Kickstarter

Dear backers of Franklin the Ladies' Cat,

As you know, I adapted the Franklin short into the debut episode of a web series -- an accomplishment sure to be rewarded by the Academy come February 24th. 

Some of you may have already discovered that a second episode is now on YouTube! That's right, for the price of zero dollars you can now have twice as much amorous cat in your life. CHECK IT OUT RIGHT HERE:

http://youtu.be/8O5kcPP5e28

Please help out by Liking the video, sharing it with bipeds and quadrupeds alike, leaving positive comments, blogging about it, Facebooking it, forcing your friends to watch it, etc. The new episode has better sound, more dynamic animation, new angles, a dance sequence and a hot-tub scene -- sort of.

I have also established an EDLUNDART page on Facebook that you can 'Like' for updates on Franklin and other fun projects: http://www.facebook.com/edlundart (Fret not -- I don't post frequently).

Finally, a reminder that you can always find links to buy cool Franklin gear at http://www.franklintheladiescat.com -- including t-shirts.

Thanks again for your support, and have an awesome weekend. Meeeoooww!

Bard Edlund

http://www.edlundart.com

I'm very happy to announce that Franklin the Ladies' Cat is finished on schedule! For those of you who qualify, a link to watch and download the film in HD will be sent in a separate message moments from now. Eventually, as promised, anyone will be able to watch it. Thank you so much for helping to make this project a reality!

Franklin desktop wallpapers and mp3 files of the Franklin theme (plus the theme from "Gone," my previous animated short) are also ready to download, depending on your contribution level. They're stored on Dropbox, so please look out for an email about that. If you have any trouble getting your files, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

No film release would be complete without ridiculous promotional merchandise, so of course I have also prepped various t-shirts, mugs, water bottles, and other things you don't necessarily need. Links to shop for those items can be found now on FranklinTheLadiesCat.com. I'm also selling more original drawings, if you missed out during the campaign, or just want more for yourself or a friend or family member.

I have spent so much time and energy on this film, that I have next to no clue any longer whether it is funny or beautiful or cute or worthwhile on some other level. I know it's imperfect. Everything artistic always is, and it's what keeps us creative folks chasing the next project, which surely will be perfect, until it is not. But whatever this is, I'm proud of it, and very thankful for your support.

Franklin's a small cat in a pretty big world. My next mission will be to try to build a bigger audience for him. Let me know what you think of our little film. Your thoughts count.

Love,
Bard

We're two weeks into July, which means we're about two weeks away from a finished Franklin the Ladies' Cat film!

The vast majority of you should have your various physical Franklin rewards in hand. The digital ones will come around the time the film is ready.

A lot of my work now is lip-syncing and otherwise putting together the interview shots of Franklin. All the core street shots are already done, although I've written in a new sequence that will require several additional scenes. In the past two days I animated a couple of shots involving trash cans and a banana peel, a lonely street scene, and a construction site scene, among other things. The entire credits sequence is done. The voice-over is done, and the music is essentially done (will likely need submixes or different edits), while the on-the-street audio is not complete yet. I scrapped the first attempt as I wasn't happy with the sound quality. I'll be focusing on all the ambient sound and outdoor dialog in the next couple of days, while continuing to work on lip-syncing the interview shots.

A lot of the work I put into the project in the past, apart from designing the character and the overall look of the film, was about creating assets and testing methods so that actually putting together the final thing would be more efficient. That's working out pretty well -- I'm getting a lot done rather quickly now. Having confirmed this also means that doing additional Franklin projects in the future is clearly a possibility.

Below is one of the recent shots.  Things are going well, I expect to be on schedule, and I look forward to putting this thing out into the world! Thank you again for all your support.

Bard

There hasn't been a whole lot to report in a while, as I have had to focus on some other projects, but this afternoon I wrapped up the production files for the Franklin postcards and sent them to the printers! 

Assuming all goes well with the print job, the cards should be in my hands by June 25th. My estimated delivery for all rewards packages was "July," except for the $5 postcard-only level, for which I estimated "June." I'm feeling very good about my July promise, but may be a taaaad late on the June one, depending on how smoothly things go with the surveys and everything.

Speaking of the surveys: I have not yet sent them out, as Kickstarter advised not requesting addresses before I'm ready to ship my rewards. Sage advice, as some people may move a couple of days before I ship! Rest assured, I will send out the surveys as soon as I have everything ready.

When it comes to the film itself, I have cleared my calendar for July to focus exclusively on finishing it. I'll share some details around the production once things heat up!

Thank you again for your support.

Bard