About this project

THANK YOU!!!!!!!

We made it.  We cleared the 15K mark and we're flipping on the hard drives, firing up the computer and getting back to work.  If you contributed, thank you. If you helped spread the word, thank you again.  This was a wild experience and it took every single person to make it a success.  We will have lots of updates and news about the film, and many opportunities to get involved so if you want to stay on top of what's up with Shored Up, visit our website and sign up for our newsletter.
And one last time, thank you.
Ben Kalina

WHAT HAPPENS IF WE EXCEED OUR GOAL? 
So we still have some ground to make up, but call us crazy because we think we're going to go over the top.  And if we do it's all going to lobsters and caviar, right?  Well, no.  Check out our description down below for what will be left to pay for beyond the $15,000 goal, and please help us finish this film!

Shored Up is IndieWire's Project of the Week!

Our friends at Southern Fried Science have some great things to say about the film.

Check out this guest post from Ben that went up on 350.org yesterday (11/1/11), making the connection between the film and climate change. 

Here's a guest post Ben wrote last week for the Sheril Kirshenbaum's "Culture of Science" blog.  The post talks about the film and specifically its inspiration, John McPhee's book The Control of Nature.

Here's Ben on Democracy Now, talking about Shored Up and coastal development in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene.

And so Castles Made of Sand Fall into the Sea, eventually…(Jimi Hendrix)

Shored Up is a documentary about our disappearing coasts and our irrational urge to live on the edge of a rising sea.  It's the tale of barrier islands - some of the planet's most dynamic land - and the people whose passion for the ocean compels them to live at this tumultuous intersection of water and sand.  Because when you love something wild, and you move in with it, there’s going to be drama.

WHY KICKSTARTER, WHY NOW?
Nobody makes a film alone, and we can't make Shored Up alone.  Filmmaking is about collaboration at all levels, and Kickstarter is the best way to find and connect our project to people who can become our partners in finishing the film.  We've come a long way, we've been filming for two years, but now we need help to finish editing.  That's where Kickstarter comes in. 

WHAT'S SHORED UP ALL ABOUT?
Shored Up is everyone's story.  We fall in love with beaches and water as kids, digging holes and making castles, and later learning to swim, surf, fish.  Our oceans are mysterious and full of opaque wonder, and our love for them can lull us to abandon reason.  How else can you explain pulling on a wetsuit in a blizzard to wade into 35-degree water to catch some waves?  And what logic drives us to build multi-million-dollar homes on the edge of a thin strip of sand in the ocean that is at the mercy of storms and currents?  Where is that child to remind us of what high tide will do to our castles?

Tidal waves grab headlines, but in Shored Up we look at the ocean’s unyielding, relentless force on our coastlines — where the sea rises up from below, washing over land, eating away at homes, roads... entire communities.  How far will we go to hold back the ocean - and is this even possible?  Can we afford to pile enough sand on our shores to protect our coastal communities?  And in the process of protecting them, will we destroy the natural, wild environment that first drew us to the sea?  On Long Beach Island, New Jersey and the Outer Banks of North Carolina, surfers, politicians, scientists and residents are racing to answer these tough questions.

We’ve launched our Kickstarter campaign during the last month of hurricane season, which reminds us that when you love something wild, and when you move in with it, there’s going to be drama.  We saw that unpredictable ferocity this summer in the Northeast U.S. along mild rivers and streams.  And on the barrier islands where we’ve built our towns and cities, climate change is bringing a rising sea to our doorsteps, and our love will be tested.   Ask a surfer what happens when the ocean rises up and lands on top of you.  You either ride it or get out, and nothing will stand in its way. 

THE OFFICIAL "SHORED UP" TRAILER

WHAT WILL KICKSTARTER ACCOMPLISH?
Shored Up is a story about love, and it's a labor of love.  Through a mix of volunteer time, the generosity of friends, and foundation funding, we’ve got about 75% of the film shot.  We’ve logged, sifted, sorted and organized our footage and now we need to whip the film into shape.  Our target is to finish the film by June 2012, in time for next year's beach season, but we need financial support to reach that goal.

We need $15,000 to:
• Keep our editor employed: To keep our momentum going we need to edit like crazy through March 2012 to get the film to a rough cut stage so we can raise our finishing funds.
• Keep shooting:  We're lining up the last remaining interviews with key scientists and engineers on both sides of the issue.

What if we raise more?  $15,000 is the bare bones, it's what we need now to keep the wheels turning.  Once we go beyond $15,000 here’s what we’ll do:
• Visual effects.  The science of barrier islands.  We'll hire an animator to create sequences that will help us all understand how waves shape and carve land and beaches, why those same waves are so great for surfing, and why a rising sea is so dangerous. 
• Music.  There’s nothing worse than getting your heart set on some music and then running out of money.  We’ve got our eyes on songs and composers, but we need money. 
•Outreach & Distribution.  Everything's changing with docs, and for the better!  We've been building partnerships with the Surfrider Foundation, the American Littoral Society, and other orgs so that when the film is finished we'll have lots of ways to host screenings and to put the film to work.  But it takes lots of time, and we need to pay and feed our Outreach Coordinator!

PRESS ABOUT SHORED UP
See what people are saying about the film:
Democracy Now | Philadelphia Daily News | Subgenre Blog

OUR INCENTIVES
Below are a just a couple sample images of our incentives.  Please visit our website at www.shoredupmovie.com to see photos of all our incentives.

8x12 prints of the Jersey Shore by Ann Coen

The Shored Up Mini Movie Poster

Questions about anything? 
Contact Ben directly at benjaminkalina at gmail.com