Hello,
A couple months back my buddy Seth Herman sent me an email regarding a friend of his who was putting together a film about street musicians in NYC. He told me to watch a trailer at a website called kickstarter.com. I checked it out, and loved the movie idea as well as the concept behind kickstarter. I ended up deciding to "back the project" with a donation. I liked the all or nothing approach of kickstarter as well, if the project reaches it's funding goal it's funded, otherwise it isn't.
After backing the project through kickstarter i found myself much more invested in the outcome of the film and felt great about my contribution to making this vision a stronger reality.
Over the past few years I've had some mixed feelings surrounding fundraising. And in fact, for a couple years one of Smooth Feather's main principles was that we didn't fundraise. Yet all of sudden, I was taking part in fundraising for a film and the energy surrounding it was great. Often times one is exposed to fundraising which has a desperate tone to it, a tone which can make you feel guilty, i.e. "for the price of your coffee you SHOULD be helping save the wild penguins of the north." And don't get me wrong, I love penguins and I imagine the organization is doing great work, yet often times this forced approach feels out of alignment. The kickstarter model felt different, if you're inspired to get involved you're welcome to and if not that's great too.
And so when I found kickstarter, it felt like a great way for people to take a powerful role in helping to finish "Dakota 38". Currently we're working on recording an original soundtrack for the film, as well as sound effects, visual effects and also looking to finance a debut road trip tour of "Dakota 38" in our Smooth Feather Winnebago. Despite the fact that everyone is donating their time, there are numerous costs associated with bringing the pieces together which totals around $20,000.
So we've got 30 days and $20,000, lets see what happens. Right now it's at $360, Peter, Tirza, Sean, Adam, Ainsley, Josie, Caroline and Valentina, you guys rock :)
Let the games begin,
Silas
