Kickstarter

UPSIDE-DOWN CHIN VIDEOS

There are over 20,000 upside-down chin face videos on YouTube, many with over 500,000 views! Crazy Chins Movie Maker Kits let you easily make and share hilarious upside-down chin videos online with your smart phone. Each kit comes with a Hollywood-quality chin mask, a portable pop out green screen that covers the rest of your face and a corresponding facepaint pen. Kits are used with our free Crazy Chins Movie Maker App.

ABOUT US

Tim Walsh and Chris Abbott are the fearless leaders of Crazy Chins Digital, a company committed to “Reinventing Mobile Movie Making.” Tim is a toy and game designer, author and play entrepreneur. Chris is an expert in lean startup entrepreneurism and chief navigator of the digital landscape.

BACKGROUND

Welcome, Kickstarters! Tim here. I made my first upside-down chin character in 1974 when I was a 10-years old. I would draw eyes on my chin, lie upside down over the edge of my bed, cover up the rest of my face with a towel and crack up my sisters as a little chinface man. When I became a game a toy inventor as an adult, I thought back to the hysterical upside-down chin days of my youth and thought, “Maybe these characters could become a toy?” In 2010, I became the subject of the documentary film, Toyland from director Ken Sons. In the film, Ken followed me for nearly two years as I developed the Crazy Chins idea and bring it to market.

Dennis Callaghan of Tree Toys in Australia saw Toyland and contacted me about manufacturing the toy. Through the collaboration with Tree Toys, Crazy Chins evolved from a face painting concept, to a movie making toy, complete with masks and portable green screens. This crucial change eliminated the need for elaborate face painting or towels to cover up the rest of your face.  With manufacturing in place, the missing piece was an easier way to make and post the videos.

That’s when I met Chris at Toy Fair, the toy industry’s annual mega-trade show in New York City. Chris jumped on board to create an app that uses the iPhone’s amazing video camera to recognize the green screen and replace it with a background of your choice. The app also flips the chin (no more lying upside-down!) and allows you to post your movie masterpiece to YouTube with the push of a single button.

Hey Kickstarters! Chris here. I developed a product timeline to develop and launch the iPhone and iPod touch version of the Crazy Chins Movie Maker App. It took us 4 months of development plus another month of tweaking through the approval process. You can find the free app live in the Apple store here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/crazychins/id519254312?mt=8

If you have an iPhone or iPod touch, download the software, select record and try it on the screen below right now. You will instantly see the green background disappear!

Here’s the tutorial video that is within the app, showing you exactly how it works:

We tooled up and produced a demo set of three “monster mania” masks. We used these masks to work out the software and gain valuable feedback on how to improve and make the software sync with picture and sound. We were ready to greenlight manufacturing when our retailers commented, “It’s great that your app works on Apple devices, BUT WE CANT MOVE FORWARD WITHOUT ANDROID”

GOALS

Your support helps us in two ways. First, it will pay our creative and development team to build the Android version of the app across the 4 month development cycle and assure that the app will work on all Android devices. If the project is funded, the free Android version of the Crazy Chins Movie Maker App will be on the play store in time for Christmas. 

Secondly, your support gets Apple lovers and owners of iPhone, IPod Touch or IPad 2 in on the fun right now, before Crazy Chins goes global! Crazy Chins is all about people creating fun movies and sharing them with others. In order for this crazy idea to work, we need people to make and share hilarious movies.

Our Goal is to add at least 500 videos to our Crazy Chins YouTube channel, created by our kickstarters, using the Apple version of the app.

The kickstarter community is the perfect place to find the passionate, creative people we need to kickstart the making and sharing of these kind of movies. Join the craziness and “Turn Your World Upside-Down!”

PRODUCT REWARDS

Because we’ve already spent tons of time and money, we have ACTUAL PRODUCT and some great rewards. Kickstarters will get them before anybody else in the world! 

Pop-Out Green Screens: These are the exact color green recognized by our Crazy Chins Movie Maker App. With the Apps (Apple and Android coming soon) you can replace what’s green with any number of cool backgrounds.

Masks: Hollywood-quality chin masks feature adjustable elastic straps that hold them on your chin.

Shipping Now: Dracula, Werewolf and Frankenstein

Facepaint Pens: Safety-tested and approved to use as a cosmetic. Will ship with instructions for proper use. Each comes with a twist cap.

Retailer Package: For toy retailers within the US only. Must show proof of store ownership. This is our sealed, hang tab packaging, which will also stand on a shelf. Includes a mask, single green screen, corresponding facepaint pen PLUS movie making and facepainting tips. SRP: $14.99. Packaging graphics may vary.

EXPERIENTIAL REWARDS

We work and play within the greatest industry in the world and recognize that many want in on the fun. Join us for some seriously wild, but limited experiential rewards.

A Day at Toy Fair

If you want the ultimate experience in toys and games then the annual Toy Fair in New York is it. This show is not open to the public, so you will join our company for the day and be put to work and play! Toy Fair is the largest trade show for toys in the Western Hemisphere and it’s where you can see toys before they are introduced to the world. With this reward you will receive two passes for you and a friend to attend Toy Fair as our guests, plus breakfast with us (Tim and Chris). We will answer your questions about the toy industry (perhaps you have an idea) and send you off with all 10 of our Crazy Chins Movie Maker kits and a signed copy of Tim’s book, Timeless Toys. (Lodging and travel to and from New York City not included)

Inventor Retreat

If you’re an inventor or business person and would like some help and ideas on taking your project to the next level, this reward is for you. You will receive a full day of our attention in sunny, Sarasota, Florida. We will go over your product and discuss strategy and the best way to get you to market. It includes 4 hours of time in our office, plus lunch on us by beautiful Sarasota bay. We’ll also ship you all 10 of our Crazy Chins Movie Maker kits, a copy of Toyland, the documentary film that features the development of Crazy Chins, and a signed copy of Tim’s book, Timeless Toys. Who knows where the conversation will lead! (Lodging and travel to and from Sarasota not included).

Custom Crazy Chins Mask of Your Face!

Some people want to see their name in lights, others want to see their face in plastic. We tried to come up with something super crazy and exciting as a MEGA Reward and this is it. You provide us with a picture of your face, plus left and right profile pictures and we’ll work with you to create a custom Crazy Chins mask of you as a Pirate, a Witch, a Gnome, a Fairy or some other character. We’ll provide you with 100 free copies of your mask along with 100 screens for your friends, family and co-workers, PLUS we will list a limited run of these masks in our online store so others can find you! That’s Crazy!

STRETCH GOALS

We think optimistically. We’re entrepreneurs in 2012, for crying out loud! If we surpass our project goal of $10,000, here are just a few of the ideas we will implement to expand the Crazy Chins brand:

New masks! We’ve got dozens of new mask ideas just waiting to be sculpted. The greater the variety of masks we offer, the more likely that kids, teens and adults will find one that speaks to them… and then they can speak through it!
Licensed masks! We think SpongeBob, Batman and many other characters are just begging to be turned into Crazy Chins characters.

Moving backgrounds! It’s one thing to make a movie set in a jungle, it’s quite another to make a movie in the jungle where you're being chased by a dinosaur.

Foregrounds! What if your Crazy Chins character could be speaking behind a podium or behind a banner that wished your Grandma a happy birthday? Imagine creating the most hilarious video greeting cards… ever.

Other props! Imagine the fun of wigs, hats and a variety of eye balls. We do!

GRATITUDE

Thank you for reviewing our project! We will be giving you updates as the 3D designs come in for our new masks, all of which will be completed in July.

Please consider getting on board with us and please please consider sharing this page with your friends. We really appreciate it!

Seize the Play!

Tim & Chris