About this project

I Got Next is a documentary on the fighting game scene that started as my Senior Project at Purchase College, School of Art + Design. I originally envisioned a very small project, but as I traveled and grew more involved in the scene, the documentary grew as well thanks to the support of the passionate and dedicated community. I Got Next follows four prominent players, Justin Wong, Ryan "Gootecks" Gutierrez, Joe "iloveu" Ciaramelli and Mike Ross through their experiences in the fighting game scene with the recent release of Street Fighter 4, which has caused a resurgence in the fighting game genre and a rekindling of the East Coast/West Coast rivalry that had died down in years past.

So far I've funded the project myself (with some help from generous community members who have donated to support the film), and have released a free "short cut" of the documentary online that covers events from the North Eastern Championships in December to Final Round in mid March. The short cut of the documentary, which runs 45 minutes, can be found at http://www.igotnextmovie.com. I have been shooting since March and recently returned from Las Vegas, filming at the largest fighting game tournament in the world, Evolution (www.evo2k.com). Evolution will be a focal point of the feature length cut, which I expect to finish early next year. I still have a few events to film in the next coming months, but shooting is almost wrapped.

I edited and did all the motion design for the short cut of the film and the trailer (which I shot in HD) on a PC that is going on four years old. At the time, 2.41 GHz AMD dual core, with 3.5 gigs of ram and a Nvidia 8800 GTS card was pretty awesome, but now it can hardly open up my Premiere file, let alone render the film. In fact, the 45 minute "short cut" took over 35 hours to render. Unfortunately now the film has grown to the limits of what my current computer can handle. The feature length film will be at least twice as long as the short cut of the film. So I'm looking for support to buy a new machine because I will not be able to finish the full length cut of the film on the machine I have. I have more events to cover in the upcoming months but do not have the money to pay the travel expenses; these pledges will allow me to complete the documentary.

Please tell anyone who you think would be interested in the project. If you can't donate, please spread the word!

As someone on the SRK forums made me realize, only shipping within the US is covered, shipping overseas is extra, sorry!

I'm very thankful for all the support I've already received, so anyone who previously donated through the old "donate" button on the I Got Next website will be getting the backer rewards as well. Thank you for donating!

Press on I Got Next:
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/27/i-got-next-gives-inside-look-at-fighting-game-tourney-scene/
http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/696834/Watch-This-I-Got-Next-A-Documentary-on-the-Fighting-Game-Scene.html
http://www.giantbomb.com/news/i-got-next-gets-got/1517/

Reviews:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/92661-Street-Fighter-Documentary-I-Got-Next-Premieres-Friday
http://www.gytnews.com/post/153239722/i-got-next-pulls-no-punches
http://rabbit-robot.com/...

For more information (interviews, reviews, press and supplemental info) on the project:
http://www.igotnextmovie.com/links.html

Thank you for your time,

- Ian