Fantastic that we've reached our first goal - now we can take the next steps. For every additional cent that comes in we get that bit closer to financing the launch of The Second World War! Thank you to all of you supporting this massive effort!
Discover our cool rewards and learn who we are further down.
We’re now going full out to actually get WWII in real time off the ground as the biggest channel cooperation on YouTube ever.
Featuring: among others, C&Rsenal, Real Engineering, InRangeTV (Forgotten Weapons), Lindybeige & TimeGhost
Yes, you read that right we've reached out to a dozen channels with the aim of setting up a collaborative project starting September 1 2018 to cover the six years of WWII in real time. Here's Indy to explain it:
Will we do WWII even if we don't reach 500.000?
Yes, we will use the initial funding from this project to put together the financing in the next nine months. The more we can raise now, the closer we get to fully funding the project.
Does that mean that the quarterly documentaries and The Korean War are not happening?
To the contrary, this increases our chances of making all of our projects happen. Through the collaborative effort on WWII we will have more resources to focus on other TimeGhost projects in parallel.
So if you don't finance the projects fully on this campaign, how will it work?
We've set up a number fo battle plans to make that happen. Here's Spartacus to explain:
Who's involved until now?
We've reached out to a dozen channels with the aim of cooperating with six to eight channels. So far (as of December 15) the following channels are on board:
We're talking to more channels in the next days and will update this page as we proceed.
Now back to our background and the projects in more detail...
WWII, The Korean War and, other chronological documentary series with Indy Neidell.
Hi, I’m Indy Neidell, writer and host of The Great War, the first ever global real time interactive documentary. So far we've made close to 500 videos that have been viewed millions of times and reached 750,000 subscribers.
Together with Spartacus Olsson, who started The Great War series with me and produced the first two seasons, I'm now setting off on a huge new adventure to make even more awesome historical content, even while I continue with The Great War.
We’ve always had to rely on the support of a big network to create content... which was great, but now we want to be able to decide independently what content, how much content, and what projects we do- together with you, our viewers, our fans.
We've already started with our first pilot project about the Cuban Missile Crisis on https://www.youtube.com/c/TimeGhost.
In short: we’ll be making history together with you. Literally making history.
What kind of content will you see on TimeGhost? Will we finally do WWII?
Our aim is to continue bringing history to life with personal and interactive formats, sometimes even in real time. There's so much fascinating stuff from our past that makes our hearts beat faster - and we look forward to hearing more about what it is you want to see.
In short: Our team will be investing a lot of time, effort, and love to bring you the coolest possible history-based video content.
OK, but what about WWII?
Tens of thousands of our fans- really, tens of thousands- have asked this question. Well, this is your chance to make that happen. Any such project would be a huge undertaking and would require a great deal of planning, creativity, and resources- one reason we need your support. To do that we've created a whole set of cool stuff that you can acquire exclusively though this Kickstarter campaign.
We want to do more than just launch one new project though - we want TimeGhost to become a regular address for history content, especially real time and chronological documentaries. That's why we've set this Kickstarter campaign up as multi-stage rocket.
Stage 1 - Weekly Content and Quarterly Chronological Documentary Series, when we raise 25,000 € or more.
This will enable us to continue doing weekly content on the TimeGhost channel until we've established the channel. Every quarter we will launch a new format that you- our patrons and fans- get to choose. You get a chance to Set the TimeGhost Clock to the time and place in history you want us to visit. Our community will nominate program ideas and then vote for the one that we’ll produce in the Set the TimeGhost Clock vote. We will also give you the opportunity to get involved in the creative process itself, to discuss, debate, and develop the historical content of the future.
Our quarterly chronological documentaries will cover events and phenomena that happened over a shorter period of time, but had huge impact on history.
The Cuban Missile Crisis is an example of that kind of content.
Indy will host most of the content in Stage 1, but will write it together with Spartacus and a small team of supporters.
In short: We want you to come join us to truly make history.
Stage 2 - We cover the Korean War in real time starting June 2018, when we raise 100,000 € or more.
On top of what we start in Stage 1 we will then launch the next long term weekly real time format - The Korean War, a three year weekly series, that will have a similar scope to The Great War.
Even if it wasn't a world war, it's part of The Cold War, which was after all a global conflict. The structure of the Korean War series will also be very similar to TGW - weekly shows, with loads of special episodes and, interactive formats.
The Korean War is sometimes referred to as a forgotten war that got lost between WWII and The Vietnam War. As anyone who is following the news these days knows, it needs to be remembered.
It resulted in casualties in the millions, and had social, political, and financial impact that lasted to our present day. It heated up The Cold War to the point of boiling and contributed to many global conflicts that are still active.
Just like with The Great War, Indy will host the show and do the lead writing. To support him in doing that we need the same kind of team that we set up for The Great War. We also need some preparation - so the June date is perfect. The best way you can join that effort is to get preferred content access and pick up some cool stuff right here!
Stage 3 - We start the real time, weekly series covering WWII, when we reach 500,000 € or more.
If we reach Stage 3 we will, finally re-tell the story of WWII in real time, while we continue to do weekly and quarterly content. Loads and loads of content has been made on WWII - the most devastating conflict of human history, but never before has anyone attempted a blow, by blow telling of the entire war on video.
As you should expect from us, we will tell it all- the good, the bad, and the ugly. From as many sides and angles as possible and in great detail.
As anyone can imagine, this is an enormous undertaking. To cover WWII, it's not enough to do a weekly main episode, weekly specials, and interactive formats. The war goes on for more than six years, to boot. The sheer amount of visual information that we will digest for this is in itself amazing. While WWI was the first war to be filmed in any meaningful way, WWII was the first war to be covered extensively in moving images with sound.
For TGW, our corporate backer helped us buy footage for the show - for WWII we will need to fix that on our own - another good reason for the Kickstarter campaign.
We're still in the design phase of this, but we already imagine several weekly videos covering different fronts and different aspects of the war. Of course Indy will be your host and he will be the lead writer - but he will need help from a crew of researchers and writers to get this done.
WWII will definitely have it's own dedicated site, and possibly be separate from the other TimeGhost social media channels. We've made a rough estimate and concluded that this will create at least three times as much content as The Great War in total. That's over 250 hours worth of content!
When we're done, this will be the biggest and most complete coverage of WWII ever created.
We will start preparing the WWII series already this winter, so that we can be ready to start publishing in time for 1 September 2018.
Stage 4 - We start the real time, weekly series covering WWII and The Korean War, when we reach 650,000 € or more.
If we do WWII, we can only realistically do The Korean War at the level of quality that we demand of ourselves if we can set up a complete second team supporting us, making it all more expensive. Nevertheless, we love the idea of telling the story of The Korean War so much that if we get the financial means to do it - we want to squeeze it in - we cannot say exactly how we would schedule it in relation to WWII, but if we raise the money we will do it!
Why the need for so much money?
We've already started a weekly publishing schedule with 'The Cuban Missile Crisis", but our real aim is to bring you daily content in the form of videos, articles, and images. To do that we'll be putting together a team of writers, editors, and producers that are just as passionate about history as we are.
We’re creating a studio and production facility in a beautiful location in the Bavarian countryside - hopefully some of you will be able to come visit us and take part in the creative process.
To make content that meets your expectations and creates a great viewing experience, we need to acquire the rights to archival material. Then we'll be cooperating with some of the world's best and richest content libraries so that you can truly see history come to life again.
In short: it's a huge endeavor.
We're extremely grateful for your participation so that we can continue bringing you high quality, interactive, history-based documentaries.
Thank you for joining us!
Indy and Spartacus
Our Rewards:
Anyone who pledges more than 3€ will get our monthly screensaver and historical calendar wallpaper until the end of 2019.
Join the TimeGhost Army
If you pledge more than 9€ you will also get the calendar wallpaper and, our awesome shoulder patch based on the actual historical patch of the 23rd HQs Special Troops, aka The Ghost Army. They were the US/British allied force that created diversions to fool and confuse the Germans. Among other things, they were in charge for the inflatable fake army camps that made it look like D-Day would happen close to Calais.
Ad Free Subscriptions
You can choose between three different subscription packages and get our content free of ads. Of course you get the calendar and the patch as well. For the three and six year subscription you can also choose one of our pithy WWII t-shirts.
- 1 Year for 3.25€ per month - 39€ total.
- 3 Years for 2.75€ per month - 99€ total
- 6 Years for 2€ per month - 144€ total
Our Pithy WWII T-Shirt Collection
When you pledge 99€, or more you can choose one of our T-shirts. The main collection is based on quotes by some of the more colorful Allied military personalities. The shirts come in white or black and you can have them with short, or long sleeves.
Our stunning t-shirts also come in a special 6 year subscription package with all seven t-shirts as an option for pledges above 499€.
TimeGhost - The Printed Version
If you want to enjoy our content when you're not online, you can get our coffee table book on the Cuban Missile Crisis. For each quarterly series we produce and for each quarterly section of our longer series we will publish a hardback, large format, illustrated book, with comments by Indy and Spartacus. The book will not only contain the scripts from that specific series, but also additional content. For pledges above 199€, the single edition Cuban Missile Crisis is a choice. Add 30€ for a limited and signed edition. In both cases a six-year ad free subscription is included.
Get FUBAR and get it all!
Now, if you want to make sure that you have all of the above and then some, we have the option:
When you pledge more than 1,499€ you get
- the calendar wallpapers,
- the patch,
- six year ad free subscription,
- all seven t-shirts
- the next ten coffee table books in signed limited edition
Let's make history!
Risks and challenges
We're already doing this and this is our passion, as long as we stand, walk and talk we will continue. Through the Kickstarter campaign we're increasing our possibilities to do it more, even better and, more often.
Learn about accountability on KickstarterQuestions about this project? Check out the FAQ
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Funding period
- (30 days)