Kickstarter

I posted the following but just realized I'd added it to a pre-existing post. oops. Hopefully this will go out to you all!

Hi Everybody!!! Happy New Year!!!!
Sorry I've been remiss. It's been an incredible year and there's been lots going on with the Jake project. We've been moving steadily forward towards our goals -- with your AMAZING HELP -- so THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!

Here are some highlights since we completed our Kickstarter funding goal:

1. I have been working with a great editor named Tom Walls, cobbling together the last three years of amassed footage into a (semi-)coherent first rough assembly. Documentary film is a grind, and much of the struggle is in the editing room finding the stories threads of stories to weave into the larger, entertaining tapestry of a feature length film.

Tom has worked with some great directors over his long and impressive editing career, including Robert Altman; Brian Scorcese and Josh Gilbert (on my first, critically acclaimed feature length documentary.) Tom fell instantly in love with Jake and finds Jake endlessly inspiring and entertaining (who doesn't?) because he is!

2. Since we reached our Kickstarter funding goal, Jake finished his feature length screenplay, "The Island of Peace." The story has the heart of Lion King and passion of Beauty and the Beast. It's filled with fantastical creatures and incredible dramatic set pieces. My partner and attorney, Dominique Bravo and I introduced Jake to the professional animation studio, Woo Art, to discuss turning Jake's screenplay -- in stages -- into a feature length animated film. At the meeting, John Woo introduced Jake to the French journeyman animator, Jean Pierre Jaquet. Jean Pierre Jaquet has directed the animation on over 50 half hour television shows. He is great illustrator (as well as a great screen presence in the documentary) and over the course of their last five weeks working together on character design, JP has been drawing Jake's characters, paying careful attention to Jake's original illustrations, while at the same time elevating them to a lively, beautifully conceived professional animation level (without losing Jake's je ne sais quois !!)

3. My cameraman friend, David Hausen (from the Red Hot Chili Peppers documentary, etc.) has been helping me document JP and Jake's in-depth and often heated debates about art and design. The chemistry between these guys is real and incredibly illuminating.

This coming Spring, with Jake's characters fully animated by JP and his screenplay fully edited and polished -- with all of our ducks in a row and meetings with moguls set, we will fly out to Los Angeles to introduce Jake and his magnus opus "The Island of Peace," to the studios.

Hollywood Here We Come!!!!

Dear Gregory Weiss, David Baugnon, Brady Lahr, Matt Coppola, David Shorter, Bonita F. DeWolf, Alison and Stephane, David Bentley, Charlotte Herzele, Keri Harris, Jenny Sandbank, The Moose and The Duke, Mark Reber, Jimmy Zeilinger, Deena Berg, Jeannie, Lisa Bisk, Trancy Landau, Ross Kauffman, Robert Parker, Gordon Taubenheim, Dabni Harvey, Will Becton, Jennifer Thompson, Pamina Gorbach, Michael Sheen, Benjamin Katzenellenbogen, Susan Matthews, Laurie De Vito, Stephen Molstad, Gregger Jones, Andry Grainger, Arthur Reber, Jim Margolis, Judy Sitzer, Steve Patch, Jeff Greenspan, Mark Zilberman, Nancy Jones, Eileen Buser, Norm Magnusson, Michael Termini, Lisanne Norman, Kjetil Kragset, Karen Ires, Francis Tabone, Cheryl Chapman, Amanda Meadows, Nathaniel, Eugene Lavenue & Sandra Lan, Jennifer Belle, Stephen Hoban, Lauren Mann, Ken Wirfel, Laura Cardona, Melicia Phillips, Paul Brown, Ira Waltuck, Susan Gisburg Webman, Meg Villarreal, Carol Salem, Bradley Muro, Lina Wasserman, Mitchell Mignano, Jules Kaufman, Dominique Bravo, Daniel Sternberg, Gil Jones...

Thank you all so much for your investment in Jake: The Film. It's amazing to know you all put your hearts and wallets on the line to help support this project, and we promise to make you glad you did.

Jake just returned from an amazing time at summer camp, I'm back from the Gulf, and we're all working away on Jake's studio pitch for his first major effort, "Island of Peace," filming the process as we go. After that, it's off to Hollywood to try and make Jake's dream -- and this film -- a reality.

Once again, thank you all so much for your support. We will update you regularly as we go and look forward to staying in touch with each and every one of you.

Lots of love,

Josh, Jake and the team...

It's summertime and the living is oily on the Gulf coast. Jake is off at summer camp and according to his mom, Karen, was initially denied admission to the camp because of overbooking, but then after the camp director saw the trailer for Jake the Film, the decision was reversed and Jake was welcomed with open arms. Great news.

Meanwhile, his documentarian friend, Josh (yours truly) is down in the gulf, working on a documentary for public television in Germany on the Deep Water Horizon oil spill. There's as much drama as oil coming out of the pipeline, into this emotionally complicated, environmentally fragile and politically polarized situation. Happy to give anyone more direct and complete information on this, just send a note and I'll do my best.

Back on the Jake train around the 20th of July, when Jake gets out of summer camp. Meanwhile, you'll all notice that we're a long way from meeting our funding goal with only about 2 weeks to go, so if any of you have any friends to forward the kickstarter page to, please do.

Thanks and much love to all of you awesome people.

I hope I'm not embarrassing my good friend and favorite actor in the world, but I wanted to tell you all that Michael Sheen (Frost/Nixon, The Queen, Underworld, Fantabulosa, etc., etc.) has come on board to support Jake! Michael also Tweeted about the project to his MASSIVE list of followers. Last year, Michael stopped by Jake's school to give his fellow actors some acting tips during rehearsals for the Wizard of Oz at Cooke Center. You can see it here, in the "Making of the Wizard of Oz" video I put together for the kids at Jake's school:

http://vimeo.com/8325104

Thank you, Michael Sheen!

Today we're doing a green screen shoot with Jake on a sound stage. Jake will talk in front of a green screen about his favorite animated films, and then via the magic of post production, we will insert those films into frame to give the impression that Jake is actually INSIDE the films he knows so much about. I hope the idea works, and doesn't look too cheesy.

Meanwhile, thanks everybody for your (continued) support.

Woohoo!