Kickstarter

Quick update:

We've hit $5,000! That's fantastic and we've met our goal. Anything more will just help us make the films better. Thank you!

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We recently ran a Kickstarter project, which had a very ambitious target of $30,000. Though we received a massive amount of interest (around 15,000 hits on YouTube and counting) and received support from lots of wonderful backers, we fell well short of that target. We've decided to re-run the project with a much more modest goal so that we can be sure of reaching it, and ask all our backers from that project to re-pledge (none of the pledges from the initial project went through because we didn't hit our target, so no money has come off your credit card yet). If you could just re-pledge at the same amount (or whatever you can afford this month) we would be very grateful, and we should be able to hit our new, lower, goal without and problems.

If you're new to the project, we'd still love your support. In short, we're trying to make a series of five fairy tales like this one we've already made. They're short, they star kids, and they each have a moral that helps kids learn something important. And we are also providing creative activities kids can do on their own or with their parents that go along with each film. Lastly, we're planning to launch a film academy for kids to go along with the films, which will hopefully launch at the same time, in Fall 2012. 

Please view the video below for an overview of the project and what we're trying to achieve:

If, by the time you come to this page, we've met our funding goal (which will be a happy day indeed) then please still pledge. We deliberately set the goal low this time to be sure of achieving it, but we need all the funding we can get. Our initial goal was for $30,000, and although we're scaling back our ambitions substantially now, we still think we need quite a bit more than our target here. So consider our target the "must hit" amount, but anything else will just help us to make the project better.

Here's a preview of the five films we plan to shoot this summer, starting in May:

If you're wondering why we need this much to make some simple films, here are some of the things we'll be spending money on:

• Camera and other equipment rentals - these will run to several hundred dollars per film. We own some equipment ourselves, and will be borrowing what we can, but we need several cameras, lights, sound recording equipment and other items to help us do this well.
• Costumes - although we have a couple of wonderful people making costumes for us by hand out of the goodness of their hearts, we still have to buy materials and some basic items for them to work with.
• Sets and props - with all these films, we're trying to use what we have or can borrow as much as possible, but there are some things we just have to buy or rent, including sets and props for almost all the films. 
• Professional help - though we have skills ourselves in a variety of areas we need, and we have a large extended family helping out, there are a few areas where we just need to pay some people with real expertise to get the job done. This is a small part of the overall cost, and we're trying to find as many people as possible who will work for free, but this will still cost money.

If you have skills in making movies, costumes or websites, and would be willing to be part of our team, we would love your help! Please get in touch by sending us a message through Kickstarter.