Kickstarter

Shadows of the Auto-Maiden is a live action, online comic. Live action meaning that what will make this comic significantly different from most other comics is that it will use photographs of actual people & places to portray the story, not just drawn images. Since the comic itself will be online, video will be integrated into the comic as well. To utilize these various multimedia aspects, the story of Shadows of the Auto-Maiden was created as a story prototype for dancers. This will not only provide a platform for dancers to have their own artistic expression on, but can be a new style of entertainment that people can interact with & contribute to.

 

The project is more of a reaction to the lack of support for street dancers in the current arts industry. Generally speaking, street dancers don’t have a solid platform to be able to showcase their talent to the public. The current platforms that street dancers have "professionally" are limiting because they're not always given the creative control as to the content produced for their own performances leaving the audience that wants to see this type of dancing no direct access to do so. Video sharing sites (e.g. YouTube or Vimeo) are great but with a million different videos readily available, a talented dancer could potentially get lost in a sea of videos, or unappreciated by the context of the untrained eye. This is also one of the least lucrative options available.

Thus street dancers are left with a few options in the already highly competitive fields of, A) joining a dance company/entertainment company either in music videos or stage performances; B) in a more recent development, dancers can audition for a reality TV show, which may not actually be conducive to all dancers being able to join the show if for some reason a dancer doesn’t fit into the right criteria of what the television company maybe looking for to begin with. C) Becoming a dance teacher. These options have given people great opportunities & experiences so it's understandable how & why these options exist. However these options are what are only available through mainstream media and can never really capture the raw essence of street dancing & the culture it comes from, i.e. it has to be “watered down” in order for it to become accessible to the public, but by doing so, limiting the spectrum of talent that could potentially be a great asset to the world of dancing. It is very commonplace within the dance community to stop dancing after putting in strenuous amounts of time & effort into the field simply because one could not make "a living" off of what they love to do, or they were never allowed to have that creative control as to what kind of dancing they wanted to produce regardless of how talented they might be.

This boils down to the feelings that all the street dancers that have practiced for so many years, had put so much energy & work into what they loved to do, had very little to look forward to in terms of what any street dancer can actually do with their dancing besides just becoming a better dancer. This type of drive without a goal in site can become frustrating & lead to such existential questions as, “why should anyone dance to begin with?” The goal of this project & Shadows of the Auto-Maiden is to start to be able to answer that question & give the street dance community a platform to look forward to by creating a artist/user generated online multimedia platform for people across the world to look forward to & be able to give dancers who are new to the field a great resource for inspiration regardless of their demographic.

You’re donations & support will help us produce an artistic prototype for a business endeavor. Should the business itself never actually succeed, we're are just as dedicated to producing a work of art that has never been seen in the world before & hopefully would inspire others to keep striving for what they believe in.

 

What you’re donating towards will pay for the web development, studio & other various equipment rentals, as well as certain people’s time such as make-up artists, photographers, videographers, graphics developers, etc. This project actually encompasses more than just dance in a way that it lends itself into the multimedia industry by utilizing these different skills to create a polished package. With the money you’d be helping to raise, we can create an online comic that can appeal to people on multiple levels with it’s artistic integrity as well as something new out of entertainment that people may be looking for.

In time as the project develops, we plan on creating live dance battles to be witnessed as being an interactive aspect of the story opposed to just a passive one where you would not only sit at your computer & watch the events unfold, but actually get out & involved in the community. This means that in time, everyone & their friends in some way shape or form, can actually be apart of the story & the project, as it develops.

If that itself is not enough of an incentive, then check out some of the incentives we’ve laid out for you in order to make this worth your while to see this project to its completion.

 

• Donate $10 - You’ll get a DJ mix by TV Wonder of a few select artist that will be featured in the comic. You'll also get your name in the production credits, respect, lots & lots of props from your friends.

• Donate $50 – You’ll get the above package as well as a signed copy of a photo of Cyborg, the main character of the story

• Donate $100 – You’ll get the above packages & a 30 minute instructional dance video on the basics of the dance style that Cyborg & Joe-Dat-Go do.

• Donate $250 – You’ll get the above packages plus a personal downloadable copy of Shadows of the Auto-Maiden when it’s completed, before it’s released to the general public.

• Donate $500 – The 1st 40 people to donate $500 will get everything in the previous packages; production credits, a signed copy of a photo by Cyborg, the 30 minute instructional dance video, a downloadable copy of Shadows of the Auto-Maiden before it’s released, plus: a limited edition signed copy of The Eye of the Lion; a dancers strategy guide made for the story based on Sun Tzu's, "The Art of War." Only 100 in exsistence.

• Also everyone who donates will be added to our secret developers blog & facebook group so we can keep you updated on our progress & give you some behind the scenes action.

If you’d like to find out more information, you can check out our teaser site already online at auto-maiden.com. Subscribe to our blog, jeffex1.com, where we will be posting interviews with dancers, dance battle videos & giving you a few clues to the story as to what crashing is all about. 

Thanks for everything & we'll see you on the floor!

Believe in the Auto-Maiden