Kickstarter

I've created a Google Doc Spreadsheet that anyone can see/update. It is my first stab at coordinating a team around TR2012. So far it is only populated with volunteers, but if I need to dip into TR2012 budget to push things along, will do. 

Jamie Telford is the first volunteer to throw new assets my way, a 3D CGI sequence illustrating Earth's magnetic field.

This is an early draft asset. But still... this is useful stuff. Useful stuff I'd never have had been able to create on my own.

I had no CGI assistance with TR2011, despite asking around. I simply didn't know enough people who could help, pre-TR2011 (and this KickStarter campaign).

So imagine a fully developed uninterrupted CGI sequence here, behind chroma-keyed thorium advocates making this same technical point... TR2012 is going to be a big step up in quality!

Language translation is another task which is simply impossible to do myself, and is prohibitively expensive.

Already, TR2012 volunteers are actively helping translate TR2011 into foreign languages (since there's no TR2012 or TEAC4 video to translate at this time). TR2011 still educates ~1000 people/day on the subject of LFTR. Translator efforts ensure we're reaching as wide an audience as possible with our existing TR2011 material.

If you see a crappy Machine Translation on TR2011, ping me and I'll get you everything you need to help fix it. I don't expect miracles, even just cleaning up the first 5 minutes is a big deal. If you're Git savvy, here is the translation repository. (Please update the spreadsheet to let others know you're helping with a language, and ensure your language isn't being translated outside of Git!)

Even captioning efforts have been advanced, by Frankie Fenton (who is creating The Good Reactor thorium doc). He spotted the KickStarter campaign, and mentioned he'd been transcribing TEAC3 for his own research purposes. He shared those transcriptions with me and 20 minutes later Alexander Cannara, James Kennedy, Charles Holden, Joe Bonometti, Kim Johnson, Bogdan Maglich, and David LeBlanc had closed captioned videos. 20 minutes later! [Gordon gestures wildly to emphasis how much YouTube SEO and usability was added with nearly no effort what-so-ever.]

Kirk Sorensen has agreed to some pre-TEAC4 shooting. We'll have a chroma-keyed science lecture captured shortly before the conference. Looks like the amount of Kirk time I'll have availalbe will put TR2011 to shame. Which is particularly great for TEAC4... I'll be able to spend more time interviewing to everyone else.

"How are our pledged funds being spent?" you may wonder. Well so far, the only guaranteed expenses are travel (to TEAC4 & back), and a single professional videographer for pre-TEAC4 capture and TEAC4 coverage. I'm willing to dedicate money to a second professional videographer at TEAC4 if needed. But hopefully skilled volunteers can fill that role.

The best-bang-for-the-buck will be become clear as volunteers step forward to help with videography (at TEAC4 for now), animation, video b-roll and anything else they/you can think of to help.

Needed assets will be expanded after I've started working with footage post-TEAC4. If I can't fill the roles with volunteers I will start offering bounties via the spreadsheet.

And even if you're not a professional videographer, that doesn't mean you shouldn't keep your eyes open for useful visuals. Think about TR2011. If you see something in your daily life that would have helped communicate a portion of TR2011 visually, chances are it will be of use in TR2012. For example:

• Are high winds forcing your power utility to disable their wind turbines?
• Do you have a neighbour who wants to talk about their roof solar panels? 
  
• Did someone you know pick up a VOLT or LEAF electric car and want to talk about it?
• Are you in the military? Do you have footage of supply chain logistics?

Obviously, there's no way of knowing I'll be able to use your footage. (Often depending on sound quality if audio needed.) But what might be insanely easy for you to capture may be hard/expensive for me to get. Why not error on the side of record-it, upload it to YouTube (as UNLISTED if you prefer) and share the URL with me (or all of KS via a comment post). If you (as a LFTR supporter) think it is interesting, chances are that I will think it is interesting too, whether I can use it or not.

Thanks again everyone for your time & money. Even if all I'd gotten out of KickStarter was the support of volunteers, we'd be looking at a solid improvement over TR2011. It is clear TR2012 will be much more than that.

-Gord