Thanks again for pledging! Here’s the previously promised download link: http://lunatics.tv/Downloads/2013_KS_DL_IRIDIUM Includes eight different desktop background designs in a variety of sizes and aspect ratios, printable versions of the finger puppets we used in some of our previous videos, and an updated collection of banner graphics, should you want to link to our project. I had fun making these. I also did some more learning about Freestyle, though I have more work to do there.
Thanks to all of you for backing our project, even though it’s clear as the minutes tick down (in fact, it’s honestly been pretty clear to me for a couple of weeks) that we’re not going to make our goal. I could sell you some sunshine about how I’m not unhappy about this, but actually it has in fact been an ego-crushing disappointment . I made some misjudgments about how many people would back us and how far news of our project would travel. I’m sorry about the disappointment that we didn’t make it. It sure would have been better if we had. I have, however, had a couple of weeks to get used to the idea. And we are NOT stopping our production.
Vyacheslav has been an enthusiastic supporter for Lunatics! since our modeling project last Summer. He contributed to the Soyuz interior set model and created the initial model for the Lunar Transportation System lander that we used in our animatic. He’s also been instrumental in providing Russian proof-reading and translations for us. Most of the labels on the Soyuz console were checked by him, and he has helped us with creating Russian subtitles for our teaser/demo, our Kickstarter pitch video, and the entire pilot episode.
We really need some help getting the word out about our Kickstarter campaign, and one of our fans suggested neat idea: if you embed our Kickstarter widget on your webpage until Aug 20th, we’ll send you a free, high-quality printed set of OFFICIAL finger puppets and a signed thank you note. Details after the fold…
I was invited to this event to discuss three projects currently crowd-funding, our own “Lunatics!” project, another film project called “Algorithm” , and the huge (and controversial) Ubuntu Edge project (which is aiming to raise $32 million to build a limited run of smartphones running the “Ubuntu Touch” operating system — that’s over 750 times as much as we need for “Lunatics!”). This was a fun chat — the part about “Lunatics!” is mostly towards the end:
Well, I’m not sure what’s happening with our Kickstarter. We’re stuck at 3% with 22 backers. I don’t know i that’s because I’ve overestimated how many people are supporting us or if it’s because you’re disappointed with the results. Could even be I’m just talking to myself and a bunch of web crawlers here, and only imagine that anyone is following this. It could be that even our closer followers aren’t seeing all of these posts, with all the changes that have been happening in the social media sphere. There are so many thing acting to lock you into a digital bubble.
Kickstarter, with its “all or nothing” funding scheme, reduces risks for both creators and backers. For a project like “Lunatics!”, this makes it a lot safer bet. This protects early backers financially — if we don’t make it, you’ve lost nothing. And the money doesn’t come out until the end when we know the campaign has succeeded (or doesn’t because it hasn’t). We really need “inside” support from those of you already following “Lunatics!” if we’re going to encourage the “outside” support from new people we communicate with.
Where did we come up with $42,000? I’ve gotten incredulous reactions in both directions — “How could you possibly make an hour-long 3D-animated film for so little money?” and “Isn’t that an awful lot of money for a free-culture project to raise on Kickstarter?” Both are completely understandable.
After our first day on Kickstarter, we are at 2% of our goal of $42,000 that we need to finish “No Children in Space”. It’s a promising start, though we still have a long way to go. Please help us get the word out! ( http://kck.st/1bPRPwb )
