last few months.

We thought you might enjoy this little trailer for our first "season" - you'll see clips from all five of our films here, and hopefully it will get you excited for when we start to release the new ones shortly. Please let us know if you have any questions. With all the delays, we've also been delayed in fulfilling our "rewards" for our backers, but we hope to get that done soon too as we have everything necessary nailed down.

Enjoy the trailer below and we'll hopefully have another update for you soon!

The Clara Tales team

Hi everyone! We just wanted to provide an update on what's being going on with the project since we closed funding in May. As we said, we intend to shoot five films over the summer so that we can launch in the fall. As of today, we've shot four of the five films, with three shot just this week! We shot Clara and the Trolls in June and July, and this week we shot The Boy and the Tengu, The Tale of Two Brothers and Stinky (click those links to see previews of each of the films on our YouTube channel). Clara and the Trolls is now edited and narrated, and our composer is about 75% done with the music. Next up, we have to edit and narrate the three films we shot this week, which will be a lot of work.

We want to thank the amazing people who helped us shoot all these films - not least all our child actors and narrators. Jennie Brown, our producer, has done amazing work over the past couple of months organizing everything, recruiting other crew members and generally keeping us all moving forward. We could not have done any of this without her. For our Clara and the Trolls shoot, we had help from Babetta and Cameron Kelly, two family members, and also from Leah McBride, who was our 'baby wrangler' - a crucial role when you're shooting with kids. Katie Hill directed our Two Brothers shoot, while Casey Wilson and Spencer Scanlon took the lead on photography and lighting respectively. Kevin Kelly directed our Tengu shoot and David Stauffer led photography, while the moms of our Japanese kids helped us translate lines and directions during the shoot. Gina Thompson handled props and Brynn Zimmer tackled wardrobe for both of these shoots and did an amazing job. Fred and Ranleigh Johnson rigged up some very special effects for a crucial scene in the Two Brothers film. Kate Clarke and Aya Watanabe were fantastic wranglers and assistants on the Tengu shoot. Khaliel Kelly made food for both the Tengu and Two Brothers shoot. All these amazing people worked for free just because they believe in our project. Dallin Blankenship helped make amazing sets and costumes for our Tengu shoot.

If this feels like an Oscars acceptance speech, it's because there really are so many people who participated and made this project possible, just as our Kickstarter and other backers have made it all possible by providing funding for equipment rentals, prop and wardrobe purchases and rentals, set design and decoration and many other elements that go into the production process. Each of our films is going to cost around $1700 to make (on average), compared with the $10,000 or so we were told we need, and it's only because almost all of the people who worked on these shoots worked for free that this was possible. Thank you, thank you, thank you to all who have contributed in any way!

With that stuff out of the way, we thought you might like to see some pictures from our shoots. The full sets are on our Facebook page.

Clara and the Trolls

These pictures were taken by our wonderful friend Margie Giegerich.

Clara and a Troll, and another troll:

More trolls, including one getting his makeup on:

The Boy and The Tengu

These pictures and those for the shoots below were taken on various crew members' iPhones and posted to our Instagram feed.

The star of our show, and his "mom":

Our wonderful assistant director / wrangler, Aya, and the boy and the Tengu:

The Tale of Two Brothers

Older brother, and the happy couple:

The king, and the lady in waiting:

Stinky

"Stinky", the star of the show, and the little girl, co-star, getting ready:

Our great location, and the search begins:

Keep checking in for more updates as we prepare for our launch this fall!

Hi everyone

You should have received an email by now telling you that we hit our official goal of $3,000 and so all pledges will go through shortly. Beyond that, we also achieved our unofficial goal of $5,000 on the last day, which we're really excited about. Together with some other money that's been provided by very generous friends and family, we now have enough to make the first five films and launch in the Fall. So thank you to all of our wonderful backers! We can't believe we've finally reached this point and can shift our focus from fundraising to moviemaking.

If you selected a reward when you pledged, we'll be in touch in the coming weeks to make sure we have what we need from you to deliver on those. Most of those rewards are due later this year when we've finished all the films, but if you have any questions in the meantime, please let us know.

We'll be posting occasional updates here on our Kickstarter page over the coming months, but we'll also be posting more regular updates on our Facebook page, Twitter account, Google+ Page, and on our website, and of course our YouTube channel will always have our latest videos. So Like, Follow and Subscribe in those various places if you'd like to stay informed of our progress.

We're keen to get going, and we've already started making the first of our films, with half shot already and most of the rest being filmed this coming Saturday. Others will be filmed over the summer ready for our launch in the Fall. 

Thank you again for your wonderful support and we look forward to sharing the results with you over the coming months!

The Clara Tales team