Supporting independent film

Chris and I have backed a few projects on Kickstarter. We like helping independent artists reach their goals.

Most of the projects we have backed offer the product as one of the backer incentives: pledge a certain amount and get the dvd or book or trebuchet. It's kind of like preordering the nifty new thing, and that's usually the level we pledge at.

We are currently backing our 13th project. It's a movie we really believe in, by some good independent filmmakers in Seattle.

We first met the Dead Gentlemen/Zombie Orpheus Entertainment at Gen Con, through friends. Yeah, I know, but they really are friends of friends. They have worked really hard to get their company to the point it is at. They make films about gamers for gamers. They are fan-supported.

If you've never heard of their work, take a moment to check out their filmography. You can watch their webseries JourneyQuest, currently in its second season, online. (Yep, we backed the 2nd season on Kickstarter.)

They also have a series of movies called The Gamers. The first two movies were made with tiny budgets. The second is the breakout hit. The Gamers: Dorkness Rising is a fantastic film. It will play at the IU Cinema this October.

They are currently fundraising for the third film in the series, The Gamers: Hands of Fate.

And that's the reason for this post. The project is 60% funded with 18 days to go. The way Kickstarter works, if they raise at least their goal ($320K), they will have the money to complete this film. If it doesn't reach that goal, they can't finish it.

This past weekend at Gen Con, they filmed a number of scenes - 1/4 of the movie, by rough estimate. But all that footage will be wasted if they can't afford to film the rest.

And that would be a shame. If you've been paying attention lately, you've probably read or heard about the terrible misogynistic attitudes of certain gamers. One of the great things about Dorkness Rising is that one of the main characters is a female gamer who shows the guys another way to play. And the new film, Hands of Fate, will feature another strong female lead (in addition).

 At a Q&A session after viewing JourneyQuest at Gen Con, the filmmakers talked about why they feature female gamers in their films. And it is a deliberate choice. While filming, some male gamers walked up to one of their (female) actors and made disparaging comments about how she couldn't possibly be interested in games. This still happens in 2012! At Gen Con. Where you can see grandmothers walking the hall cosplaying.

Chris and I believe in this project enough that we raised our pledge amount this weekend. We're not settling for just a dvd or BluRay of the final project. We want to see this made, so we looked at our finances and decided we could give a little more.

But there is still a ways to go to fund this film. If you want to support small independent filmmakers, if you want to be a parton of the arts, if you are a gamer, if you love movies, if if if.... if you can consider backing this project. Every dollar counts. You can pledge as little as $1.