À propos du projet
[Version traduite en français ici]
We reached our first goal in 3 days but we still need your help!
Reaching the stretch goal of 50,000€ would allow us to complete the film with 16mm film stock as it was intended from day one. And you would get physical DVD copies instead of mere links and Digital Copies. Plus if we cross the 50k€ mark we can start speaking Blu-Rays. So pledge, share, spread the word now, we've never been so close to finishing the duckumentary.
Our first 25,000€ goal allows the director to take his HDV camcorder across Europe and go alone to film all "inspired fans" and complete the film in time for December. This is not ideal but it's the lowest we could set our budget to in order to get to the film we have always envisioned.
New reward!
Back by popular demand we are offering again black and white original head sketch by Don Rosa. And because you all seem to want the Yukon gold digger version, we decided to offer you the best package ever including signed CDs by Tuomas Holopainen and a REAL golden nugget! Go check out the Argonaut of White Agony Creek reward on the side.
• The sketch is made on regular US letter size/A4 paper or a bit larger
• The CD is the simple edition (with all tracks)
• And the golden nugget should measure between 0,5 and 1cm
What’s the mystery?
Donald Duck’s grumpy Scottish uncle - now a Disney licensed character - $crooge McDuck was created 70 years ago by a freelance artist named Carl Barks. Since then he has inspired countless creative fans around the globe who turned his adventures into music, films, sculptures, books and so on.
We couldn't tell the story of the richest duck in the world without featuring all the fans he inspired. A list that had to include Don Rosa his biggest fan who became the celebrated author of The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck and Tuomas Holopainen, leader of worldwide famous band Nightwish, who composed its unofficial soundtrack.
The fans have fiercely supported the project since day one. Last summer they have voted us first at an Audience Awards voting contest which made the first shoot possible (yaaay fans!).
We didn't want to ask for the fan's help again, but this time it became clear we wouldn’t be able to make it without all of you. So we found a way to make it worth your while!
The rewards
NIGHTWISH FANS we have a special reward for your support! Get an exclusive link to the full interview we’ll conduct with Tuomas Holopainen (at least 15 minutes worth of content) and enter for a chance to send us one random question we will ask him in the interview!
But the two rewards we are most proud to offer you are:
• Your chance to appear in the film! If you get the Goldie O'Gilt reward we will give instructions to record yourself about your favorite Scrooge moment with your own equipment (phone, webcam, …) or we'll be able to come and film you if your country is one that we're set to visit. You'll either appear in one of the film's chapters or in the end credits, but you will be part of our documentary!
• Your chance to own one of the 12 portraits from The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck that Don Rosa has recreated for the film! These are the biggest original art he has ever done (according to the artist himself). We can't promise they'll be in pristine condition after all the traveling, but this is your chance to own both an original prop and an original piece of art. Each sold portrait will be crossed from the gif below.
If we reach the stretch goal of 50,000€ you'll get a physical DVD copy instead of a link. Which to be honest is ten times better. But in any case for anyone getting the Gyro Gearloose reward you do get a physical piece of the film: a very exclusive and limited original piece of the 16mm film we used when Don Rosa drew the portraits.
All the drawings were shot using a 16mm film camera to recreate the look and aspect of old comic books. The color and the moving matter aspect that goes with 16mm film is a big help to dive into the drawings which are the real star of this documentary.
The fans
At this date, we need to do some minor reshoots with Don Rosa in the summer.
But for the most important part of the film we have carefully selected fans around the world who have been inspired, either by adventures of Uncle Scrooge, the works of Don Rosa or both, to pursue exciting endeavors of their own in entertainment and culture. And below you'll meet some of our incredible and international list.
Keno Don Rosa, is an american comic-book artist, formerly civil engineer owner of a tile company. He gave up everything to draw and tell stories about his favorite character: Scrooge McDuck. His most famous work is a fictional biography of the character that earned him two Eisner Award: The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck.
Tuomas Holopainen, is the leader of world famous Finnish band Nightwish (more than 8 million of their seven records sold across the world, five of them were international #1). He did a solo album in 2014 solely based on The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck that became a Gold record in Finland.
Don Murphy, is a film producer from Long Island, New York. After graduating from Georgetown's Business School, he moved to Los Angeles and produced his first film, NATURAL BORN KILLERS, from a screenplay by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Oliver Stone. Since then, he's focused on producing the films he would want to see, like FROM HELL, SHOOT 'EM UP, REAL STEEL and the TRANSFORMERS films.
Ray Foushee, had the curious good fortune to be born on the same day (June 29, 1951) as Don Rosa, in the same hospital in Louisville Kentucky. But the two didn’t meet until they also wound up attending the same high school. There, they collaborated on a number of really stupid (but funny!) comics abour their friends and classmates -- initiating a great friendship that’s lasted throughout the years -- and Ray usually makes a point of attending at least one convention each year with Don. When not messing around with comics, Ray works at a Louisville TV station, WDRB, as Research Director and also narrates talking books for the American Printing House for the Blind -- over 800 in the past 30+ years.
Katja Kontturi (b. 1983) has a PhD in Contemporary Culture studies in the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Her doctoral thesis dealt with Don Rosa’s Disney comics as postmodern fantasy and studied how comics depict fantasy. Her most recent article is Science fiction parody in Don Rosa’s ”Attack of the Hideous Space-Varmints” (2017).
Ari Arnbjörnsson, is an Icelandic game programmer. He's currently living in Finland where he used to work for Rovio, the maker of the famous Angry Birds, for over 4 years.
Mac Toot, is a Professor of Public Health at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. He is also a comic artist who draws for magazines and online websites. He has been a die-hard Don Rosa fan since age 9, citing Rosa as one of his major influences.
Øystein Sørensen (1954), Professor of Modern History at the University of Oslo, Norway. Comics reader since the late 1950s, avid Carl Barks fan. Feature writer for various Egmont Publishing book projects, among them the 9 volume set Don Rosa Collection.
Marc Tinent, is a writer based in Barcelona. He has been working as a scriptwriter for Spanish television, and written a few novels. Recently, his first comic book, an adventure comedy entitled Viejos Descubridores (Old Discoverers), has been released.
Frank Stajano, PhD, is an associate professor in computer security at the University of Cambridge (UK) and a Fellow of Trinity College, as well as a cyber-entrepreneur and an instructor of Japanese swordsmanship. In his copious spare time he is a comics lover: he was a co-author of the first book on Don Rosa, back in 1997, and for the past few years he has been contributing to the Fantagraphics volumes on Carl Barks and Floyd Gottfredson. He was privileged to spend two unforgettable days as a guest of Carl Barks in Grants Pass, OR, a couple of years before the Master's death.
Jano Rohleder, is the admin of the official Don Rosa Facebook page and the corresponding Twitter and Instagram accounts. He is also Don Rosa’s German translator and editor and has published Don Rosa’s pre-Duck comics at his own publishing house dani books a few years back.
Anders Christian Sivebæk has been a reader of Don Rosa-stories since 1991. Since 1998 he has been in regular contact with Don, taking parts in fan-projects such as duckhunt (a portal to many different pages about Don and his stories), The Two worlds of Don Rosa (a page about the versions of Dons stories), and index and much more. A. C. has also held different positions in the board of the danish donaldist society and is now editor of the fanzine Rappet. He is also co-administrator of Don's official Facebook-page.
The crew
Morgann Gicquel is a French filmmaker. For the past ten years he has directed more than 30 short-films, 200 corporate videos and commercials, some music videos and one feature documentary. He is now working on editing viral content for the Facebook page Genius Club (one of his edits about furniture has been seen more than 100 million times and he doesn’t really understand why).
A long-time fan of Don Rosa he has been following him on tours around Europe and directed a short clip on his coming to France in 2013. That’s the video that made the connection between them and sparked a friendship that lead to The Scrooge Mystery.
Sam Rappold, a former colleague of Morgann’s, is a movie and TV producer, and video marketing specialist from New York. He immediately understood the scope and potential of the film and jumped right in to co-produce it.
Laura Gidrol is our French co-producer. From distribution to international sales, she’s been exploring the French movie industry for years. In 2016, she decided to pursue her real passion: handling logistics for movie festivals. She met Morgann in college and they’ve been partnering up on a number of projects ever since; so she didn’t hesitate one bit when he asked her to join him on the Scrooge Mystery adventure.
Franklin Henricksen helped as a cinematographer on the first official shoot in Denmark. He is now our Director of photography. He knows 16mm and 35mm film front and backwards and is an essential part of our team. If you love his breathtaking images push us to the stretch goal so we can keep working with him!
Ashley Werner is our trusted Assistant Director. She braved the cliffs (of insanity) to drive us to Don Rosa's house but mostly to serve as a puppy wrangler (Don Rosa has four basset hounds) so the shoot could happen in the best conditions without any dog bites.
Sebastián Ferreira is our incredible composer. No seriously his music is INSANE. You need to listen to it. Yes right now. Come on we're waiting.
Karli Kopp was the first cinematographer to join the project and her inputs were invaluable to get the 70’s look we wanted to imprint on the film.
Gaul Porat has brought the clean digital look we need for all the close ups when we break away from the drawings.
Margaux Caroff was nice enough to help us with translations and much needed wordings on teasers and kickstarter pages alike. You wouldn't be reading this without her. Litteraly.
We have been very grateful to count amongst the pre-production producer: Rufin M’bou Mikima, Pelle Former and Ari Matikainen.
Risques et défis
Defending such a groundbreaking visual experience (that dates back from a 1956 film so you can see how new and innovative we are trying to be) wasn't a piece of cake. Nowadays most interviews are what we call "talking heads" (someone talks to you sitting on a chair and archival footage comes to illustrate his or her points) and that didn't seem very entertaining to us. But because we chose a more original take on things we hit a few setbacks trying to locate international vendors and distributors who couldn't really envisioned what we had in mind (i.e. a technique that has been around for at least 60 years). That means even if we can finish the film by December, we might not be able to release it just yet. Though we will try our best to get it to you before anyone else.
The other challenges are obviously related to filmmaking. Exterior locations need permits, good weather, and are subject to a long list of hazardous problems that could ensue from equipment fails to misplaced crew. Though this crew has more than 500 filming experience combined (200 from the director alone) so we know our stuff. We know how to prepare and how to get back with the images we have in mind. And that's exactly what we'll do if you support us.
En savoir plus sur la notion de responsabilité sur KickstarterDes questions sur ce projet ? Check out the FAQ
Soutenir ce projet
- Épuisé !
Aider le créateur Labos
We'll need translators on the shoot from Suomi, Norwegian, German, Italian (in the UK), Icelandic (in Finland) & Arab (in Egypt) to English.