Kickstarter

Principle photography is finished! Everybody yell wooooo at the same time, scare the neighbors! 23 days of filming, over a terabyte of footage, and we’re finished. Oh, there may be a day or two of pickups, you know how this kind of thing goes, but we got the vast bulk of shooting accomplished. Vast bulk is putting it lightly; even if we have pickups I estimate we have 99% of what we need filmed, easily.

 Many laughs and hardships were shared by all during this production, and it was a remarkable ride. We were snowed out, rained on, suffered lost or corrupted footage, burgled props, and so many other terrible things, and yet we came out the other side with this massive accomplishment that I am so proud and grateful to everyone for. It was a fabulous environment to work in, very democratic: everyone was throwing out ideas and seeing what stuck, trying out solutions and just riffing off each other. Most days were filled with a cheerful anarchy that was a joy to behold, and even when we had difficult times, everybody was laughing at the end of the day, and satisfied by what we’d grabbed. There were many days where we did more than we thought possible, and other days where everything that could go wrong did, and yet we still managed to grit our way through to the day’s accomplishment. I was frequently not only sent into fits of laughter but given chills by the awesomeness of what we were achieving. Almost everything turned out better than I could have imagined.

 A Stentorian congratulations is due to the crew that made this possible. I’ve never worked with a friendlier, fun, easygoing team that still managed to move as fast as we did. There were days where because of scheduling, I’d put a day-and-a-half or two days’ worth of filming on the docket for a single day, and yet we always managed to get through it. A big shout out to Seth Wessel-Estes, our DP, who did such an awesome job the entire way through. John Elkin, similarly, as gaffer, was wonderfully talented and amazing to work with. I can promise you all that we have a wonderfully filmed, incredibly colorful show. Everyone who worked on set, from those there through thick and then to people helping out for a day or two, thank you all, we are immensely pleased with what we ended up with, and we couldn’t have done it without you.

 Also, while we’re near the subject, a huge thank you to Jonelle Cornwall and Cherelle Ashby, who swooped in from seemingly nowhere (well, to me … that’s the great thing about connections and networking, they appeared like magic because I knew a guy that knew a pair of gals!), and figuratively saved our butts. And they did it by literally covering our butts! We were sinking when it came to costumes, and I didn’t know what I was going to do. This crack team of costumers descended upon us with eyeball melting excellence and handmade so many costumes it’d make your head spin. Jokes I thought would be funny, then thought would be funny even if the costumes were kinda shitty, became jokes with AMAZING costumes that really made a difference on everything. Trust me, dear viewers, there’s going to be some moments that will blow your minds, and it was only with the help of these women that those moments will be worth more than just a conceptual chuckle. Melissa Leff needs also to be thanked, for her help with the makeup (with Jonelle and Cherelle), who brought some FX wizardry into the mix and pulled some stuff off that had worried me until she arrived. But also, Melissa was just there, so much, giving her time and energy and helping out wherever she could.

 Really the whole crew was that way, and I wish I could thank everybody here now, but the list would be too long to get everyone. Adam Mario, our sound genius; Matt Bunker, pirate grip; Spencer Caragol, Jason Van Hoy, Christopher Sprague and so many others, who were there with so much of their time and enthusiasm and can do attitude. We were often a small crew, but we had spunk and talent and got everything done.

 I was letting momentum build to get to the incredible cast for Glitch, and now seems like a good time to rock some of those compliments for a while. The level of talent on his team was unbelievable, and our actors were no exception. These are some of the most talented cats I’ve ever seen. Jesse Lee Keeter was the cheerful and hilarious anchor throughout the entire production. The show centers around Glitch, so there was only one day he wasn’t really there for; the rest of the time, if you looked around, there was Jesse, making people laugh, running around like a fool, or acting the shit out of some scene. He was such fun to be around, and had such a good time playing the part, that he was like a happy virus infecting everybody because he wouldn’t wash his hands (in the metaphor only, of course). It’s been wonderful to watch him pwn this character. Tessa Marie Archer is beautiful and hilarious and carries with her such great instincts! She can make herself cry! She can make you laugh! Keep her away from like open containers of gunpowder because her sheer force of personality will make them explode. Samus was a character that is a tightrope, and she walked it like a damn acrobat. Conner Marx brought Wyatt alive, added a level to him that wasn’t there in the writing, and sharpened what was there until it was all one and the same. “Zen gamer” is something I could just write, but it takes a certain kind of actor and a certain kind of man to make that concept believable, charming, lovable, and all the rest. These three actors brought such amazing energy and chemistry to set, made such wonderful choices, that it causes me headaches to think what it would have been like without them. Enough credit cannot be given.

 And Thom Brophy! He caused the character of Neville to become better than I even thought possible. Curtis Eastwood made The Boss come alive. These two guys are insanely funny, and brought this certain something to their respective parts that really made everything pop. Trin Miller swooped in as Erica again, and is right and proper set up to be a bigger part in Season Two – Trin’s schedule is jam packed because she is a megaton of cool, but when she was there it was delightful and fun to be around. Brian Lewis stopped by to play Lars, and had us in stitches (Trin and Brian were also doing a wonderful play Proof at the time, and so that they came in and gave us their time and talent, and rocked their parts, made me very grateful and humble and lucky).

 I have never been this happy to be so tired. My days, even the stressful ones, were filled with doing what I love, and everything turned out so wonderfully I can hardly believe it. This team of people made it possible, and they all deserve and epic cast party! There will be much rejoicing.

 And so now on to phase two: post production! The editing begins now, and I’ll be locked away in the dungeon for a long, long time. We will keep you posted on the developments! We’re proud of the quality we’ve managed so far, which means we’ll really be taking our time and making sure we get the editing/effects/color/sound right. But don’t fret! Glitch Season One is coming toward you like a freight train that will taste so good when it hits your face you won’t even think about getting off the tracks, even though you can hear the thing coming what with the whistle and everything, and all your friends are shouting at you that the game of chicken is over, what the heck are you doing, GET OFF THE TRACKS YOU IDIOT, but you won’t. KAPOW!! OH THE HUGEMANITEE! It’ll be exactly like that.

 To our kickstarter contributors: thank you times infinity seven. We could not have done this without you. Things got a little dicey back there, but we’ll be getting your rewards out now that we’re finished and we all survived. But those are just little tokens of our appreciation. More to the point is this: you have made something possible that has been and continues to happen against heavy odds, and I think you will be pleased and entertained by the final result. We owe you more than we could ever say. We love you all! Glitch Season One belongs to you. Thank you for your contributions, your support, and your well wishes.

 All right, back to the grindstone. Be on the lookout for more updates and information! Go to our Facebook page to see cool photos! Thank you again. We can’t wait to show you what we’ve got!

 Yours,

Tyler