Ken Cuccinelli says “It goes to 11!” – and introducing Blu-ray!
Eleven days to go. Eleven thousand dollars raised. And the next backer will be our 111th!
We are reminded of the moment on our shoot when we captured our main character Ben meeting then-State Senator Ken Cuccinelli (now Virginia's passionate Attorney General, running for Governor of Virginia, and on the verge of national prominence according to a Politico article last week) for the first time. Ken didn't miss a beat and made a joke about Spinal Tap the first time we filmed him – “This vote goes to 11!” as you'll see IN THE VIDEO BELOW! Ben went on to work on Ken's next campaign as you'll see in the film. Now how many teenagers can say that they have the moment they met their political hero on film?
On this campaign, now is the time for action. As a lot of month-long campaigns go on Kickstarter, it's been a slow middle stretch. We're sitting at around a "5" (in This is Spinal Tap terms), and at the 10-days-to-go mark (rapidly approaching!) we need to turn up the dial! We're so grateful to you for taking the biggest step and becoming a backer in the first place – and we know that means you want us to succeed in reach our goal (because as you know, if we don't reach our goal, we get NOTHING – and all pledges disappear).
Some of you have asked if you can increase your pledges – which you can certainly do at any time if you'd like. If you "manage your pledge," you can also raise your reward level...and we'll be announcing new rewards throughout this coming week. Today's new reward is Follow the Leader on Blu-ray at $80 (thanks to our amazing, talented, absolutely dedicated colorist, Pedro Padilla at Rif Raf Creative!)!
Essentially we now have $16,000 to raise in 10 days – and YES, we can turn it up & do it! Since we have 110 backers – we calculate that if every backer convinces just ONE OTHER BACKER to give $20 EACH DAY for the next 10 days (or perhaps brings in TWO new backers at $100!), we will exceed our goal!
We will be sending out more updates and doing everything we can – as we have been for the past 7+ years, which have included several brushes with bankruptcy along many other rather serious challenges. Will you do something more to help make this happen – and start forwarding this link (personal emails to one other person have the greatest chance of success!) with your own brief, empassioned endorsement to your friends, family & colleagues so that we can change the political conversation in our country for the better?
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/followtheleader/follow-the-leader-and-reality-check-interactive
We also have serious news this update -- and we send out two wishes for speedy recoveries to full health for important members of our Follow the Leader community. Though we don't want to name her for privacy reasons, the husband of one of our core team members was rushed to the hospital a few days ago for what we all hope and pray are simply tests – our hearts are with you, and you've really gone way beyond what we would expect to even stay in touch and be as active in the campaign during this difficult time. And we also extend wishes for continued recovery to Fairfax County Supervisor Pat Herrity (who introduces Ben to Ken in the clip below in this update, when he was first running for the position!). We hear Pat's making a strong recovery from open heart surgery and doing very well – our thoughts and prayers have been with you since we heard this news only a few days ago!
Let us close by pointing out that Follow the Leader's Director himself was actually born on November 11th (that's 11/11!) – so we do feel the stars are aligned for this to be an important moment to make a big push toward our shared goals. We can feel the electricity in the air as the amp is turned up. Can you feel it too? Together, we can turn this campaign up to 11!
With gratitude for everything you have done and anything you might do,
Jonathan & Team Follow the Leader
P.S. Changeworx's first ever E-Newsletter went out on Thursday – if you're not already on our mailing list and interested to know about what else we have in the pipeline, it's up now on our website!
