I know it's only been a week since last update, but I wanted to let all of you know that I’ve decided to cancel my latest Kickstarter campaign. Despite a strong reception I realize very quickly that the project would not have enough momentum to go all the way. I also realize I need to take the project further along before launching.

Obviously this is a bit this disappointing for me but I’ve learned a lot process. If you’re interested in reading about why I think the project failed, check out my post Studying Failure. If you’re interested in learning more about where StreetXSW is going, please check out www.StreetXSW.com.

Since I left my job five years ago this has been one of the toughest questions for me to answer. Most of my previous projects failed to get traction or did not go as planned. That is until I found Kickstarter.

Identifying Nelson was the first time that any of my projects really caught on. It was thanks to your support that we hit our goal and were able to start our film.

My experience with this project triggered something in my head. It was as if everything I had been learning and experimenting with finally clicked. I understood that Kickstarter was a powerful platform which could help my projects achieve a level of success that I had, previously, not been able to.

However, before I was going to launch a big project on the site I wanted to learn as much as I could about the way it worked. Over the summer I wrote a guide to Kickstarter. I studied the very best projects, interviewed the people behind them and recounted everything that I learned. The e-book has gotten some great feedback and helped other people get their projects successfully funded.

After the book was finished I decided to take everything that I learned about Kickstarter, entrepreneurship, marketing, film making, and storytelling, and combine them into a project that would not only push me creatively but also make financial sense. That project is called StreetXSW.

It is a photojournalism project that looks at how, in our over-connected world, our desire to stay connected can sometimes hurt our experience of life.

In many ways I see this project as the culmination of everything that I’ve learned over the past couple years. I’ve put everything I have into making this project meaningful and relevant. I have to say I think it’s some of the best work I’ve ever done. 

Once again I am asking for your help. While I understand not all of you will be interested in being part of StreetXSW project I hope that you will share it with your networks. Kickstarter projects are only successful if people share the project with others. 

Check it out and let me know what you think. When you do share please try to use the link below as it will help me track the progress of the campaign.

A Special Thanks

I just want to take a second to thank John for everything that he has done. I know that sometimes the enormity of my story overshadows the work he has done in telling it. 

Besides working together on Identifying Nelson John has helped me with my writing, storytelling and video production. Our collaboration has been one of the most rewarding things to come out of this whole process. 

Looking Forward

I say this a lot, but it’s true, storytelling is hard! John and I are still plugging away with Identifying Nelson/Buscando A Roberto. We have the opening scene, which you saw, and the ending in a very good place. Now we are trying to flesh out the middle and bring everything together. We look forward to releasing the first third of the movie in the coming months.

Last week I was in LA visiting John and doing some work on our upcoming release. Last Friday we had an event at KCPP a Los Angeles public radio station. We showed clips from the film and had an open discussion with members of the Salvadoran community there. It was a wonderful event and even attracted the press.

Friday and Wednesday night Channel 22, a Spanish speakings station in LA, ran two pieces about the event and our story. We are getting copies and hopefully we will be able to share those with you at some point.

This morning the Latino Voices section of the Huffington Post featured a great write up about our film. If you have a moment please check it out.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/03/el-salvador-adoption-identifying-nelson_n_1073980.html

P.S. We are almost ready to realease some footage, so keep an eye out for something from us. :)

I know I just wrote everyone last week but I wanted to share some exciting developments with you. As I mentioned John sent me an 8 minute video which was rough cut of our opening. It’s a great start. For the first time I really feel like we are making…a film! That might sound like a weird but watching raw footage is nothing like seeing it edited together. This was the first time that I could see something that looked a real film.

For whatever reason that 8 minute video sparked a lot of discussion between us. We came up with some great ideas about how to tell the story using family member interviews and the different themes we wanted to use. We talked about how certain clips can play off each other and what we still need to work out.

Every time I write one of these updates I feel like I am saying the same thing: “We are editing and the video is coming.” The truth is story telling is HARD. It takes a lot of work to figure out what to include and what to leave out. After this our last conversation I really feel like we are making progress in building a compelling narrative and I’m excited to see where these developments lead. Hopefully we will have something substantial to show all of you in the coming months.

A Kickstarter’s Guide is going to SXSW

In my last update I also talked about a new project I am working on called A Kickstarter’s Guide to Kickstarter. So far the project is going great. I’m just over a week into the project and it’s already over 50% funded! It is really connecting with people and I have been getting a lot of great feedback.

A long with the e-book I submitted a proposal to speak at SXSW about the same topic. SXSW is an amazing festival that takes place every march in Austin Texas. It has three parts, film, music, and interactive. I submitted to speak at the interactive part of the festival, which has to do with technology and the web.

Speaking at SXSW is very competitive. There were 3600 proposals for 500 spots. SXSW has just opened up the proposal to public voting. This means that people can vote for proposals that they want to see at SXSW. I would really appreciate if you took a second and voted for my talk as public voting accounts for 30% of the process. You will need to register on the site but it shouldn’t be that complicated. Please follow the link below to vote for me. Thank you for all your support!

http://bit.ly/q7dHha