So maybe you've read my recent blog posts about the COVID-19 pandemic. We closed my animation studio for about two months, but by June I'd had some projects lined up, so we re-opened as soon as we could. I only had to furlough my long-time office manager for 6 weeks, and I kept my other two employees paid with one of those PPP loans from the SBA.
Now that those projects are finished and I'm back working on "Slide", my staff and I debated about whether this would be a terrible time to raise funds for the new film, what with Trump basically ignoring the pandemic, rampant unemployment, and long lines at food banks. But with film festivals and even Comic-Cons going virtual, and all the NYC cinemas still closed, a lot of my revenue has been cut off. Thank God for music videos, "Simpsons" couch gags and royalties from international streaming services like Kanopy.
But all is not lost, it turns out that it may actually be a great time to crowd-fund a project - most live-action filmmaking went on hold when the virus hit, and nobody's spending money right now on exotic vacations, expensive Broadway shows or even fancy dinners at exclusive restaurants. So maybe we can raise some money to keep my studio open and continue work on my new cowboy comedy, "Slide"!
Our Kickstarter campaign began a few days ago on November 30, and it ends on December 17. Yikes! That's only two weeks from now! So our little studio cooked up a bunch of reward tiers to raise some much-needed moolah and we've got some incredible prizes:
You can be part of a Zoom-based holiday party with me and my staff in our NYC studio!
One hour of private tutoring in animation, combined with my nine Vimeo lessons, which cover all aspects of animation production, from concept and storyboarding, to financing and distributing your own film!
An opportunity to be in the voice cast of "Slide", for a character based on your own photos! This includes getting your name in the film's on-screen credits and on IMDB!
We've also got an 8-DVD set of my classic features and shorts compilations, plus a DVD copy of "Slide" after it gets released and a streaming link once the film is finished!
Also, we're offering tickets to the NYC premiere of the film, because we believe that someday theaters will re-open and we can watch movies together again in public! Hey, call us crazy dreamers, that's OK.
And if you want to give any of the rewards to someone as a holiday gift, we can supply a gift certificate that you can give to the intended recipient, so there will be something to unwrap!
Please check out the campaign at KickstartSlide.com to find out more! You can also watch a cool video of me there, in which I play my pedal-steel "slide" guitar and talk about the inspirations for the film.
Also, I'll be on Facebook Live Thursday, December 3 at 3 pm - go to my Facebook page and I'll see you then! Thanks for watching!
--Bill Plympton
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