About a year ago, Lizzie Bennet, a grad student with a mountain of student loans, a couple quirky sisters, and one over-bearing mother started making video blogs. You might notice that her story bore remarkable similarity to the one told by Jane Austen over 200 years ago...except told through video blogs.
The Lizzie Bennet Diaries did what it set out to do...to tell a story in a compelling way using only first-person videos...particularly to tell the story of Pride and Prejudice. And with over 26 million video views and some of the best fans on the internet, it's safe to say that it was a success.
Now it’s time for some new adventures.OK, so, this DVD set is freaking sweet, it’s so sexy it makes DVG look like a potato.
We've got behind the scenes features, commentary, out takes, and interviews with the cast and creators. But a big part to what is unique to the LBD will come to the DVD as well and that is choice.
In universe, there are over 150 videos and can be consumed in any way you choose.
With the click of a button you could lean back and watch
- Lizzie's 100 videos or
- Lizzie's 100 videos plus Q&A videos
- Lydia's videos
- Maria's videos
- Gigi's videos
- and any combination of these.
The Lizzie Bennet Diaries DVD box set should be in your hands this July 2013
It’s going to take us some time to put together another full-on series after wrapping up The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. But we have no intention of leaving you hanging. So here’s what’s coming up.
You've seen the Pemberley Digital press release that announced a search for a partner community. And maybe you've even read Gigi’s SXSW interview where she hinted that the search was related to her upcoming move.
Today, we can tell you that the search is over. A partner community has been selected, and Gigi is going to take you there.
Welcome to Sanditon.
Based on one of Jane Austen’s unfinished novels, Welcome To Sanditon will be a full interactive experience that takes you to the beach town of Sanditon, California as it attempts to revitalize itself into a modern resort destination.
Through Gigi’s videos, you’ll meet the residents of Sanditon as she brings the beta version of Domino to reveal the drama in their lives. But we’re not stopping there.
In The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, you got to interact with the story. In WelcomeTo Sanditon, we’re taking things one step further -- you’ll get a chance to be a part of the story.
We’re busy putting the town together now, and will reveal more details soon.
Welcome to Sanditon will launch in early May 2013.
See you around town.
Since this Kickstarter is helping to fund both the production and manufacture of a DVD and of a book AND the creation of new content, we wanted to make it clear when things will be delivered. We are going to start spending money on the Sanditon series before we even have the money from the Kickstarter (basically we’re taking out a loan against future revenue) so we will be able to launch that series soon after the Kickstarter ends.
We will start the production of the DVD as soon as the Kickstarter is finished. This includes a number of things like filming interviews with writers, cast, and crew, editing outtakes reels from the mountain of content we have from the creation of the series, putting together featurettes discussing the more interesting parts of the project, recording commentaries, and planning and programming the DVD viewing experience. Then we’ll have to wait for the DVD to actually be manufactured before shipping them out of our warehouse sometime in July.
Finally, around the same time as the release of the DVD, we will be launching our second major series. But to find out more of that, you’ll just have to wait.
The Second Major Series will launch in late Summer 2013
We also wanted to give you a bit of an idea of how this money is going to be spent. The DVD packaging we’re using isn’t cheap. Getting 8-10 DVDs in one box actually costs a lot of money, so we have to plan for the production of a lot of these sets. The production of the DVDs, books, posters, pins, etc, and the costs of shipping all of those items to you is our biggest line-item.
The cost of the production of the DVD, which is being handled by the excellent producer Brit Weisman will be another substantial cost. This is mostly in wages to Brit, editors, designers, and crew for the creation of the DVD content.
The production of the Sanditon miniseries is also a large expense, and finally, we’ve included a contingency of just over 10% of our budget, which seems like a safe thing to do to me.
Pemberley Digital is, yes, actually a real company. We are Hank Green and Bernie Su and we are dedicated to the idea of telling compelling stories in new and interesting ways. Thank you for giving us these opportunities.
Risks and challenges
Of the projects that are part of this Kickstarter, the creation of the book and the work on Sanditon are already prepped and ready to go. We simply need the money to start paying people to produce / manufacture / film / edit them.
The DVD has the most moving parts and will be our biggest challenge, but having previously produced a major audiobook for New York Times best-selling author John Green, I know we're up to the task. We have already contracted with a producer, a designer, and a manufacturer for the creation of the DVD and its content.
Our team has recently fulfilled a $400,000 charity campaign with over 5,000 individual items shipped, so our fulfillment infrastructure is flexible and well-tested and we believe it is up to the task.
Of course, we'll have to work our butts off, but we're ready for that.
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Funding period
- (31 days)