As promised, the last of the Dennis rewards have been dropped at the Post Office and should be making their way to all of you very soon.  Please enjoy and thanks again for your support.  We'll continue to update you in the coming weeks and months as Dennis moves on to festival submissions!

Thanks again!

Dear Friends of Dennis,

Just wanted to let all of you who pledged at the $25 level or higher know that your Dennis related rewards will be in the mail within the next week or so.  We're very excited to share the final film with all of you, as well as some cool merchandise in appreciation of your support.

Also, if your address has changed since we've last communicated, please update us with your new address by sending a message to dennisthefilm@gmail.com.  If we don't hear from you by this Saturday, October 8, your package(s) will be sent to the address you previously provided.

Thanks again for all of your support throughout the process.  Expect another update when the packages officially hit the mail!

- Phil

Exciting things are happening in the world of Dennis lately and we thought we'd jump in and spread the news as of late:

First of all, a few months back we were approached by David Cusak, an extremely talented artist based out of Seattle, who was interested in designing and sculpting a true-to-form model of the big guy himself. After laboring away, and basing the model on the brilliant original DENNIS design of Tim Kent, David has delivered something that has truly blown us away. More photographs can be seen over at our production blog. If you like what you see (and, really, how could you not?), more of David's work can be found at www.idlehandstudios.com. The photographs of the statue were taken by equally talented Clayton Cusak. From all of us here at the Dennis team, we want to thank David for his contribution. Hopefully, this miniature Dennis will be accompanying us to wherever the film is shown.

Secondly, speaking of the film, we are quickly closing in on completion and the finish line is in sight. Color correction, editing, titles and ADR are locked. All that's left is little final polish before Dennis is ready to take on the world. We'll make sure to let you know via the various networks when everything is in the can (so to speak) and what the next steps are, which will be in just a few short weeks from now.

And lastly, we are in the preliminary stages of putting together a Portland area fundraiser for the few remaining costs that need to be attended to. With that said, if you haven't contributed to the film yet, there's still time to do so via PayPal where you can still get access to our various rewards and merchandise. As soon as the date and details are set, we'll make sure to let everyone know.

Big thanks to the Willamette Week for writing up DENNIS as part of their article "A Kick in the Arts" about the influence of Kickstarter on Portland-area creatives.

Check it out online here, or if you live in the PDX metro, pick it up in print!

Though things have been a little quiet around DENNIS Headquarters in the last few months, we hope this makes it worth the wait and gives you an idea of everything that's been happening behind the scenes. Today we unveil the official Dennis teaser, giving everyone a first glimpse of the big man in action.

We're currently in the process of finishing up post-production on the film and plan on starting to submit to national and international festivals a little later this fall.

As far as rewards are concerned, keep an eye on your mailboxes in early 2011. There's still time to pledge your support to DENNIS (or up your pledge) and receive an awesome assortment of rewards. Your support will help to fund the film as we move further into post-production and festival submission. Visit the official Dennis website for complete details and instructions.

In the meantime, let us know what you think in the comments section and, just to be safe, you might want double check under your bed before falling asleep to tonight.

Principal photography for DENNIS took place over the Memorial Day weekend, and we couldn't be happier with the results.

We've posted a ton of pictures of at the 'Members-Only' section of our production blog, but we've given you a teaser below. If you missed out on donating the first time around, and you are still interested in gaining access to our production blog (or in getting your hands on other Dennis-related rewards), you can still donate to our project over at our official website.

Thanks again for you support!

- Phil

(In the photo: DENNIS director KYLE ALDRICH working with "Hector," one of Dennis' fellow 'childaholics anonymous' monsters.)

It’s been a while since you’ve last heard from us, but we’ve been far from slacking off. Kyle and his Portland team have been moving through pre-production at a feverish pace and come this weekend (May 28-29), we’ll be moving into production and DENNIS WILL LIVE.

The cast has been set and the Dennis costume has been completed. We’ll hopefully be posting pictures in the ‘members-only’ section of our production blog in a few days.

Thanks again for all of your support and expect a lot more Dennis information coming your way very soon!

- Phil

P.S. : We'll also be revamping the Dennis website very soon. Stay tuned for changes!

And now for the moment that everyone (or at least, a few people) have been waiting for:

The WINNERS of the original concept art raffle. Everyone who donated at the $50 level or higher was automatically entered into the raffle. Each piece of concept art is hand-drawn and painted by DENNIS director Kyle Aldrich. There are only four of these in existence...

Without further ado, the winners - chosen by the tried and true method of pulling names from a hat - are:

Isla McKetta, Kyle Fitch, Mattson Tomlin, and Dan and Barbara DiCillo!

Congratulations! We’ll have these in the mail very soon, so keep an eye out for Dennis lurking in your mailbox.

Just in case you want to see what these pieces look like, we posted some pictures over on our 'Production Blog' a while back.

Hello Everyone!

As you've probably seen, we've been successful in our funding. First of all, we'd like to thank everyone for pledging both your money and your support. We are very proud to know you and humbled by your generosity.

So whats the next step? Easy, we make the movie.

However, there are some other things that directly affect you - mainly the rewards! Here's how it will work.

In the next couple of days, you'll receive an e-mail from Kickstarter asking for your contact information. Simply fill out the form and send it on. Time will pass before you receive rewards, seeing how if you are expecting a DVD, the movie needs to be made first :) We're going to wait until everything is finished (hopefully mid summer), before sending out all of our reward packets. We'll update frequently this very blog to keep everyone up to speed on the rewards process.

For everything not related to rewards, such as our production updates, etc..., please bookmark our 'Production Blog' at http://www.mynameisdennis.com/?page_id=6. Over the next few weeks and months, this blog is going to become very active, and by using your 'member's only' password, you'll will be privy to a lot of cool content.

Another great way (if you haven't done so already) to stay afloat on all things DENNIS is to become a fan of the movie on Facebook (facebook.com/dennisthefilm) or follow me and Kyle on Twitter.

One last thing: later today (or tomorrow), we'll be drawing names for the raffle on who gets the original concept artwork. We'll post again later regarding the winners. Stay tuned.

Thanks again,
Phil

Thanks to everyone who has donated! We made our goal and every sentence in this update will end with an exclamation point! This has been such a great experience and we look forward to getting started on this movie! Thanks to all our friends, families, and new friends from the internet world for making this happen!

We'll have more details to come on everything! Stay tuned! Good night!

11th days to go until our Kickstarter campaign ends and we're only 20% away from reaching our goal!

We only need a tinge over $700 to make DENNIS a reality. Thank you to all who have pledged so far. Please, please, PLEASE, if you know of anyone at this point who would be interested in giving in the spirit of DIY filmmaking, alert them to our project. Your continued support is very much appreciated!

Thank you again and enjoy the first day of Spring!

As a long-time Seattleite, I have listened to KEXP for many years. It's a great, community-supported, non-profit radio station that plays whatever they want. No corporate interests, no bot-djs. Real people playing great, mostly-independent music.

However, I never donated during their pledge drives in the past - until today. Carrying out this KSR project - a project that depends on the support of the creative and art-minded community - made me realize the true importance of supporting DIY Art and Media.

Here's the e-mail I sent to 'John in Morning' at KEXP and was fortunate enough to have read on-air:

"I'm a long-time listener who pledged for the first time today. Trust me, I've always felt a little bad during the pledge drives - leeching off of the great content that KEXP offers while keeping my wallet firmly planted in my back-pocket. I have even worked a few pledge drives in the phone room and had to secretly hide my shame of not pledging my support to this great local station. However, the importance of community art and DIY media hit home as I started to use this community for my own projects. I am a writer and filmmaker in the process of funding a short film via Kickstarter.com. Seeing how people - people I don't know in faraway cities - are reaching out to support something they believe in has inspired me to do the same with KEXP. I love my local music scene and by supporting KEXP I continue to 'kickstart' their art, much as people around the country - and the world - are doing for me."

Thank you again to everyone who has pledged to support our little piece of art, DENNIS. With your help - and the help of those like you - we'll make this film.

- Phil

23 days left and a little less than 2/3s of the way to go. It's crunch time, but we're still confident that we're going to make our goal.

With that said, please - if you are passionate about seeing this film made - help spread the word. We came to Kickstarter looking for a way to fund a movie, but we ended up discovering a close community of awesome people that we never imagined existed online. Please bring more people into this community. It's not everyday that you can say you helped make a short film, especially a film starring a giant puppet monster.

Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Word-of-Mouth... anything helps!!

Thanks again to everyone who has pledged so far! Dennis would hug you if he didn't run the risk of suffocating you in the process.

- Phil

One more reason to be wary of your kids using Facebook. DENNIS now has his very own page. Do you want to be a fan?

You better be.

Here's the link: http://bit.ly/apj7Vl

UPDATE (2/25/10): We've decided to extend the raffle up until 12:00 AM PST on March 31, 2010. The changes are reflected below.

We've decided to raffle off the original DENNIS concept art. To be automatically entered in this raffle, all you need to do is donate at the $50 level or higher via our Kickstarter campaign before 12:00 AM PST on March 31, 2010. Those who have already donated at the $50 level or higher are already entered. Those who donated at a lower level can up their pledge and be automatically entered as well.

Each watercolor painting is handpainted and signed by DENNIS director Kyle Aldrich. Please note: EVERYONE who donates at the $50 level or higher still gets the awesome swag listed in the rewards section. We make no promises about the odds of winning, and encourage only those who are interested in supporting the film to pledge. Long story short, this isn't gambling, only pledge if you're interested in seeing DENNIS make his movie. The paintings are just a plus.

We'll put all the eligible pledges in a hat and pull the names of the four winners on April 1, 2010. Winners will be notified via a message to their Kickstarter account.

Oh and most importantly, here are pictures of the paintings up for grabs...

Thanks!
- Phil