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secure Transfer-Encoding: chunked tag:www.kickstarter.com,2009-05-04:/blog 2015-0-20T14:20:00-05:00 tag:www.kickstarter.com,2009-05-04:BlogPost/1572 2015-02-20T14:20:00-05:00
2015-02-20T15:08:22-05:00 pYou may have heard that some award show called The Academy
Awards is happening this Sunday. This is, needless to say, always a big thing for film, but it's also a
big thing for us. Every year since 2011, at least one Kickstarter-funded film has been nominated for
an Oscar, and this year is no different. Congrats to iFinding Vivian Maier /ifor its nomination for best
documentary feature! /ppTo get prepped for the event, we gathered all of the previous nominees in
one place along with the trailers for those films. You can head over to our a
href="http://www.kickstarter.com/watch" target="_blank"Watch Now/a page and get them all in
before Sunday night if you start now./ph1 ia
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/800508197/finding-vivian-maier-a-feature-length-docum
entary" target="_blank"Finding Vivian Maier/a/i (nominated for best documentary feature
2015)/h1div class="template oembed" contenteditable="false" data-href="http://youtu.be/er-Vq__cRE" iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/er8Vq__cRE?feature=oembedamp;wmode=transparent" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen/iframe /div h1
ia href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/noujaimfilms/the-square-a-film-about-the-egptian-revolution" target="_blank"The Square/a /i(nominated for best documentary feature
2014)/h1div class="template oembed" contenteditable="false" datahref="http://youtu.be/twB2zAOzsKE" iframe width="560" height="315"
src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/twB2zAOzsKE?feature=oembedamp;wmode=transparent"
frameborder="0" allowfullscreen/iframe /div h1 ia
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1131717127/inocente-homeless-creative-unstoppable"
target="_blank"Inocente/a/i (winner, best documentary short 2013)/h1div class="template oembed"
contenteditable="false" data-href="http://youtu.be/008ZofyIRHo" iframe width="560" height="315"
src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/008ZofyIRHo?feature=oembedamp;wmode=transparent"
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sarigilman/kings-point-documentary-film"
target="_blank"Kings Point/a/i (nominated for best documentary short 2013)/h1div class="template
oembed" contenteditable="false" data-href="http://youtu.be/Z8SbmPhavhs" iframe width="560"
height="315"
src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z8SbmPhavhs?feature=oembedamp;wmode=transparent"
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/455421787/buzkashi-boys" target="_blank"Buzkashi
Boys/a/i (nominated for best live-action short 2013)/h1div class="template oembed"
contenteditable="false" data-href="http://youtu.be/dBLgI0sUW_E" iframe width="560"

height="315"
src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dBLgI0sUW_E?feature=oembedamp;wmode=transparent"
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1941167757/incident-in-new-baghdad-oscar-qualifying-l
a-releas" target="_blank"Incident in New Baghdad/a/i (nominated for best documentary short
2012)/h1div class="template oembed" contenteditable="false" datahref="http://youtu.be/lOh_dfQChF0" iframe width="560" height="315"
src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lOh_dfQChF0?feature=oembedamp;wmode=transparent"
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1654032104/the-barber-of-birmingham-the-movie"
target="_blank"The Barber of Birmingham/a/i (nominated for best documentary short 2012)/h1div
class="template oembed" contenteditable="false" data-href="http://youtu.be/xxMfA3_oZYA" iframe
width="560" height="315"
src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xxMfA3_oZYA?feature=oembedamp;wmode=transparent"
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bigredbarn/sun-come-up" target="_blank"Sun Come
Up/a/i (nominated for best documentary short 2011)/h1div class="template oembed"
contenteditable="false" data-href="http://youtu.be/3broZl8sl_g" iframe width="560" height="315"
src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3broZl8sl_g?feature=oembedamp;wmode=transparent"
frameborder="0" allowfullscreen/iframe /div Sam Hockley-Smith
https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/1250323841 tag:www.kickstarter.com,2009-0-04:BlogPost/1571 2015-02-20T10:59:00-05:00 2015-02-20T11:02:58-05:00 pJournalism may be one
of Kickstarter's a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/blog/introducing-two-new-categores-journalism-and-crafts" target="_blank"newest categories/a, but writers, editors, and publishers
are already launching great work into the world. From conflict reporting to new storytelling
platforms, here are some of the most exciting journalism projects live on our site right now./ph1a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/708019921/globalpost-senior-conflict-correspondent"
target="_blank"GlobalPost Senior Conflict Correspondent/a/h1div class="template video"
contenteditable="false" data-href="/projects/708019921/globalpost-senior-conflict-correspondent"
data-id="1546534" div class="player" div class="video-player" datadimensions='"width":480,"height":360' data-image="https://ks-ugc.imgix.net/projects/1546534/photoriginal.jpg?v=1424197392amp;w=560amp;h=420amp;fit=cropamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=0
2837261e528a09e07ebcfd3e6c23a54" data-video-trackrurl="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/708019921/globalpost-senior-conflict-correspondent/vide
o/plays" data-video-url="https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/1546534/video-49807-h264_high.mp4" datavideo='"id":498207,"status":"successful","high":"https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/154
6534/video-49820h264_high.mp4?2015","base":"https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/1546534/video-49820
7-h264_base.mp4?2015","webm":"https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/1546534/vide-49820webm.webm?2015","width":640,"height":480,"frame":"https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projec
ts/1546534/video-498207-h264_base.jpg?2015"' video class="has_webm landscape" preload="none"
source src="https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/1546534/video-498207-h264_high.mp4"
type='video/mp4; codecs="avc1.64001E, mp4a.40.2"'/source source
src="https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/1546534/video-498207-h264_base.mp4"
type='video/mp4; codecs="avc1.42E01E, mp4a.40.2"'/source source
src="https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/1546534/video-498207-webm.webm"
type="video/webm"/source You'll need an HTML5 capable browser to see this content. /video img
alt="GlobalPost Senior Conflict Correspondent's video poster" class="has_played_hide poster
landscape" src="https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/projects/1546534/photoriginal.jpg?v=1424197392amp;w=560amp;h=420amp;fit=cropamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=0
2837261e528a09e07ebcfd3e6c23a54" div aria-label="Play video" class="play_button_big
play_button_dark absolute-center rounded has_played_hide" role="button" tabindex="0" span
class="ss-icon ss-play"/span Play /div div class="player_controls clearfix absolute-bottom mb2
rounded white bg-green-dark forces-video-controls_hide" div class="left" button class="no-margin
button button_icon button_dark playpause play mr1" span class="play ss-icon ss-play"/span span
class="pause ss-icon ss-pause"/span /button time class="time current_time h12 left"00:00/time /div
div class="right" time class="time total_time h12 left mr1"00:00/time button class="no-margin left
button button_icon button_icon_white volume" span class="ss-icon ss-volume
icon_volume_nudge"/span span class="ss-icon ss-highvolume"/span /button div
class="volume_container left" div class="progress_bar progress_bar_dark progress_bg" div
class="progress_bar_bg"/div div class="progress progress_bar_progress"/div div arialabel="Volume" class="progress_handle progress_bar_handle" role="slider" tabindex="0"/div /div
/div button aria-label="Fullscreen" class="no-margin left button button_icon button_icon_white
fullscreen" span class="ss-icon ss-expand"/span span class="ss-icon ss-delete"/span /button /div div
class="clip" div class="progress_container pr1 pl1" div class="progress_bar progress_bar_dark
progress_bg" div class="progress_bar_bg"/div div class="buffer progress_bar_buffer"/div div
class="progress progress_bar_progress"/div div aria-label="Played" class="progress_handle
progress_bar_handle" role="slider" tabindex="0"/div /div /div /div /div /div /div /div pAward-winning
GlobalPost is behind some of the most important and dangerous journalistic work out there, creating
a fearless team to continue telling human stories in violent conflicts all around the world./ph1a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/75282118/the-riveter-magazine-longform-storyteling-by-wome?ref=category_popular" target="_blank"The Riveter Magazine: Longform Storytelling
by Women/a/h1div class="template video" contenteditable="false" datahref="/projects/75282118/the-riveter-magazine-longform-storytelling-by-wome" data-id="1659432"
div class="player" div class="video-player" data-dimensions='"width":480,"height":360' dataimage="https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/projects/1659432/photoriginal.png?v=1423647812amp;w=560amp;h=420amp;fit=cropamp;auto=formatamp;lossless=true
amp;s=9f6698971d22f590f8a834a068e89551" data-video-trackr-url="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/75282118/th-riveter-magazine-longform-storytelling-by-wome/video/plays" data-vide-url="https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/1659432/video-497029-h264_high.mp4" datavideo='"id":497029,"status":"successful","high":"https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/165
alt="The Riveter Magazine: Longform Storytelling by Women's video poster"
class="has_played_hide poster landscape" src="https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/projects/1659432/photoriginal.png?v=1423647812amp;w=560amp;h=420amp;fit=cropamp;auto=formatamp;lossless=true
amp;s=9f6698971d22f590f8a834a068e89551" div aria-label="Play video" class="play_button_big
progress_bar_handle" role="slider" tabindex="0"/div /div /div /div /div /div /div /div pThe Riveter -- a
women's longform lifestyle magazine in print and online -- has sold out of every copy they've printed.
Now, they're ready to go steady and make it a quarterly publication, bringing more women's voices
into the media./ph1a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/870712911/national-observe-reports-from-the-energy-battlegr?ref=category_popular" target="_blank"Reports from the Energy
Battlegrounds/a/h1div class="template video" contenteditable="false" datahref="/projects/870712911/national-observer-reports-from-the-energy-battlegr" data-id="1640344"
div class="player" div class="video-player" data-dimensions='"width":480,"height":360' dataimage="https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/projects/1640344/photoriginal.jpg?v=1422916017amp;w=560amp;h=420amp;fit=cropamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=3
70dda8425c71e033fb7102be0075b13" data-video-trackrurl="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/870712911/national-observer-reports-from-the-energy-bat
tlegr/video/plays" data-video-url="https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/1640344/vido-493743-h264_high.mp4" datavideo='"id":493743,"status":"successful","high":"https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/164

alt="Reports from the Energy Battlegrounds's video poster" class="has_played_hide poster
landscape" src="https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/projects/1640344/photoriginal.jpg?v=1422916017amp;w=560amp;h=420amp;fit=cropamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=3
70dda8425c71e033fb7102be0075b13" div aria-label="Play video" class="play_button_big
progress_bar_handle" role="slider" tabindex="0"/div /div /div /div /div /div /div /div pLast year, the
Vancouver Observer ran a project to report on the a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1207098285/tar-sands-reporting-project"
target="_blank"tar sands/a in Canada. Their new project is taking it national, launching a new
publication focused on tackling energy politics and the environment. /ph1a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/femsplain/femsplain-feminism-full-time"
target="_blank"Femsplain: Feminism Full-Time/a/h1div class="template video"
contenteditable="false" data-href="/projects/femsplain/femsplain-feminism-full-time" dataid="1524048" div class="player" div class="video-player" datadimensions='"width":480,"height":360' data-image="https://ks-ugc.imgix.net/projects/1524048/photoriginal.png?v=1417830176amp;w=560amp;h=420amp;fit=cropamp;auto=formatamp;lossless=true
amp;s=f77682a4f06631485a51be57fc8f6a0d" data-video-trackr-url="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/femsplain/femsplain-feminism-full-time/video/plays"
data-video-url="https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/1524048/video-49106-h264_high.mp4" datavideo='"id":491906,"status":"successful","high":"https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/152

alt="Femsplain: Feminism Full-Time's video poster" class="has_played_hide poster landscape"
src="https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/projects/1524048/photoriginal.png?v=1417830176amp;w=560amp;h=420amp;fit=cropamp;auto=formatamp;lossless=true
amp;s=f77682a4f06631485a51be57fc8f6a0d" div aria-label="Play video" class="play_button_big
progress_bar_handle" role="slider" tabindex="0"/div /div /div /div /div /div /div /div pFemsplain is a
space for anyone female-identified to share experiences, connect and learn together. In order to
continue elevating important and diverse conversations, they're now looking to pay their
contributors./ph1a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nbrianna/massivelyoverpowered?ref=category_popular" target="_blank"Massively Overpowered/a/h1div
class="template video" contenteditable="false" data-href="/projects/nbrianna/massivel-overpowered" data-id="1632863" div class="player" div class="video-player" datadimensions='"width":480,"height":360' data-image="https://ks-ugc.imgix.net/projects/1632863/photoriginal.png?v=1423350305amp;w=560amp;h=420amp;fit=cropamp;auto=formatamp;lossless=true
amp;s=ffde9d57cefc2e9d1fc2746462d151e2" data-video-trackr-url="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nbrianna/massively-overpowered/video/plays" datavideo-url="https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/1632863/video-494939-h264_high.mp4"
datavideo='"id":494939,"status":"successful","high":"https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/163

alt="Massively Overpowered's video poster" class="has_played_hide poster landscape"
src="https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/projects/1632863/photoriginal.png?v=1423350305amp;w=560amp;h=420amp;fit=cropamp;auto=formatamp;lossless=true
amp;s=ffde9d57cefc2e9d1fc2746462d151e2" div aria-label="Play video" class="play_button_big
progress_bar_handle" role="slider" tabindex="0"/div /div /div /div /div /div /div /div pa
href="http://Massively.com" target="_blank"Massively.com/a recently lost their corporate
sponsorship, but no matter: they're now turning to their fans and readers to create a new
independent site to continue delivering news and editorials about the massively multiplayer online
roleplaying game (MMORPG) genre. /p Nicole He https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/nicole
tag:www.kickstarter.com,2009-05-04:BlogPost/1573 2015-02-19T21:29:00-05:00 2015-0-19T21:40:57-05:00 div class="template asset" contenteditable="false" dataedit_url="/blog/exploding-kittens-is-the-most-backed-project-of-all-time/assets/3312014/edit" dataid="3312014" figure img alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/312/014/af9095d403701c14e49f9394d77af050_original.png?v=142439452
3amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;lossless=trueamp;s=7dd68066f3b543c4bd4
3ea4cf631d6cc" /figure /div pTonight a project called bExploding Kittens/b made Kickstarter
history./ppWith b219,382/b backers, it became the most-backed Kickstarter project of all time! It
imore than doubled/i the previous record of 105,857, held by Reading Rainbow since last summer.
Wondering what the backings leaderboard looks like?/ppbThe Most-Backed Kickstarter Projects of
All Time/b/pp1. a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/elanlee/exploding-kittens"
target="_blank"Exploding Kittens/a - 219,382 backersbr2. a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/readingrainbow/bring-reading-rainbow-back-for-every-c
hild-everywh" target="_blank"Bring Reading Rainbow Back for Every Child, Everywhere!/a - 105,857
backersbr3. a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/559914737/the-veronica-mars-moie-project" target="_blank"The Veronica Mars Movie Project/a - 91,585 backersbr4. a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doublefine/double-fine-adventure"
target="_blank"Double Fine Adventure/a - 87,142 backersbr5. a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/torment-tides-of-numenera"
target="_blank"Torment: Tides of Numenera/a - 74,405 backersbr6. a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/obsidian/project-eternity" target="_blank"Project
Eternity/a - 73,986 backersbr7. a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/597507018/pebble--paper-watch-for-iphone-and-android" target="_blank"Pebble: E-Paper Watch for iPhone and
Android/a - 68,929 backersbr8. a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mightyno9/mighty-n-9" target="_blank"Mighty No. 9/a - 67,226 backersbr9. a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ouya/ouya-a-new-kind-of-video-game-console"
target="_blank"OUYA: A New Kind of Video Game Console/a - 63,416 backersbr10. a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryangrepper/coolest-cooler-21st-centry-cooler-thats-actually" target="_blank"COOLEST COOLER: 21st Century Cooler that's Actually
Cooler/a - 62,642 backersbr11. a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/wasteland-2"
target="_blank"Wasteland 2/a - 61,290 backers/ppExploding Kittens isn't only the most-backed
project, it's also the most-funded a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/discover/categories/games"
target="_blank"Games/a project ever, raising b$8,782,571/b. That makes it the third-most-funded
project in Kickstarter history. Not bad for a humble card game, huh?/ppEarlier this week, the
Exploding Kittens team (Elan Lee, Shane Small, and a href="http://theoatmeal.com/"
target="_blank"The Oatmeal's/a Matthew Inman) shared a thoughtful a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/elanlee/exploding-kittens/posts/1137509"
target="_blank"update/a with their backers. Here's what they had to say:/pp"We've never seen
anything like you guys, and neither has the planet. You have proven beyond any doubt that you are
unstoppable. There's nothing we can put in front of you that you can't do. There is nothing too great,
nothing too hard, nothing too outrageous that you incredible group of incredible people can't
accomplish as a community."/ppWe'd like to extend a sincere congratulations to Exploding Kittens,
and every one of you 219,382 amazing humans that made it happen./pplt;3/ppKickstarter/p
Kickstarter https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/kickstarter tag:www.kickstarter.com,2009-0-04:BlogPost/1556 2015-02-19T12:17:00-05:00 2015-02-19T12:38:08-05:00 div class="template
asset" contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/ornament-is-crime-an-interview-wth-don-moyer/assets/3234365/edit" data-id="3234365" figure img alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/234/365/26a01594f4f7873069f73656d88304a3_original.png?v=142307872
5amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;lossless=trueamp;s=8e8866adc871e093479
e3104ade1d876" /figure /div pAt first glance, Don Moyer's plate designs look like something you've
seen before: classic prints in classic colors. But then you look closer and notice the details. Each of
his plates depicts different destructive monsters on classic blue-and-white china. Recently he's also
gotten into head wear, making bandanas covered with rage-filled paisley designs and (his current
project) a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/159974695/badbandana-2-pixels-n-a-rampage" target="_blank"rogue pixels/a. We asked Moyer a few questions about his work, life,
and the inspiration behind the angry little things that he designs./ppbHow did you get into making
classic blue-and-white china with disaster pictures on it, anyway?/b/ppI was trained as a graphic
designer and have worked in that role for more than 40 years. Drawing has always been an
important part of my job. I've gotten into the habit of drawing a little every day and posting my
drawings on Flickr./ppIn 2011, I inherited a traditional blue a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willow_pattern" target="_blank"Willow-pattern/a plate that
belonged to my mother's grandmother back in Ireland. I had an urge to redraw that plate and crank
up the level of excitement. I added a pterodactyl./ppAs I drew additional plates that were spiced up
with different calamities, and posted those drawings on Flickr, people kept saying they'd like to have
real plates. In 2013, I launched a Kickstarter project to see if enough people wanted plates to
support a production run./ppKickstarter is a great tool for artists because it allows wacky ideas to
find sponsors. By simply describing a half-realized dream, Kickstarter allows supporters to add the
momentum of a crowd to let the dream take flight. Everyone wins. The artist gets to make things
that previously would have been impossible. And the sponsors get to enjoy things that previously
would never have existed. Sweet./pdiv class="template asset" contenteditable="false" dataedit_url="/blog/ornament-is-crime-an-interview-with-don-moyer/assets/3234399/edit" dataid="3234399" figure img alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/234/399/8bfd9505518e9357a1a78a6e860252c3_original.jpg?v=142307919
2amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=73dbb58b3a76c40ced5f69e39e
e4d9f9" /figure /div pbWhy do you think people love dinnerware with disasters?/b/ppThis is easy to
answer because Kickstarter allows my sponsors to tell me what they are thinking. I get messages
that are very specific about what people are doing with their Calamityware plates. What they like is
the element of surprise. A seemingly boring, traditional plate, rewards closer scrutiny by revealing
something unexpected. This thrill-of-discovery idea pops up in almost all my fan mail. Some people
talk about watching dinner guests clear their plates and make the discovery. There's talk of
astonishing grandchildren. /ppA few sponsors talk about the plates as a filter--guests who don't
notice the plates will not be invited back./ppSome people think it is fun to mock grandma's plates.
And others are in love with robots, monsters, or UFOS./ppIn general, I'd say that my sponsors enjoy
laughing and stand a little closer to the fringe rather than the center of the distribution curve./pdiv
class="template asset" contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/ornament-is-crime-an-inteview-with-don-moyer/assets/3309365/edit" data-id="3309365" figure img alt="" class="fit"
src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/309/365/699002ed3701fa8d9dac4cbe87b045a1_original.png?v=142436405
0amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;lossless=trueamp;s=6dced9a0b2ce1196d80
a840023cff377" /figure /div pbDescribe your workspace and your process./b/ppI wish I could tell you
about a magical process with fairies or astounding technology, but my process is actually pretty
mundane:/pul liIn my Moleskine notebook, I start with a drawing of the whole plate, or the plate
center, to see if the calamity will make me laugh. A plague of frogs was funny. A snowstorm was
not. /li liNext I audition elements of the design by drawing them several times in my notebook. For
example, if I need a shrub, tree, or fence, I draw 10 or 20 and pick the best. /li liI scan these
elements and bring them into Adobe Illustrator to make a composition. In Illustrator, I can draw
additional elements like bridges and pagodas, which are more crisp and mechanical looking./li
liThen, I invent borders. Instead of copying a specific traditional design, I look at some old plates
and then make a new design that captures some of the spirit of old plates and mixes it with the spirit
of my notebook drawings. /li liI hang printouts of my designs on my dining room wall and try to see
them fresh each day. Over a period of several weeks, this allows flaws to become visible--too dark,
too light, too thick, too thin, etc. I fix the flaws. /li liIf the Kickstarter project is funded, the ceramics
workshop that supports me produces transfers and then applies my drawing to blank porcelain
plates with vitreous inks and fires them./li /ulpFor me, there are two parts of this process that are
great fun: the original drawing in my notebook is a treat, especially when it makes me laugh.
Building the gaudy borders is also fun because it deals with excess. My training as a graphic
designer was all about "less is more." We were taught that ornament is crime. Willow-pattern plate
borders would earn you a life sentence with the Modernists. To me, that adds another layer to the
joke./pdiv class="template asset" contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/ornament-is-crim-an-interview-with-don-moyer/assets/3309392/edit" data-id="3309392" figure img alt="" class="fit"
src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/309/392/f003eb6a2dc4f30ca97b0a24d24df2aa_original.JPG?v=1424364265
amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=ef34934c3ad169f241aa355ed4c
5c6b0" /figure /div pbHave you found or made any surprising connections with people as a result of
your projects?/b/ppI like this question because it recognizes that often, the greatest benefit of a
project will be something that wasn't within the scope of the project. I think of this as the Columbus
Effect. His project was to find a short route to China, but he opened up something even better./ppMy
series of Calamityware Kickstarter projects has helped me make some unexpected connections. I
found a superb coffee roaster in South Dakota. I formed a strong bond with two friends who came to
my rescue with improved business systems. I met someone who makes jewelry out of broken plate
fragments. I've met entrepreneurs doing their own projects who have offered advice to help me cope
with rough spots. I've been invited to exhibit my drawings. I met one of my favorite iNew Yorker/i
cartoonists. And I've corresponded with dozens of charming, kind, and funny people who were
strangers to me before. /ppIt's also possible that many more connections are germinating and will
bear fruit months or even years later. You just never know./ppbWhat's the weirdest or most
interesting thing that has happened as a result of Calamityware?/b/ppHere's one odd angle I didn't
know anything about before I started the Calamityware projects: brbrSeveral archeologists have told
me that shards from broken transferware plates are a valuable tool to date historic sites. I'm told
that all sites in North America have broken china and that experts can date the site by scrutinizing
the fragments. By looking at porcelain type, colors, and images, it is possible to calculate when
people arrived at a site and even where they might have come from. Long-gone global trade routes
can be sussed from the broken bits./ppI'm told that archeologists have timelines that show when
changes in the technology of porcelain occurred. By matching the shards from a site to the time line,
they can determine when the site was occupied. Archeology students are trained to match samples
to these time lines. To mess with the kids, teachers are now including a few shards of Calamityware
among the old pieces. I love the idea of a student trying to understand why the shard they are
studying has flying monkeys on it./ppThen I project the idea forward another thousand years.
Imagine the robotic archeologists of the future sifting through the rubble and trying to make sense
of a piece of Calamityware. I like to picture them good and truly mystified./p Niina Pollari
https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/niina tag:www.kickstarter.com,2009-05-04:BlogPost/1568 201502-18T12:26:00-05:00 2015-02-18T12:27:28-05:00 div class="template asset"
contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/libraries-are-everywhere/assets/3281244/edit" dataid="3281244" figure img alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/281/244/0b5ff24fb5f3897788c2227661ab6b6a_original.jpg?v=1423859283
amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=9fc35340cf63051fc4360150283c
e7e5" /figure /div pThe word "library" used to conjure an image of a big brick building full of books
where you had to be quiet all the time, but thanks to the internet, it's now a whole lot less specific.
Take, for example, the a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/discover/advanced?ref=nav_searchamp;term=little+free+library
" target="_blank"Little Free Libraries/a that are springing up in neighborhoods all over the world.
Anyone can download plans for a Little Free Library, build it, and fill it with books they want to
share with their community. We've collected a few such projects on a
href="https://mapsengine.google.com/map/u/0/viewer?mid=z4HnWvWeLye0.kBEVoJP9T1JM"
target="_blank"this map/a./ppResources distributed by a library now extend far beyond books too. a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1076439878/seedfolks-seed-library"
target="_blank"Seed libraries/a store, catalogue, and share seeds, while a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1661546233/aurora-st-anthoy-peace-garden-shed-tool-lending-l" target="_blank"tool libraries/a lend tools and other equipment
out to members of the community. And some libraries have no physical presence whatsoever, such
as a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bjjaszcz/the-medieval-weapons-sound-effcts-library" target="_blank"sound libraries/a, which compile and share digital archives. Tons more
examples of outstanding libraries are viewable using our a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/discover/advanced?tag_id=46amp;sort=magic"
target="_blank"Library/a tag./ppWe wanted an update on the state of libraries, so we spoke to a few
creators who have firsthand experience creating or managing them./p pbKauser Razvi/b looked at
the vacant lots in Cleveland, where she resides with her family, and saw an opportunity. She started
a program called a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/literarylots/literary-lots-2014"
target="_blank"Literary Lots/a, which transforms those lots into interactive educational spaces for
children, in an effort to bring books off the page./ppAt his first architecture job after finishing
school, bEdward Boatman/b had trouble locating visual communication assets for his projects. That
inspired him to co-found a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tnp/building-a-free-collect-
on-of-our-worlds-visual-sy" target="_blank"The Noun Project/a, a crowdsourced visual dictionary of

over 100,000 symbols and icons./ppbLeslie Davol/b co-founded and runs a nonprofit called a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/uni/the-uni-a-portable-open-air-reading-room-for-publi"
target="_blank"The Uni Project/a with her husband, Sam. The Uni is a portable reading room,
intended to instantaneously transform nearly any public space into a library./ppThe Henry Miller
Library in Big Sur, California, was founded in 1981, and Assistant Director bMike Scutari/b has
worked there for the past five years. The Library is a nonprofit arts center and book store, and hosts
all manner of community-centric events in their a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/henrymillerlibrary/the-henry-miller-library-in-big-sur-isbuilding-a" target="_blank"outdoor amphitheater/a./pdiv class="template asset"
contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/libraries-are-everywhere/assets/3303977/edit" dataid="3303977" figure img alt="The Henry Miller Library in Big Sur, California. Photo credit: Terry
Way" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/303/977/0c33e1976f0b7e1508f2c2d71afe0058_original.jpg?v=1424280185
amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=9625aef6be2feb562d3b563433a
26d7e" figcaptionThe Henry Miller Library in Big Sur, California. Photo credit: Terry Way/figcaption
/figure /div pbWhat is a library? How would you define it?/b/ppMike: We'd consider a library a
collection of books -- that's the baseline. But a library can also reflect the spirit of the community it
serves or exude a particular sense of experience, depending on how it's curated./ppEdward: A
library is a resource to help humans find, locate, and ultimately use different types of
media./ppKauser: A library is a place for communities to gather, where you can learn, seek
information, gain knowledge, and seek access to things there aren't available from another
source./ppLeslie: Public libraries do so many things these days: cultural programming, social
services, maker spaces, tool shares, cafes. And, of course, Internet access. Sometimes they still have
books too./ppbWhat's so important about libraries?/b/ppLeslie: Libraries embed some of our most
cherished values in an actual place--a place that you can enter without having to pay, alongside
people from all walks of life, where you can learn something and improve yourself. Try this: imagine
deleting all libraries from the city. What remaining places would offer this combination of real
services and symbolic importance? Without libraries, our society feels dramatically
diminished./ppMike: They provide a sense of stillness and reflection in an ever-busy world. They
provide a unique aesthetic experience where it's cool to simply sit down, read a book, and hang out
for hours on end. There are no expectations or commercial demands beyond simply utilizing the
space, and that's a rare thing. Lastly, public libraries provide excellent programming that
supplements in-school learning and give kids a place to go after school./pdiv class="template asset"
contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/libraries-are-everywhere/assets/3281861/edit" dataid="3281861" figure img alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/281/861/d6a619b515f41230e3cb4da56a027b71_original.jpg?v=142386602
9amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=58e472c341336547ec8252f9e5
4ca229" /figure /div pbWhat do all good libraries have in common?/b/ppKauser: Great
librarians. Great librarians can open your eyes to new books and ideas, and help lead you to things
you might not have otherwise be able to find./ppLeslie: Libraries are nothing special, I think, without
people behind them--not just to answer your reference questions but to act as hosts of these
important spaces./ppMike: In an age of automated customer service and unsolicited "cold texts," it's
difficult to find places where you can talk to a real-live human, face to face, without a paralyzing
sense of urgency. It's refreshing./pdiv class="template asset" contenteditable="false" dataedit_url="/blog/libraries-are-everywhere/assets/3300281/edit" data-id="3300281" figure img
alt="The Noun Project, a digital symbol and icon library." class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/300/281/c98845332c5684fd0c5bd84f17203253_original.png?v=142420984
0amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;lossless=trueamp;s=bf003c28435e499d61f
a7bd0faaebe6e" figcaptionThe Noun Project, a digital symbol and icon library./figcaption /figure /div
pbThe year is 2050. What are libraries like in the future?/b/ppEdward: I recently tried the Oculus
virtual reality headset, it was hands down the most powerful technological experience I've ever had,
and I can't imagine that libraries won't use this technology in the future. Imagine browsing through
the Library of Congress in your living room./ppKauser: I think in 2050, when I'm really old lady,
people will feel the need to get out of their digital world/pods and the library can be a place where
so many ideas and mediums mix./ppMike: Libraries will fully embrace their role as a community
gathering space. /ppLeslie: I have no idea! Ours will still have real books with pages you can turn, I
can promise you that. Our little institution lives or dies by our ability to attract people's attention,
engage them, and delight them in a world that is saturated with screens. We have great pop-up
books./ppbWhat advice do you have for people that want to create a library of their
own?/b/ppKauser: It's the ideas of collection and bringing together that are so important for a
library./ppLeslie: Build a collection of great books. Share. /ppMike: Don't be intimidated by new
technology trends or keeping up with the Joneses. Rather, embrace your strengths -- things like your
connections to community organizations, individuals, and your area's history./ppEdward: Build
around you a community of like-minded passionate people that share your vision. Then empower this
community to help collect, curate, and share the content within your library. You'll find as this
community grows, so will your library. /pdiv class="template asset" contenteditable="false" dataedit_url="/blog/libraries-are-everywhere/assets/3303987/edit" data-id="3303987" figure img alt=""
class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/303/987/39242b9b5b733b8ff96b79e5d52f07ad_original.jpg?v=142428029
2amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=07cca9fca9329cb83abafd3be1c
e982f" /figure /div Michael C. Stewart https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/michael
tag:www.kickstarter.com,2009-05-04:BlogPost/1570 2015-02-17T14:09:00-05:00 2015-0-17T14:27:34-05:00 pThere's nothing more fun than being a fan and connecting with people who
share your obsessions. It's even better when you can create your own art based on fandom, and
allow like-minded people to share in your celebration. Here are a few of our favorite publishing
projects that celebrate the best of pop culture./ph1 a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/406738078/encyclopedia-madonnica-20th-anniversary-e
dition?ref=nav_search" target="_blank"Encyclopedia Madonnica/a /h1div class="template video"
contenteditable="false" data-href="/projects/406738078/encyclopedia-madonnica-20th-anniverary-edition" data-id="1248477" div class="player" div class="video-player" datadimensions='"width":480,"height":360' data-image="https://ks-ugc.imgix.net/projects/1248477/photoriginal.JPG?v=1410130013amp;w=560amp;h=420amp;fit=cropamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=
c048ac30352b79861da611b97823a575" data-video-trackrurl="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/406738078/encyclopedia-madonnica-20th-anniversary-edi
tion/video/plays" data-video-url="https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/1248477/vido-437314-h264_high.mp4" datavideo='"id":437314,"status":"successful","high":"https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/124

alt="quot;Encyclopedia Madonnicaquot; 20th Anniversary Edition!'s video poster"
class="has_played_hide poster landscape" src="https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/projects/1248477/photoriginal.JPG?v=1410130013amp;w=560amp;h=420amp;fit=cropamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=
c048ac30352b79861da611b97823a575" div aria-label="Play video" class="play_button_big
progress_bar_handle" role="slider" tabindex="0"/div /div /div /div /div /div /div /div pThe
comprehensive reference book for die-hard Madge fans, the 20th anniversary edition of Matthew
Rettenmund's iEncyclopedia Madonnica/i (originally published in 1995 by St. Martin's) has been
updated to include new never-before seen photos and other Madonnabilia./ph1 a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/calk/sixteenbynine-a-new-magazne-about-tv?ref=nav_search" target="_blank"sixteenbynine/a /h1div class="template video"
contenteditable="false" data-href="/projects/calk/sixteenbynine-a-new-magazine-about-tv" dataid="484355" div class="player" div class="video-player" datadimensions='"width":480,"height":360' data-image="https://ks-ugc.imgix.net/projects/484355/photoriginal.jpg?v=1405425672amp;w=560amp;h=420amp;fit=cropamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=c
4381aeb668763f4eda3b1758797e7e5" data-video-trackrurl="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/calk/sixteenbynine-a-new-magazine-about-tv/video/plays"
data-video-url="https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/484355/video-42198-h264_high.mp4" datavideo='"id":421098,"status":"successful","high":"https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/484
-h264_base.mp4?2014","webm":"https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/484355/vide-42109webm.webm?2014","width":640,"height":360,"frame":"https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projec

alt="sixteenbynine - A New Magazine About TV's video poster" class="has_played_hide poster
landscape" src="https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/projects/484355/photoriginal.jpg?v=1405425672amp;w=560amp;h=420amp;fit=cropamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=c
4381aeb668763f4eda3b1758797e7e5" div aria-label="Play video" class="play_button_big
progress_bar_handle" role="slider" tabindex="0"/div /div /div /div /div /div /div /div pA gorgeously
designed must-have magazine for TV aficionados featuring original art and tons of great features
and reviews (not to mention a recurring feature by a "Secret TV Exec.") /ph1 a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1214951246/barbra-memories?ref=nav_search"
target="_blank"Barbra Memories/a /h1div class="template video" contenteditable="false" datahref="/projects/1214951246/barbra-memories" data-id="160112" div class="player" div
class="video-player" data-dimensions='"width":480,"height":360' data-image="https://ks-ugc.imgix.net/projects/160112/photoriginal.jpg?v=1397780194amp;w=560amp;h=420amp;fit=cropamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=f
d1deffa123f27c83b373570e141dbcf" data-video-trackr-url="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1214951246/barbra-memories/video/plays" data-vide-url="https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/160112/video-103611-h264_high.mp4" datavideo='"id":103611,"status":"successful","high":"https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/160
h264_base.mp4?2012","width":560,"height":420,"frame":"https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/pro
jects/160112/video-103611-h264_base.jpg?2012"' video class="landscape" preload="none" source
src="https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/160112/video-103611-h264_high.mp4"
type='video/mp4; codecs="avc1.42E01E, mp4a.40.2"'/source You'll need an HTML5 capable browser
to see this content. /video img alt="Barbra Memories's video poster" class="has_played_hide poster
landscape" src="https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/projects/160112/photoriginal.jpg?v=1397780194amp;w=560amp;h=420amp;fit=cropamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=f
d1deffa123f27c83b373570e141dbcf" div aria-label="Play video" class="play_button_big
progress_bar_handle" role="slider" tabindex="0"/div /div /div /div /div /div /div /div pA coffee table
book tribute to the one and only Babs, with stories gathered from her most passionate fans./ph1a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1601657943/for-your-eyes-only-the-book-fom-the-secret-life-o?ref=nav_search" target="_blank"For Your Eyes Only /a/h1div class="template
video" contenteditable="false" data-href="/projects/1601657943/for-your-eyes-only-the-bok-from-the-secret-life-o" data-id="1475894" div class="player" div class="video-player" datadimensions='"width":480,"height":360' data-image="https://ks-ugc.imgix.net/projects/1475894/photoriginal.jpg?v=1423664401amp;w=560amp;h=420amp;fit=cropamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=c
930ab2aaae61c19880fe8a1386dc0da" data-video-trackrurl="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1601657943/for-your-eyes-only-the-book-from-the-secret-l
ife-o/video/plays" data-video-url="https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/1475894/vido-488671-h264_high.mp4" datavideo='"id":488671,"status":"successful","high":"https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/147
alt="For Your Eyes Only: the graphic book from Greg Guillemin's video poster"
class="has_played_hide poster landscape" src="https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/projects/1475894/photoriginal.jpg?v=1423664401amp;w=560amp;h=420amp;fit=cropamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=c

930ab2aaae61c19880fe8a1386dc0da" div aria-label="Play video" class="play_button_big
progress_bar_handle" role="slider" tabindex="0"/div /div /div /div /div /div /div /div pWhat do your
favorite superheroes do when they're just hanging out? Illustrator Grgoire Guillemin attempts to
answer that question in iThe Secret Life of Heroes,/i a graphic anthology featuring many beloved
characters as you've never ever seen them before./ph1a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/andreakalfas/damn-fine-coffee-a-twin-peaks-fan-zine?ref
=nav_search" target="_blank"Damn Fine Coffee/a/h1div class="template video"
contenteditable="false" data-href="/projects/andreakalfas/damn-fine-coffee-a-twin-peaks-fan-zine"
data-id="268956" div class="player" div class="video-player" datadimensions='"width":480,"height":360' data-image="https://ks-ugc.imgix.net/projects/268956/photoriginal.jpg?v=1397790978amp;w=560amp;h=420amp;fit=cropamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=3
e73f696483e0be4eff1a5f3b8aeb4e4" data-video-trackrurl="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/andreakalfas/damn-fine-coffee-a-twin-peaks-fan-zine/vide
o/plays" data-video-url="https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/268956/video-14735-h264_high.mp4" datavideo='"id":147735,"status":"successful","high":"https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/268
h264_base.mp4?2012","width":640,"height":480,"frame":"https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/pro
jects/268956/video-147735-h264_base.jpg?2012"' video class="landscape" preload="none" source
src="https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/268956/video-147735-h264_high.mp4"
type='video/mp4; codecs="avc1.42E01E, mp4a.40.2"'/source You'll need an HTML5 capable browser
to see this content. /video img alt="Damn Fine Coffee! A Twin Peaks Fan Zine's video poster"
class="has_played_hide poster landscape" src="https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/projects/268956/phot-
original.jpg?v=1397790978amp;w=560amp;h=420amp;fit=cropamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=3
e73f696483e0be4eff1a5f3b8aeb4e4" div aria-label="Play video" class="play_button_big
progress_bar_handle" role="slider" tabindex="0"/div /div /div /div /div /div /div /div piTwin Peaks /iis
really having a moment lately. iDamn Fine Coffee /iis an art zine that celebrates the 1990-1991 serial
crime drama -- and it's pie and coffee-loving hero -- just in time for the show's return for a limited
season run in 2016./ph1a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mattbusch/hollywood-is-ded-coffee-table-art-book?ref=nav_search" target="_blank"Hollywood Is Dead/a/h1div class="template
video" contenteditable="false" data-href="/projects/mattbusch/hollywood-is-dead-coffee-tabe-art-book" data-id="715798" div class="player" div class="video-player" datadimensions='"width":480,"height":360' data-image="https://ks-ugc.imgix.net/projects/715798/photoriginal.jpg?v=1397851162amp;w=560amp;h=420amp;fit=cropamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=8
1205847a51b9a41eb0f588e11d50afe" data-video-trackrurl="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mattbusch/hollywood-is-dead-coffee-table-art-book/video/
plays" data-video-url="https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/715798/video-30865-h264_high.mp4" datavideo='"id":308865,"status":"successful","high":"https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/715
-h264_base.mp4?2013","webm":"https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/715798/vide-30886webm.webm?2013","width":640,"height":360,"frame":"https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projec
alt="HOLLYWOOD IS DEAD Coffee Table Art Book's video poster" class="has_played_hide poster
landscape" src="https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/projects/715798/phot-
original.jpg?v=1397851162amp;w=560amp;h=420amp;fit=cropamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=8
1205847a51b9a41eb0f588e11d50afe" div aria-label="Play video" class="play_button_big
progress_bar_handle" role="slider" tabindex="0"/div /div /div /div /div /div /div /div pA book that
captures the undead in many of our most celebrated films, iHollywood Is Dead/i gives zombie
makeovers to a variety of iconic movie posters. /p maris kreizman
https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/mariskreizman tag:www.kickstarter.com,2009-0-04:BlogPost/1553 2015-02-17T13:22:00-05:00 2015-02-17T13:23:36-05:00 pOver the past five
years, more than 200,000 creators have shared their projects with the team at Kickstarter. We work
with creators to provide advice and support, and to review whether their projects align with our
focus on bringing creative projects to life. Last year we made an a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/blog/introducing-launch-now-and-simplified-rules-0"
target="_blank"important change/a to our review process. Today we'd like to update you on what's
happened since./ppIt's important to note that every project on Kickstarter is reviewed -- first by an
algorithm and then, if needed, by a member of our team. How does the algorithm work? It analyzes
thousands of attributes in a project and looks at how our team has handled similar projects. If the
algorithm gives a green light, the creator can launch their project immediately, or get personal
feedback from a member of our team first. If the algorithm puts up a red light, the project is
manually reviewed by our team to make sure it meets our rules. Simple as that. /ppHere's how this
has played out since we finished rolling out a new version of the system in June:/pdiv
class="template asset" contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/how-projects-launc-on-kickstarter/assets/3299095/edit" data-id="3299095" figure img alt="" class="fit"
src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/299/095/bee2f397add0b082701ecc022db4ceb6_original.jpg?v=142419682
3amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=08ca1b86ef724ea7afdba50f7d0
c1d52" /figure /div p As you can see, 31% of projects chose to launch on their own, 9% asked for
additional help from our team, and 60% were manually reviewed by a team member. /ppThis new
process is a big improvement in three important ways: it creates a fast track for projects that have
historically been simple approvals; it makes our team even more available to creators who want
additional support; and it gives us more time to make informed decisions about the projects we need
to review. As more projects come in, we'll continue to refine the algorithm and process to help more
creators share their creative projects with the world. /ppWhy do we put so much attention into
reviewing projects? Because it's our job to make sure we're fostering a healthy community -- one
where everybody's clear on how things work, people can trust one another, and projects of all
shapes and sizes can succeed. We have a few simple rules, built to make sure that happens. A
healthy Kickstarter means being diligent about making sure new projects fit those guidelines -- and
taking the time to talk with anyone who could use a little help. /ppHave a project of your own you'd
like to share with the Kickstarter community? Get started a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/start" target="_blank"here/a. We look forward to working with
you -- as much or as little as you need. /pdiv/div Yancey Strickler
https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/yancey tag:www.kickstarter.com,2009-05-04:BlogPost/1562
2015-02-13T13:18:00-05:00 2015-02-13T13:18:45-05:00 pHappy Valentine's Day--or not! Maybe it's
not your thing, and that is totally cool. In the grand scheme of holidays, it's a pretty divisive one.
Whatever your stance, though, there are plenty of movies that celebrate, disparage, explore, grapple
with, and examine the concept of love and relationships. We combed through our very own a
href="http://www.kickstarter.com/watch" target="_blank"Watch Now/a page to pick a few, which
you can preview below, and watch a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/watch"
target="_blank"here/a. /ph1a
href="https://itunes.apple.com/movie/id885581815?amp;at=1l3v7Loamp;ct=watch"
target="_blank"Obvious Child/a/h1div class="template oembed" contenteditable="false" datahref="http://youtu.be/r2GN3wdfqbA" iframe width="560" height="315"
src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/r2GN3wdfqbA?feature=oembedamp;wmode=transparent"
frameborder="0" allowfullscreen/iframe /div h1a
target="_blank"Lust for Love/a/h1div class="template oembed" contenteditable="false" datahref="http://youtu.be/w_fy3efQCaE" iframe width="560" height="315"
src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/w_fy3efQCaE?feature=oembedamp;wmode=transparent"
target="_blank"I Used to Be Darker/a/h1 div class="template oembed" contenteditable="false" datahref="http://youtu.be/ccvdxHHhnb8" iframe width="560" height="315"
src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ccvdxHHhnb8?feature=oembedamp;wmode=transparent"
target="_blank"Daylight Savings/a/h1div class="template oembed" contenteditable="false" datahref="http://youtu.be/0YqVAMtokeI" iframe width="560" height="315"
src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0YqVAMtokeI?feature=oembedamp;wmode=transparent"
target="_blank"Barmy/a/h1div class="template oembed" contenteditable="false" datahref="http://youtu.be/sRYzTPfdTzg" iframe width="560" height="315"
src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sRYzTPfdTzg?feature=oembedamp;wmode=transparent"
target="_blank"Good Night/a/h1div class="template oembed" contenteditable="false" datahref="http://youtu.be/sf3YEo45nCs" iframe width="560" height="315"
src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sf3YEo45nCs?feature=oembedamp;wmode=transparent"
target="_blank"Newlyweeds/a/h1div class="template oembed" contenteditable="false" datahref="http://youtu.be/HNwxdka5kJM" iframe width="560" height="315"
src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HNwxdka5kJM?feature=oembedamp;wmode=transparent"
target="_blank"Wish I Was Here/a/h1div class="template oembed" contenteditable="false" datahref="http://youtu.be/aCponfeWNOI" iframe width="560" height="315"
src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aCponfeWNOI?feature=oembedamp;wmode=transparent"
target="_blank"Seeking Asian Female/a/h1 div class="template oembed" contenteditable="false"
data-href="http://youtu.be/3kbGrQe17cU" iframe width="560" height="315"
src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3kbGrQe17cU?feature=oembedamp;wmode=transparent"
target="_blank"Bridegroom/a/h1div class="template oembed" contenteditable="false" datahref="http://youtu.be/wMUk1Qn6hFE" iframe width="560" height="315"
src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wMUk1Qn6hFE?feature=oembedamp;wmode=transparent"
target="_blank"I Do /a/h1div class="template oembed" contenteditable="false" datahref="http://youtu.be/XOdmm9EYw6g" iframe width="560" height="315"
src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XOdmm9EYw6g?feature=oembedamp;wmode=transparent"
target="_blank"Keep The Lights On/a/h1div class="template oembed" contenteditable="false" datahref="http://youtu.be/i_RNbeCpMsM" iframe width="560" height="315"
src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/i_RNbeCpMsM?feature=oembedamp;wmode=transparent"
frameborder="0" allowfullscreen/iframe /div Sam Hockley-Smith
https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/1250323841 tag:www.kickstarter.com,2009-0-04:BlogPost/1559 2015-02-12T14:13:00-05:00 2015-02-12T14:13:57-05:00 piEric Mersmann has
just completed his Kickstarter project for Valentine's Day cards featuring an amorous octopus,
dubbed the a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/agbulleteric/cephalovepod-letterpres-valentines-card-sbpxphine" target="_blank"Cephalovepod/a. This past fall he ran a/ii project to
create a limited run of a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/agbulleteric/cthulhuletterpress-printed-and-foil-stamped-holid" target="_blank"Cthulhu holiday cards/a. Mersmann
clearly knows his way around a letterpress, so we asked him to walk us through the process./i/pdiv
class="template asset" contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/the-proces-letterpress/assets/3257211/edit" data-id="3257211" figure img alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/257/211/bf3d1a59c3964c464cfe9f291b360fb5_original.jpg?v=1423499602
amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=69ed8b63a7cbbc2abc798b5e53
1aba44" /figure /div h1bPre-press/b/h1pMost of my work begins life as digital files. There are some
great letterpress outfits who work with movable type, but that's not feasible for something like
Cephalovepod. With Cephalovepod, most of the pre-press work was done by the original artist, a
href="http://octophant.us/" target="_blank"Phineas X. Jones/a, who had originally designed the work
as a a href="http://octophant.us/store/cephalovepod-open-edition" target="_blank"screen print/a.
/pdiv class="template asset" contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/the-proces-letterpress/assets/3257212/edit" data-id="3257212" figure img alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/257/212/4f7b5d37adb94ee3ee01a304dbdb30ca_original.jpg?v=142349962
7amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=c8622d8b2ba9ff989a3cf097be
78af3f" /figure /div pI had to make a few adjustments to prepare the work for letterpress printing,
and then I sent the files off to a href="https://www.boxcarpress.com/" target="_blank"Boxcar/a to
have photopolymer plates made. About 95% of what I print is from photopolymer, a highly malleable
plastic that cures when exposed to UV light./pdiv class="template asset" contenteditable="false"
data-edit_url="/blog/the-process-letterpress/assets/3257214/edit" data-id="3257214" figure img
alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/257/214/e2939abfe18d0a053071e0f3a0008cba_original.jpg?v=1423499660
amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=9373ee732e24afba9b9f0d89efa4
dc59" /figure /div pWhile I wait for the plates to arrive (usually 3-5 days) I make sure that my paper
stock is in order and ready to go. For Cephalovepod, I was using the same stock that I used for my
previous project, so this time around it was mostly a matter of ordering more matching envelopes
from a href="http://www.frenchpaper.com/" target="_blank"French Paper Company/a, a great,
family-owned mill out of Niles, Michigan./ph1bOn Press/b/h1pOnce the photopolymer plates have
arrived (and funding on the project was completed) I head into the printshop to make the cards. For
Cephalovepod, I printed at a href="http://www.thearmnyc.com/" target="_blank"The Arm/a, a
public-access letterpress shop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Presses are huge and I live in a fifth-floor
walkup, so it's not feasible for me to own my own press; having access to a place like The Arm is a
lifesaver for me./pdiv class="template asset" contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/th-process-letterpress/assets/3257220/edit" data-id="3257220" figure img alt="" class="fit"
src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/257/220/7b8ab4f277c75d3e45ff498de99488df_original.jpg?v=1423499717
amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=c683a899656d273c36550e4aa8f
d3789" /figure /div pThe printing presses at The Arm are a mix of motorized and hand-powered. For
Cephalovepod, I was fortunate to be able to use the Vandercook Universal III, a 2350-pound beast
with a powered carriage return which saved me from having to pace the floor for seven days./pdiv
class="template oembed" contenteditable="false" data-href="http://youtu.be/HqvM_45Xs9E" iframe
src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HqvM_45Xs9E?feature=oembedamp;wmode=transparent"
frameborder="0" allowfullscreen/iframe /div pI averaged around 150 impressions per hour (which is
pretty good for me) so the whole process of printing the Cephalovepod cards took about 55 hours
over the course of two weeks, printing the colors in a certain order to make sure the overprinting
worked the right way--Pink, Yellow, Red, Grey, Black./pdiv class="template asset"
contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/the-process-letterpress/assets/3257236/edit" dataid="3257236" figure img alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/257/236/d9d03f09ae0c5218a95d9a0e3374a1d5_original.jpg?v=142349989
5amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=ea0806fcffee86bc6eeb2f753a3
e3f81" /figure /div h1Post-Press/h1pOnce everything is printed, I do a quality check to make sure
everything is perfect. The Vandercook presses are great at getting precise registration, but mistakes
do happen. /pdiv class="template asset" contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/the-proces-letterpress/assets/3257245/edit" data-id="3257245" figure img alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/257/245/63daf9d4ad44da488347b8d2c5ef49c0_original.jpg?v=142349999
0amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=490ab6d86cde5139152173405
b2c3ef5" /figure /div pI typically estimate 10% waste per color, and then am consistently pleasantly
surprised when I manage less than that. On Cephalovepod, I did have some extras, which I was able
to offer to folks who missed out on the 800-count edition for my backers./ppThen it's into envelopes
and out the door! Post-press on this project including QC and fulfillment took about five days. I was
a little more rushed than I would have liked because I knew my backers would want the cards with
plenty of time before Valentine's Day, so I made sure to get everything out the door with plenty of
time to spare./pdiv class="template asset" contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/the-proces-letterpress/assets/3257355/edit" data-id="3257355" figure img alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/257/355/f8dd66c47b6eaa90d5b98be92473ea34_original.jpg?v=142350111
4amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=53aec09b4529e48505ed2f0fe8
e082c3" /figure /div Michael C. Stewart https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/michael
tag:www.kickstarter.com,2009-05-04:BlogPost/1563 2015-02-12T11:01:00-05:00 2015-0-12T15:04:15-05:00 div class="template asset" contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/ope-sourcing-the-code-from-our-2013-year-in-review-and-the-whit/assets/3272016/edit" dataid="3272016" figure img alt="Top: a president. Bottom: a co-worker." class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/272/016/2ff14b3e3f7c9497b1f238f5213146d6_original.jpg?v=1423706431
amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=3f3edeb40f22790a3523b058dcb
ce119" figcaptionTop: a president. Bottom: a co-worker./figcaption /figure /div pLast December, as

2014 was packing its bags, we received a pretty flattering request from the White House. Their
digital office was creating a presentation reviewing the administration's work over the past year,
and they had a favor to ask: would we mind if they built on some code we'd written for our own 2013
"a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/year/2013/" target="_blank"Year in Kickstarter/a?"/ppWe
didn't mind at all, so we hopped on the phone, sorted out what they needed, and bundled up a bit of
code for them to use. You can take a look at the results in their "a
href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/2014-in-review" target="_blank"2014: The Year in Review/a" -- a
very handsome presentation, if you ask us!/p pOf course, the folks at the White House are far from
the only people who can find a use for a nice, all-in-one, full-screen slideshow. And so long as we had
the whole thing cleaned up and ready to share, it only seemed right to release the bundle as opensource code. Here goes: you can find the code and documentation on GitHub, a
href="https://github.com/kickstarter/fullscreen_slideshow" target="_blank"right over here/a. And
you can click the image below for a quick tour of what's included./pa
href="http://kickstarter.github.io/fullscreen_slideshow/" target="_blank"div class="template asset"
contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/open-sourcing-the-code-from-our-2013-yearin-review-and-the-whit/assets/3275983/edit" data-id="3275983" figure img alt="" class="fit"
src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/275/983/801540c66015aab6c0183242dde614f0_original.png?v=14237713
37amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;lossless=trueamp;s=400c24f188874dd09f
49e63979a86009" /figure /div /apHave fun with it! The design has some great features, from the
ones that make things simple (it's mobile-friendly, it's equipped for sharing, and you can link to
individual slides) to the ones that let you get more complex (background color can be controlled for
each slide, videos load predictively, and full-screen modal dialogs let you embed pages using
iframes)./ppThe White House, you'll be happy to hear, sent over a very nice thank-you note. And we
can't say it wasn't a nice feeling to get to the end of their presentation and see this: /pdiv
class="template asset" contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/open-sourcing-the-codefrom-our-2013-year-in-review-and-the-whit/assets/3272041/edit" data-id="3272041" figure img
alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/272/041/4969fc8f81bcd3f5532fa2733c31b901_original.png?v=1423706658
amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;lossless=trueamp;s=464c7681f9771c4dd5b0
8b00230ddd9d" /figure /div Nitsuh Abebe https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/111060303
tag:www.kickstarter.com,2009-05-04:BlogPost/1561 2015-02-11T15:15:00-05:00 2015-0-11T15:18:33-05:00 div class="template oembed" contenteditable="false" datahref="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zy73riEjqug" iframe width="560" height="315"
src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Zy73riEjqug?feature=oembedamp;wmode=transparent"
frameborder="0" allowfullscreen/iframe /div p"If film history has proved anything, it's that work that
was deemed very important fades into obscurity, and work that was totally ignored becomes very
important," says Jake Perlin, moderator of this panel on the importance of restoration and
preservation. It's impossible to predict what will be considered an influential work in the future, and
sometimes things get lost to time./ppThis round-table we hosted a few weeks back features five
panelists on the subject of highlighting forgotten works. The panelists also shared clips from the
works themselves, including:/pul liA lost Oreo commercial (at a
href="http://youtu.be/Zy73riEjqug?t=7m26s" target="_blank"7:26/a) /li liA film about a Brooklyn
neighborhood as it was in 1984 (at a href="http://youtu.be/Zy73riEjqug?t=12m58s"
target="_blank"12:56/a) /li liForgotten classics of African-American cinema (at a
href="http://youtu.be/Zy73riEjqug?t=24m17s" target="_blank"24:17/a), /li liThe unfinished insanity
of low-budget director James Bryan's last film (at a href="http://youtu.be/Zy73riEjqug?t=35m27s"
target="_blank"35:27/a)/li liDirector Kelly Reichardt's first film iRiver of Grass/i (at a
href="http://youtu.be/Zy73riEjqug?t=43m38s" target="_blank"43:38/a)/li liGerman exploitation
classic iBloody Friday/i (at a href="http://youtu.be/Zy73riEjqug?t=51m55s"
target="_blank"51:55/a)/li /ulpFeatured speakers are Elijah Drenner of a

href="http://kck.st/165xULy" target="_blank"Subkultur/a, Christopher Allen of a
href="http://kck.st/1LmXw6C" target="_blank"UnionDocs/a, Zack Carlson of a
href="http://kck.st/16fNHXF" target="_blank"Bleeding Skull/a, Bret Wood and Paul D. Miller (aka DJ
Spooky) of a href="http://kck.st/1F5JyBy" target="_blank"Kino Lorber/a, Debra McClutchy of a
href="http://kck.st/1y6ci8y" target="_blank"Oscilloscope Labs/a, and Jake Perlin of Cinema
Conservancy (as moderator)./p Niina Pollari https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/niina
tag:www.kickstarter.com,2009-05-04:BlogPost/1560 2015-02-10T10:10:00-05:00 2015-0-10T13:02:19-05:00 div class="template oembed" contenteditable="false" datahref="http://youtu.be/XZ9Jw4HnJpw" iframe width="560" height="315"
src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XZ9Jw4HnJpw?feature=oembedamp;wmode=transparent"
frameborder="0" allowfullscreen/iframe /div pba
href="https://d3mlfyygrfdi2i.cloudfront.net/onepagezine.pdf" target="_blank""What Was Your First
Zine?" Click here to download, print, and fold/a/b/ppZines are skinny publications, usually self-made
and self-published, with a smallish circulation. The purpose of zines is not profit but the
communication of an idea about music, art, philosophy, whatever -- many are distributed for free at
zine fests and shows, or sold for a buck or two at bookstores. They exist primarily in print, and they
feel very immediate. Many are cut and pasted together, then reproduced on a copy machine
(sometimes in the dead hours of a campus library, or while holding up the line at a Kinko's store, or,
speaking from personal experience, as quickly as possible on your last day at a corporate job)./ppThe
best thing about zines is that they're not beholden to anything. You can run off a zine on any topic,
and make as many (or as few) as you choose. Zines have always been connection-makers, ever since
their inception, and all the zines I've loved best have felt like a cool friend who's talking directly to
me./ppAn easy way to try your hand at zine-making is to print up a one-page zine. It's awfully simple:
you just fold your page into eighths, make one neat scissor cut, and you're ready to go. Watch the
video above to see how it's done. And if you ever need a layout refresher, just look here:/pdiv
class="template asset" contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/how-do-you-do-a-one-pge-zine-this-post-comes-with-a-free-one-pa/assets/3259414/edit" data-id="3259414" figure img
alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/259/414/cb9dea3926a0d2d74d92433ec7347021_original.jpg?v=142352125
9amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=0d02685b61d1fbdb4195b1f50b
f8c139" /figure /div pBetter still? We asked a few of our zinemaker friends about their first
experiences with the medium, and put their thoughts together in a little one-page zine made ijust for
you/i. a href="https://d3mlfyygrfdi2i.cloudfront.net/onepagezine.pdf" target="_blank"Here's a PDF -all you need to do is print it out and fold it up./a If you like what you end up with, well, maybe you'll
be pressing your own one-pager into a new friend's hand soon enough. /ppa
href="http://birdsoflace.org/" target="_blank"Gina Abelkop/a, a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1495284326/dont-eat-the-gum-a-baseball-card-zine"
target="_blank"Michael Barnes/a, a href="http://takingthelane.com/" target="_blank"Elly Blue/a, a
href="https://suzyx.wordpress.com/" target="_blank"Suzy Exposito/a, and a
href="http://heyteebs.tumblr.com/" target="_blank"Tommy Pico /aall contributed words and/or art to
our zine./p Niina Pollari https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/niina Nitsuh Abebe
https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/111060303 tag:www.kickstarter.com,2009-05-04:BlogPost/1558
2015-02-09T11:15:00-05:00 2015-02-09T12:24:03-05:00 div class="template asset"
contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/an-interview-with-amber-gordon-cretor-of-femsplain/assets/3239829/edit" data-id="3239829" figure img alt="" class="fit"
src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/239/829/72f0a53e8730b2118c20c6365f2d81f0_original.png?v=142317139
6amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;lossless=trueamp;s=18b6a04869a89b52c4a
484c29b7768a9" /figure /div pa href="http://www.femsplain.com" target="_blank"Femsplain/a
already exists. You can look at it right now. It's a community that is still forming, but it is forming
very rapidly. Developed by Amber Gordon, who envisioned Femsplain as a safe place to discuss
women's issues, both overt and not, the site is as much a writing platform as it is a community. We
spoke to Gordon about how and why it came into existence./ppbCan you talk about how you came up
with the idea for a href="http://femsplain.com/" target="_blank"Femsplain/a?/b/ppThe way it started
is weird. I met the girls that I built it with on Twitter. We were huge fans of each other and things
we'd written. We eventually decided to meet up and get dinner. We were nervous, but we met each
other and it was amazing. One of the biggest things we noticed is that we all have these opinions
about media. We wanted to write to each other about things we saw being talked about. We came up
with this idea for a Tumblr called Sad Drunk Girls. We were like, we're going to write to each other
when we were either sad or drunk or both, but it never happened. The idea was still there: writing
open letters to each other, our real experiences. /ppbWas there any single moment where you were
like, okay, now is the time to launch my own thing?/b/ppFive or six months ago, I worked at Tumblr.
I was feeling uninspired, but wanted to boost the conversation online among women voices. I was
like, let's take this idea of sharing our real stories to each other and make it bigger. Femsplain was
born. The name was an accident, I was telling my friend I was building the platform, and he was like
why don't you call it Femsplain? "Mansplain" is generally a negative term, but maybe Femsplain can
reshape the way women are discussed. /ppI was really tired of waiting for things to happen. I was
tired of telling brands not to make memes, so I was like, I need to do something for myself and
something for other people. After I got the domain--I think I didn't sleep that night. My roommates
were worried about me./ppbWas there any publication or site that inspired you?/b/ppGrowing up, I
didn't know it--but I was super into fandom. Being in a part of these internet communities that really
praised the people that were creating content and we were all there because we had one general
interest--it didn't matter where we came from, being part of that forged my love for community. Now
a href="http://www.rookiemag.com/" target="_blank"iRookie Mag/i/a is doing an amazing job. I love
the writing, and I love how they are catering to the younger generation who will eventually become
who we are today. a href="https://modelviewculture.com/" target="_blank"Model View Culture/a is
great. a href="http://the-toast.net/" target="_blank"The Toast/a is another favorite. a
href="http://thehairpin.com/" target="_blank"The Hairpin/a also./ppbYour bio on the a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/femsplain/femsplain-feminism-full-time?ref=nav_search"
target="_blank"project page/a mentions that you're passionate about online community building.
How does that factor in here?/b/ppMy background is primarily in online community building.
Building something that's more about sharing content with your peers and people who are
likeminded is so much more powerful, because when you're writing you're writing to connect with
other people, I think that connection is way more powerful than just speaking out into the void. The
relationships that are formed on Femsplain... it's so amazing to hear stories about people being like,
oh I met her in the comments section of her women's reproductive issues article. The connections
that are coming from people meeting and creating community are so powerful./pdiv class="template
asset" contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/an-interview-with-amber-gordon-cretor-of-femsplain/assets/3239832/edit" data-id="3239832" figure img alt="" class="fit"
src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/239/832/c38dd2048ac20fe23276a254d1ec149c_original.png?v=142317141
4amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;lossless=trueamp;s=8a4b9b6bf51a4b94413
96ded75912310" /figure /div pbWhat would you say the message is?/b/ppAt its core--we're trying to
redefine the way people talk about women's issues. We have a monthly theme, it's a guide for
contributors, we're not putting categories on it. We're really making people feel comfortable and
building a safe space for them to talk about things they don't put anywhere else. /ppWe're also
getting compared to other women's communities, we're not shouting into the void. We're trying to
have a discussion. We welcome anyone, regardless of gender, to participate. We're just highlighting
female voices. We're publishing social media managers. We're publishing nurses. We're publishing
lawyers who want to share their experiences anonymously./ppbWhat are you hoping to achieve?
What are you hoping to change?/b/ppI experience online harassment. I know that world. Those
people exist. But I also feel like the people who are likely to harass you are insecure, so we're trying
to build a place where even though you might be directly affected by what someone is talking about,
you can still read it and understand, and maybe your view might be changed a bit. We're trying to
create offline events and workshops to get these people together to support each other and
strengthen that bond. We're havinga href="http://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-night-before-valenties-day-comedy-show-femsplain-live-tickets-15328941276" target="_blank" a comedy show/a in the
middle of February to promote some of our community members who are also comedians, but
anyone is welcome to meet people who are likeminded to create a stronger community. We're also
having these workshops--we're having a coding workshop, a basic introduction--anyone can come.
/pdiv class="template asset" contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/an-interview-with-aber-gordon-creator-of-femsplain/assets/3239838/edit" data-id="3239838" figure img alt=""
class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/239/838/5808bec511c210474425a806d0c81fff_original.png?v=142317146
5amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;lossless=trueamp;s=8c1a457dd451284d492
3b8b8f990f59a" /figure /div pbYou're very adamant about compensating people for their work, at a
time when this isn't exactly an assumption. Can you talk about that?/b/ppWe've definitely had people
ask us, "Why are you paying your contributors? You know they'll do it for free." But we believe that if
they're taking the time out of their workday to open up and be honest and provide us with content,
of course they deserve to be compensated. Quality work deserves compensation. It's good to know
that your voice is valued, even though you would contribute for free -- having that direct deposit to
show that this place values what you've contributed, that means so much to me. /ppbWho is the ideal
audience for Femsplain?/b/ppWe want the people that support us, but it would be great to get people
that might not necessarily agree with our values. A good example is people who don't feel welcome
because of their gender, who might look at us and say, "I don't know if I feel safe here." Anyone that
might have second thoughts. we want them to see that we're trying to cover a diverse voice, it's not
just by women for women. It's for anyone./p Sam Hockley-Smith
https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/1250323841 tag:www.kickstarter.com,2009-0-04:BlogPost/1557 2015-02-06T13:52:00-05:00 2015-02-06T13:54:32-05:00 pA lot of us here at
Kickstarter are passionate book lovers, so we're always stoked to see new independent bookstores
popping up and growing into community hubs. Here are six that are doing incredibly cool
things./ph1 a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/561039191/support-ancestry-books-op-up-bookstore" target="_blank"Ancestry Books/a, North Minneapolis, MN /h1div class="template
asset" contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/a-few-great-idie-bookstores/assets/3240067/edit" data-id="3240067" figure img alt="" class="fit"
src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/240/067/2a364c358f8fed29bedbd23930e9b09c_original.jpg?v=142317408
5amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=0191c99782ee391451b208465
01b122d" /figure /div pa href="http://www.ancestrybooksmn.com/" target="_blank"Ancestry Books/a
is a community bookstore dedicated to featuring books by authors of color and Indigenous authors
who are under-represented in other places. It was originally envisioned as pop-up bookstore that
would be run from the creators' porch over the summer, but as people started responding to the idea
with excitement, Chaun Webster and Verna Wong decided to find a real storefront. /ph1 a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1453553459/help-boneshaker-books-expand"
target="_blank"Boneshaker Books/a, Minneapolis, MN/h1div class="template asset"
contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/a-few-great-indie-bookstores/assets/3244208/edit" dataid="3244208" figure img alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/244/208/2dc72fa6c67b58b1e770c7cc55ce8faa_original.png?v=142324588
7amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;lossless=trueamp;s=01a55b314ff5e0f6df28f
9e2c51c8488" /figure /div pAlso in Minneapolis, a href="http://www.boneshakerbooks.com/aboutboneshaker-books" target="_blank"Boneshaker Books/a established itself as a radical and
progressive bookstore in 2010. Do you need a book delivered by bicycle? No problem! They've done
that./pdiv class="template asset" contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/a-few-great-idie-bookstores/assets/3244214/edit" data-id="3244214" figure img alt="" class="fit"
src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/244/214/6dbe42f04378e39da97ad7afeb65fc02_original.jpg?v=1423245918
amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=7cbcc8b7bb5cdcefc32a0bc3e7ff
5452" /figure /div pIn 2012, they expanded their store to include a nano-cinema, gallery, and larger
children's books area. /ph1 a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/947849256/readingfrenzy-relaunch" target="_blank"Reading Frenzy/a, Portland, OR/h1div class="template asset"
contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/a-few-great-indie-bookstores/assets/3244190/edit" dataid="3244190" figure img alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/244/190/6db4b0462a79e93f1480bac9db50aa0d_original.jpg?v=142324567
7amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=5ce3e4ffe8983d786b33af38e5e
0108b" /figure /div pAfter losing their lease in 2012, this twenty-year-old Portland institution
triumphantly relaunched its bookstore and space for indie presses to share their wares. They carry a
great selection of zines and small press items, and they also boast a space for art and gatherings.
We're big fans of a href="http://www.readingfrenzy.com/" target="_blank"their website/a, too. /ph1
a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1936103651/hullabaloo-bookstore-event-series"
target="_blank"Hullabaloo Bookstore/a, Brooklyn, NY/h1div class="template asset"
contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/a-few-great-indie-bookstores/assets/3244240/edit" dataid="3244240" figure img alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/244/240/e18e327f87a0bb8d236858bec1704dcc_original.jpg?v=142324616
7amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=70b2c3db5ff2ed35b3cbbe0195
8b9990" /figure /div pMichael de Zayas wanted to create a bookstore and cultural space in Crown
Heights, Brooklyn, to support local writers and readers -- and so a
href="https://www.facebook.com/HullabalooBooks" target="_blank"Hullabaloo Books/a was born.
He also established an events series, which host adult literacy classes, teen writing workshops, and
poetry readings. /ph1 a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/booksnbrews/books-and-brews"
target="_blank"Books and Brews/a, Indianapolis, IN/h1div class="template asset"
contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/a-few-great-indie-bookstores/assets/3239969/edit" dataid="3239969" figure img alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/239/969/3aa661bcff046415797a2dcb2058f081_original.jpg?v=1423173243
amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=f57421190d579b559cc4e21724d
5215b" /figure /div pThis is not just a used bookstore -- a href="http://www.booksnbrews.com/"
target="_blank"Books and Brews/a is also a nanobrewery, with beers named after classic books and
literary figures. You can try their Canterbury Tales Pale Ale or Clifford the Big Red Ale while reading
-- another interpretation of getting lit. /ph1 a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1945935286/uncharted-books"
target="_blank"Uncharted Books/a, Chicago, IL/h1div class="template asset"
contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/a-few-great-indie-bookstores/assets/3244201/edit" dataid="3244201" figure img alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/244/201/b7c36e10758028e36169816789665551_original.jpg?v=14232458
44amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=fdb19db1687dd910bff7fbb68
9e4e368" /figure /div pThe folks at a href="http://www.unchartedbooks.com/"
target="_blank"Uncharted Books/a wanted to do more than make a bookstore -- they wanted to
create a haven for writers and artists (and dogs). They encourage "browsing, loitering, chit-chatting,
socializing, drinking, eating, writing, working, hanging out, and staying in," which seems like pretty
much every activity possible./p Margot Atwell https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/margot
tag:www.kickstarter.com,2009-05-04:BlogPost/1555 2015-02-05T13:40:00-05:00 2015-0-05T13:40:14-05:00 div class="template oembed" contenteditable="false" datahref="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEVr_ot99QM" iframe width="560" height="315"
src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KEVr_ot99QM?feature=oembedamp;wmode=transparent"
frameborder="0" allowfullscreen/iframe /div pAs part of our Talking Shop series, recently, we hosted
a panel of five science fiction editors for a discussion. Watch above as Neil Clarke of a
href="http://kck.st/YtjgKc" target="_blank"Clarkesworld/a magazine, Rose Fox and Daniel Jos
Older of the a href="http://kck.st/15nchjG" target="_blank"Long Hidden/a anthology, Alex
Shvartsman of a href="http://kck.st/1mWvGOW" target="_blank"Unidentified Funny Objects/a, and
Brian White of a href="http://kck.st/1kreHIx" target="_blank"Fireside/a magazine talk about books
that influenced them, diversity in the genre, and why they're bored by milquetoast
protagonists. /ppFor the best anthologies to happen, it's important to publish good work that you
care about, and to make sure you cast a wide net when you're seeking that good work -- that's how
you get a varied collection. As Rose said: "There's something magical about a collection of short
stories where each one is so different." We couldn't agree more. /p Niina Pollari
https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/niina tag:www.kickstarter.com,2009-05-04:BlogPost/1554 201502-04T12:08:00-05:00 2015-02-04T14:00:46-05:00 pCreativity is about thinking ahead and looking
forward -- but it's also about acknowledging a history of work that existed before your own time. This
is part of the reason we're celebrating projects whose focus is on the preservation and restoration of
something otherwise lost, forgotten, or ignored. We collected a list of projects that fit the bill:
restorations, preservations, and archives of all sorts a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/pages/archive-projects" target="_blank"right here/a. /ppIn the
world of film, this can mean anything from rescuing a lost work to completing a filmmaker's canon.
It's part technical, part philosophical, and part curatorial -- and it involves some informed decisionmaking as well. As Jake Perlin of a href="http://www.artistspublicdomain.org/cinema-conservancy"
target="_blank"Cinema Conservancy/a put it: "Restoration is the work that's done to bring a film
back to the closest approximation of what the work looked like initially." We asked five project
creators to talk about what it means to restore something, and why they were moved to do so with
these particular projects. /ph1a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kinolorber/pioneers-o-african-american-cinema" target="_blank"Pioneers of African-American Cinema/a/h1div
class="template oembed" contenteditable="false" datahref="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kinolorber/pioneers-of-african-american-cinema" iframe
frameborder="0" height="360" scrolling="no"
src="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kinolorber/pioneers-of-african-american-cinema/widget/vi
deo.html" width="480"/iframe /div p"Some of the films we're working on have been out in other
versions. We're trying to create the definitive version. We find the best existing material and give it
the best possible treatment so it looks as good as it's going to look, short of having a 35mm print
projected onto the screen. It's an art form -- you can go way overboard and change the film. We try
to maintain the integrity of the film so it looks close to how it should have looked, without looking
enhanced."/ppi- Bret Wood, producer/i/pp"If you think about the rise of American mass media,
African American culture was the basis. These kinds of films were sidelined by the rise of Hollywood.
To exist outside of that, you had to have your own narrative and your own circuit and your own
distribution methods. They are profound examples of independent cinema altogether."/ppi- Paul
Miller, aka DJ Spooky, executive producer/i/ph1a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2132684476/restore-bloody-friday"
target="_blank"Bloody Friday/a/h1div class="template oembed" contenteditable="false" datahref="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2132684476/restore-bloody-friday" iframe
src="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2132684476/restore-bloody-friday/widget/video.html"
width="480"/iframe /div p"It means a lot of things to restore a film. First and foremost, it means
preserving something for the future. This movie was made in the early '70s, and there wasn't any
thought in the market beyond next year: if it served next year's purpose, it served its purpose. But so
much has happened since then -- people want to learn about the past and see the movies and extract
something from them. A lot of those movies are gone or will never be seen. When you think of how
most German silent films are missing, gone, completely destroyed, lost in World War 2 -- that's sad.
To restore something is to preserve history. People like us step in to make sure that history is
preserved. /ppThis film has never been released in America uncut. It's possible it never had a proper
theatrical run. There was an English dub, but that's all. But good movies deserve to be seen, and we
could just tell that there was a North American audience waiting to discover this movie. It's too wild,
it's too good to not be seen."brbri- Elijah Drenner, a
href="https://www.facebook.com/subkultur.entertainment" target="_blank"Subkultur/a/i/ph1a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/oscilloscope/restoring-kelly-reichardts-debut-ilm-river-of-gra" target="_blank"River of Grass/a/h1div class="template oembed"
contenteditable="false" data-href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/oscilloscope/restorin-kelly-reichardts-debut-film-river-of-gra" iframe frameborder="0" height="360" scrolling="no"
src="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/oscilloscope/restoring-kelly-reichardts-debut-ilm-river-of-gra/widget/video.html" width="480"/iframe /div p"Restoring a film means different
things to different organizations, distributors, people, filmmakers, fans. There are a lot of film prints
and digital mediums, but basically for us, it means this: we're going to restore iRiver of Grass/i, and
do a 2k scan so we can have a DCP of it. We'll also make it available to digital platforms, because
that's incredibly important right now./ppThere's definitely a curatorial and philosophical element to
it, but we want to stay true to what the filmmaker wants as much as possible. You do have to be
careful, because film has a beautiful grain element to it, it has its own color timing and blacks and
whites. You don't want to over-restore a film and make it too pristine."/ppi- Debra McClutchy, a
href="http://www.oscilloscope.net/" target="_blank"Oscilloscope/a/i/ph1a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/uniondocs/living-los-sures" target="_blank"Living Los
Sures/a/h1div class="template oembed" contenteditable="false" datahref="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/uniondocs/living-los-sures?ref=email" iframe
src="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/uniondocs/living-los-sures/widget/video.html"
width="480"/iframe /div p"Restoration is a huge site of opportunity, and there's so much potential in
the archive for new stories to come out and new ways to interact with those stories. This film from
1984 opened up a window into the history that's hard to find. It's been a way for creating
connections between people in the community, and organizations that have been there for a long
time, and also to understand the history of the people who lived in the Brooklyn neighborhood called
Los Sures for well over 30 years. The microhistories of New York are often very difficult to
find./ppUnion Docs is a center for documentary, so we show films all the time. In 2007 some
filmmakers asked if we'd seen a film that was made in the neighborhood in 1984. It blew us away.
We thought the film would have been preserved in some way, but the reality with so many of these
projects is there's nobody out there who's tasked with taking care of these films. But because of our
energy, the New York Public Library became interested in it. They had the only surviving print that
was of any value, so we were really lucky to do the work when we did it. It would have been very
easy for it to be totally lost."/ppi- Christopher Allen, a href="http://www.uniondocs.org/"
target="_blank"Union Docs/a/i/ph1a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/733424259/rescuejames-bryans-lost-1990-vhs-horror-film-jung" target="_blank"Jungle Trap /a/h1div class="template
oembed" contenteditable="false" datahref="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/733424259/rescue-james-bryans-lost-1990-vhs-horror-fil
m-jung" iframe frameborder="0" height="360" scrolling="no"
src="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/733424259/rescue-james-bryans-lost-1990-vhs-horror-fil
m-jung/widget/video.html" width="480"/iframe /div p"Restoration means rescuing a movie from
annihilation. Everything's going to fall into obscurity eventually, but for a movie to not even have a
chance to make a mark is unfortunate. You have to be judicious, and try to restore and rescue the
movies that have cultural weight or value, but the entire point of it is to make sure that anything that
can improve somebody's life in some way has the opportunity to be seen. Even if that just means
entertaining people on a gut level./ppiJungle Trap/i is made by a guy named James Bryan, who is one
of the pioneering exploitation filmmakers of the '70s. He was so motivated that he jumped into
filmmaking with no money or experience. He did it with a drive and energy that's really contagious,
so when you watch even his earliest and most poorly made films, you really feel it. /ppIn the trunk of
a used car that my friend had bought was a VHS tape for a movie called iRun Coyote Run/i, which
was considered lost. We watched it, and it was incredible. We contacted James Bryan, who turned
out to live in Texas where I live, and said we'd like to release iRun Coyote Run/i. He said he only ever
made ten copies of that movie for the crew. Then we went to his house, and he said "Too bad no
one's ever going to put out the movie I made after that." He'd shot an entire film, but the market had
fallen apart./ppSo we realized that this guy who has this incredible story and is really deeply rooted
in the history of drive-in cinema and exploitation had an additional feature that was never going to
be seen. This isn't just a matter of finding a completed project and sharing it with the world -- we're
actually going to work with him to do the edit, to make a soundtrack, to make the movie as he
wanted it to be in 1990. This will be his final project."/ppi- Zack Carlson, a
href="http://bleedingskull.com/" target="_blank"Bleeding Skull/a/i/p Niina Pollari
https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/niina tag:www.kickstarter.com,2009-05-04:BlogPost/1550 201501-30T12:13:00-05:00 2015-01-30T12:13:31-05:00 pIt's probably no surprise that we love film
festivals at Kicktarter -- what better way to celebrate our love of such a wide variety of cinema? Each
festival on the list below offers a unique perspective on what a film festival is: some are
idiosyncratic, some are expansive, all have something unique to offer. Here are just a few of our
favorites./ph1 a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ambulantecalifornia/ambulante-creat-a-rogue-documentary-tour-across-t" target="_blank"Ambulante/a /h1 div class="template asset"
contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/some-of-our-favorite-film-festivals/assets/3206849/edit"
data-id="3206849" figure img alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/206/849/13e5ce8a83a3694b0efec6f123f1946d_original.jpeg?v=142256417
1amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=4903230239ed6a99bc67e50f8d
17a04e" /figure /div pIt's no static event -- Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna'sa
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ambulantecalifornia/ambulantecreate-a-rogue-documentary-tour-across-t" target="_blank" documentary road show/a has screened
all over Mexico and Latin America, from the U.S.-Mexico border to the Columbian National Museum
in Bogota. This fall they brought the festival north of the border and set up free screenings all over
Los Angeles in a variety of unique settings: parks, parking lots, movie theaters, community centers
and more. You can see the program at a href="http://ambulante.com.mx/en/festival"
target="_blank"Ambulante's website/a./ph1a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/906612014/2014-los-angeles-hp-lovecraft-film-festival-a
nd-ct" target="_blank"H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival amp; Cthulhucon /a/h1div class="template
oembed" contenteditable="false" data-href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hplffpdx/h-lovecraft-film-festival-and-cthulhucon-portland" iframe frameborder="0" height="360"
scrolling="no" src="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hplffpdx/hp-lovecraft-film-festivaland-cthulhucon-portland/widget/video.html" width="480"/iframe /div pThis Portland, Oregon and
San Pedro, California-based celebration of the literary horror and weird tales of H.P. Lovecraft
touches not only on filmic adaptations of the author's work, but also on the literary, gaming, art and
music scenes devoted to Mr. Lovecraft./ph1a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cucalorus/cucalorus-20" target="_blank"Cucalorus
/a/h1div class="template asset" contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/some-of-our-favoite-film-festivals/assets/3207062/edit" data-id="3207062" figure img alt="" class="fit"
src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/207/062/20c9cba139ec938adc2fcfe69aa30bc0_original.jpg?v=1422566606
amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=2b4fb2b22c3d2076bec30fa45b6
1824b" /figure /div pThis long-running Wilmington, North Carolina-based festival screens over 200
independent and international films yearly, bringing their filmmakers and artists together to
conceive new works and launch new projects, all the while offering artist and audience opportunity
to connect at an intimate level./ph1a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1066862669/san-
diegos-first-horror-themed-film-festival" target="_blank"Horrible Imaginings/a/h1div

class="template oembed" contenteditable="false" data-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5tfk97pe0" iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/B5tfk97pe0?feature=oembedamp;wmode=transparent" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen/iframe /div
pThe first film festival in San Diego dedicated to macabre cinema and art annually celebrates the
world of horror and all its associated sub-genres through a world spanning array of independently
made feature and short creations, along with classic revival screenings of genre cinema staples.
/ph1a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1715064836/making-waves-2013-romanian-ilm-fest-continues-and" target="_blank"Making Waves /a/h1div class="template oembed"
contenteditable="false" data-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A37TDytOnhI" iframe
src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/A37TDytOnhI?feature=oembedamp;wmode=transparent"
frameborder="0" allowfullscreen/iframe /div pScreening in New York City and Pleasantville, New
York, this annual survey of Romania's socially incisive, independently minded personal cinema is the
only U.S. film festival dedicated to showcasing and celebrating the best in Romanian contemporary
cinema. /ph1 a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/migratingforms/migrating-forms"
target="_blank"Migrating Forms/a /h1div class="template oembed" contenteditable="false" datahref="http://vimeo.com/113950751" iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/113950751" width="560"
height="315" frameborder="0" title="BAM presents Migrating Forms" webkitallowfullscreen
mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen/iframe /div pGrowing out of the long running New York
Underground Film Festival, this diverse collection of work bridges the gap between the film, video
and art worlds through the common context of cinema./ph1a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1814941661/3rd-annual-robot-film-festival-sf?ref=nav_s
earch" target="_blank"Robot Film Festival /a/h1div class="template oembed"
contenteditable="false" data-href="http://vimeo.com/103302471" iframe
src="//player.vimeo.com/video/103302471" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0"
title="Robot Film Festival 2014" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen/iframe
/div pThe first and, currently, only event of its kind. This San Francisco-based festival is an annual
celebration of robots on screen and in performance; nurturing a community of creatives and
engineers who explore, document and invent within the world of robotics./ph1a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rooftopfilms/rooftop-films-more-than-a-film-festival"
target="_blank"Rooftop Films /a/h1div class="template oembed" contenteditable="false" datahref="http://vimeo.com/66097207" iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/66097207" width="560"
height="315" frameborder="0" title='Rooftop Films 2013 Trailer: "Building Something Bigger"'
webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen/iframe /div pThis New York City-based
organization has spent the better part of two decades bringing independent film to the rooftops,
parks, public plazas and waterways of the city. Through their wide-ranging and varied programs,
they are able to support the cultural community in NY -- be they artists, filmmakers, musicians,
schools, or nonprofit organizations./p George Schmalz
https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/schmalztastic tag:www.kickstarter.com,2009-0-04:BlogPost/1552 2015-01-28T13:55:00-05:00 2015-01-28T13:56:08-05:00 div class="template
oembed" contenteditable="false" data-href="http://youtu.be/flGEOIQ_SDg" iframe width="560"
height="315"
src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/flGEOIQ_SDg?feature=oembedamp;wmode=transparent"
frameborder="0" allowfullscreen/iframe /div pWe asked a few of our favorite filmmakers for their
tips and advice on making a short film for very little money -- say, $500 or less. (That's ivery/i little
money in film terms, if not, like, security-deposit or parking-ticket terms.) Watch above to see what
they had to say./ppYou can also watch plenty of great work by any one of these generous folks,
including:/pul li bErin Vassilopoulos/b, director of ia href="http://vimeo.com/112627227"
target="_blank"Superior/a/i /li li bBen Sinclair amp; Katja Blichfeld/b, creators of a
href="https://vimeo.com/ondemand/highmaintenance" target="_blank"iHigh Maintenance/i/a /li li
bKyle Rankin/b, director of a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0357470" target="_blank"iThe

Battle of Shaker Heights/i/a and a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3602128"
target="_blank"iNight of the Living Deb/i/a /li li bKarl Beyer amp; Scott Ross/b, directors of a
href="http://scottandkarl.tv/The-Burning-House-Short-Film" target="_blank"iThe Burning House/i/a
and Jayson Musson's a href="http://scottandkarl.tv/The-Adventures-of-Jamel-Series"
target="_blank"iThe Adventures of Jamel/i/a /li li bReinaldo Marcus Green/b, maker of iStop/i,
iAnonymous/i, iStone Cars/i, a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3232264" target="_blank"and
more/a /li li bJesse Burks/b, director of a href="https://vimeo.com/ondemand/oneplease/100265759"
target="_blank"iOne Please/i/a /li li bEmily Carmichael/b, maker of iThe Adventures of Ledo and Ix/i,
iThe Ghost and Us/i, and other films, plus noted essayist and comic artists and a
href="http://kidcandrive.com/" target="_blank"general genius-at-large/a /li li bPeter Vack/b, actor,
writer, and director of ia href="http://www.brooklynfilmfestival.org/films/detail.asp?fid=1480"
target="_blank"Send/a/i /li /ul Nitsuh Abebe https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/111060303
tag:www.kickstarter.com,2009-05-04:BlogPost/1548 2015-01-27T12:17:00-05:00 2015-0-27T12:42:46-05:00 pDavid Cross is famous. You might remember him from the HBO sketch comedy
show iMr. Show/i, which he created, wrote for, and performed in with Bob Odenkirk. Maybe you
know him as Tobias Fnke from the beloved and recently resurrected iArrested Development/i. Then
again, maybe you remember him best for his decades as a successful stand-up comedian, or a
multitude of other film and television appearances./ppHis latest project is a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1573560609/hits-a-film-by-david-cross"
target="_blank"iHits/i/a, a comedy that premiered at last year's Sundance Film Festival, which he's
planning to release in theaters independently. The film is about virality and unintentional celebrity in
a small town. I spoke to Cross, and asked him some questions about fame./p div class="template
asset" contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/an-interview-with-dvid-cross/assets/3190593/edit" data-id="3190593" figure img alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/190/593/035e6cb47d753652420de32415998355_original.jpeg?v=1422309
152amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=5b27a1148826090a5b9de75
cda16d52e" /figure /div pbThe film is about fame. Your project video also riffs on that theme. Why
did you want to do a film about fame?/b/ppWell, the short answer is that of the roughly 25 ideas I
have kicking around in some form, this was the one I felt I could do the cheapest. The other ideas
are a little bit more expensive or fantastic at points, and this idea is really grounded. It takes place in
a small town, and I knew I could shoot it up there. I live up there and I knew I could call in a lot of
favors. And I knew I could shoot it for under a million dollars. It was 100% a practical
decision./ppbSo this is your directorial debut?/b/ppFor a feature film, yeah./ppbAnd you wrote it and
directed it./b/ppI also did craft services, and filled up the peanut-filled pretzel nuggets./ppbYou filled
the nuggets or you filled the bowl?/b/ppThe bowl with the nuggets. The nuggets are made in a
factory in Sri Lanka. I would get them from Costco, but I'd be responsible for filling the bowl./ppbIt
seems like you rail against the way fame works nowadays. Where like, anyone can do this kind of
thing -- like fame is almost cheapened by iAmerican Idol/i, or.../b/ppIt's not almost cheapened, it is
cheapened. But it's not the people that are good singers on iAmerican Idol/i that I have a problem
with. They deserve it. It's the people that are terrible, who then become famous for being terrible.
And it's really less about, "Hey do you mind us making fun of you for a couple years? We'll give you a
couple million dollars that you never would have had, but we're going to present you as a fool." It's
less about that than the people who don't have any discernible talent, but just feel like they deserve
to be famous. They have this sense of entitlement, which I get in this culture, especially if you're
born and raised -- I mean, we're talking about millennials at this point./ppAnything on Bravo, or TLC,
or Honey Boo Boo -- to me, Bravo and TLC and the like, they're really responsible for what I'm
talking about. There's nothing of any merit and it's kind of disgusting to me that these people are
rewarded just for being awful personalities. At the absolute best they're just shallow people. And at
the worst, they're some form of evil./ppbThis idea of fame -- when you were getting started with
stand-up, was that a thing that crossed your mind? Did you think, I want to be famous?/b/ppInsofar
as fame is a measure of success, yeah. I wanted to be successful. I didn't have any vanities like, you
know, "I'm going to be the next Charro." I hoped to be a successful stand-up. Back then that meant
you'd appeared on, what, the three shows you could go on? So I hoped to work steadily, and perhaps
do some movies, and then eventually write and direct movies. Therefore, fame will determine that
I'm able to do that thing. You can't divorce the two things./ppbDo you remember the first time you
thought to yourself, I might be famous?/b/ppOh, I can tell you exactly when it was. I was at
Bumbershoot, the art festival in Seattle, in 1996, I believe. Up until then I'd been doing mostly standup and I definitely had a name that other stand-ups knew. People who booked shows knew who I
was. But audiences didn't. But then I was there at the Bumbershoot festival, which I had done a
couple times before, and iMr. Show/i had aired -- the first four weird little nothing episodes./ppAnd
this is before the internet, so there was no immediate feedback -- we were just out there in the
vacuum. Then I was at the festival for three or four days, running around to see bands and I don't
think 30 minutes went by on any given day when people weren't coming up to me and going "I saw
your comedy show. It's really funny." I remember calling Bob [Odenkirk, iMr. Show /ico-creator] and
telling him, this is nuts. I'm wandering around and everyone knows who I am, and they're talking
about iMr. Show/i, and the stand-up shows are packed./pdiv class="template asset"
contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/an-interview-with-david-cross/assets/3190603/edit"
data-id="3190603" figure img alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/190/603/2c39c48ab4178aa32e6c89d5cd2dce3d_original.jpeg?v=14223092
57amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=0c64d869f723720e5e709385
d7543752" /figure /div pbI tried to find you on Twitter./b/ppI'm not on Twitter./ppbThat's a conscious
decision?/b/pp[ilaughing/i] Yeah, of course. The government hasn't said I'm not allowed to be on
Twitter. My mommy didn't take it away. Of course it's a conscious decision./ppbRight, but some
people have PR teams run these, or they don't give a damn about it but they at least have a presence
there./b/ppOh, I completely understand the value of it. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say I
would be wealthier and working more if I focused on that presence. If I had a million followers on
Twitter, I'd probably be able to get a book deal and an advance for two million dollars. That's the
reality, and I can't deny that./ppBut it's also just a headscratcher that people can monetize having a
million likes on Facebook. To me, that's crazy -- it's a stranger clicking a button. I do believe that in
the pretty near future people will understand that it doesn't really translate to much. The people
with all the money who are financing things will come to discover that it's not a good measure of
what determines financial success. I think that day is coming in a few years. Anybody who's getting a
million-dollar book deal or anybody who's got a lot of followers for their Vine channel or whatever
should absolutely take the money now, because I think it's going to dry up shortly./ppbRight, it's a
funny thing trying to recreate virality. It's totally inconsistent./b/ppTo me, my reluctance to engage
in social media is . . . it seems like a waste of time. And I waste my time in other ways. I'm not saying
that every waking second of the day I'm doing something worthwhile -- I play video games, I lay
around, I read dumb magazine articles, I go out drinking at night. I waste my time, you know? But
somebody's pithy comment about a movie that came out -- I don't care to engage in it in either
direction. I'd rather be known for other things than my take on the situation in Ferguson. I'd rather
develop that and talk about it onstage. I think it also takes away from the specialness of seeing
somebody, especially stand-ups, come to your town, if you can follow that person and they're
constantly throwing shit out there. It waters down your voice./ppBut like I said, I do truly enjoy
going out to bars and getting into heated discussions. I debate things beyond 140 characters. And I
know that if I tweet it, I'd get in trouble pretty quickly -- I would tweet something, then have to
apologize for it or explain, then I'd get even more frustrated, and who wants to be famous for
that?/ppbI guess some people?/b/ppRight, yes, the answer is obviously quite a number of people.
And again, they can monetize it. Look, I'm the dumb one. I readily admit it. And I absolutely
understand that I would be more successful and I'd be a wealthy man if I did that, if that's what I
concentrated on./pdiv class="template asset" contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/a-interview-with-david-cross/assets/3190600/edit" data-id="3190600" figure img alt="" class="fit"
src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/190/600/19c5e56aee38e789e7f9200ba450834e_original.jpeg?v=14223092
33amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=3016cefac138e579acfee9581
635673e" /figure /div pbDo you think there is even such a thing any more as selling out?/b/ppNo,
that's gone. That ship has sailed. That's a Carnival Cruise called the Dreamliner and it's now docking
in Orlando. I'm old enough to remember the chipping away at that notion, but again, it's ... if you're
an indie band, and you're not gonna make a lot of money, and you're getting ripped off by Spotify
and Pandora, and people are taking your music for free, and you worked hard on it, and the old ways
of getting money for your work are gone, then fuck it. Sell cars. Sell a Prius, I don't give a shit./ppI
mean, Tina Fey does a commercial for American Express, a credit card company with some dubious
past history, and she's phenomenally wealthy. Alec Baldwin and Samuel L. Jackson are doing
commercials for banks. And there's all that synergistic "Stay at the Reebok House in Brooklyn for a
month. You can stay rent-free and record. You just gotta give Reebok some of your songs." Nobody
thinks twice about it./ppbDo you think that's a good thing or a bad thing?/b/ppIt doesn't matter what
I think. I'm just one guy, but I think now it's fine -- it's a good thing. If I could go back in time 20
years to when this shit started happening, well, that's a bad thing. But now it doesn't mean anything
anymore. If I say to you, "That band fun. is doing a commercial for Chase bank," and I'm surprised
and slightly disgusted by it, then I'm the idiot. I'm the old man. You look at people that age and I just
seem like some weird dinosaur. They'd be like, "I don't get it, they offered us a million dollars, dude.
Why is that a bad thing?" And for the world they've grown up in, it's fine. That's what we are as a
society -- we monetize and commodify ideas. You're a fool if you believe in some sort of purity of your
ability to express yourself. Go to Art Basel, or whatever that thing is in Miami. Go anywhere -- art is
to be commodified. And the last couple generations have grown up where that's just what you
do./ppbYou act, you do stand-up, you write, now you direct. What's the most important art to
you?/b/ppWriting, absolutely, writing is what's most important to me. And writing is a part of standup, but.... Acting is very impressive when somebody can do it well, but I don't think it's nearly as
important as good writing. I'm not saying that I'm a good writer, but I think that's the more
important thing. You don't have any acting without writing. You don't have any directing without
writing./pdiv class="template asset" contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/an-interview-wth-david-cross/assets/3190597/edit" data-id="3190597" figure img alt="" class="fit"
src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/190/597/a7ec15f48d698f6209f043d74d5a7239_original.jpeg?v=142230919
3amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=01ee0678c555303fa541249e9b
63ff31" /figure /div Michael C. Stewart https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/michael
tag:www.kickstarter.com,2009-05-04:BlogPost/1547 2015-01-26T12:04:00-05:00 2015-0-27T09:26:45-05:00 div class="template oembed" contenteditable="false" datahref="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ebn2FpZB-PQ" iframe width="560" height="315"
src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ebn2FpZB-PQ?feature=oembedamp;wmode=transparent"
frameborder="0" allowfullscreen/iframe /div pRecently, filmmaker Hal Hartley came to Kickstarter
HQ for a screening of his new film iNed Rifle. /iThe film is the conclusion of the family-centric trilogy
that also includes iHenry Fool/i and iFay Grim/i -- "This is like my iStar Wars/i," he quipped in the
conversation that followed the screening. /ppAmong other topics he discussed with Kickstarter's
Yancey Strickler: film school, how everybody seems to want to be a standup comic lately, and the
interesting thing that happens when you work with an ensemble cast for decades./p Niina Pollari
https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/niina tag:www.kickstarter.com,2009-05-04:BlogPost/1543 201501-21T13:17:00-05:00 2015-01-21T13:17:28-05:00 pIt's time to head to Park City for another year of
celebrating independent film. For the fourth straight year, Kickstarter-funded features, docs and
shorts will make up more than 10 percent of the festival slate. 17 films going to Sundance this year
were funded on Kickstarter, and they join the 70+ Kickstarter-funded films that were selected for
previous Sundance Festivals. /ppWe're so proud of these filmmakers -- all amazing storytellers who
have found their own ways to cultivate audiences and and make work that represents their true
creative vision. Here's a brief look at each of the 17 films whose journey to Sundance included a stop
on Kickstarter:/ph1a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1783641494/advantageous-th-feature" target="_blank"Advantageous /a/h1div class="template asset" contenteditable="false"
data-edit_url="/blog/kickstarter-at-sundance-2015/assets/3164390/edit" data-id="3164390" figure
img alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/164/390/3650257fb34960cd25653d0369eb3f05_original.jpg?v=142178729
9amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=0fcd339350c60a1669ed42a148
57756a" /figure /div pIn Jennifer Phang's science fiction short iAdvantageous/i, a single mother
makes a decision to partake in a cutting-edge biomedical project in order to secure her daughter's
future. It's a story about family, the struggle for a future, and surviving in the technological
singularity. /ph1 a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chaakles/christmas-again"
target="_blank"Christmas, Again/a /h1div class="template asset" contenteditable="false" dataedit_url="/blog/kickstarter-at-sundance-2015/assets/3164413/edit" data-id="3164413" figure img
alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/164/413/bb3208cc77371419d85b4025660dbbaf_original.jpg?v=142178753
3amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=eb24a66426a6d643180e7bfd1
45e4dd3" /figure /div pIn Charles Poekel's iChristmas, Again/i, protagonist Noel suddenly finds
himself unable to do what he's done for years -- sell Christmas trees in NYC. It's a film about
endurance, human spirit, and the unique relationships that communities form with their Christmas
tree vendors. /ph1a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1363977508/dog-bowl-post"
target="_blank"Dog Bowl /a/h1div class="template asset" contenteditable="false" dataedit_url="/blog/kickstarter-at-sundance-2015/assets/3164460/edit" data-id="3164460" figure img
alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/164/460/e2b7931471943fb0640bbbe3bae1544a_original.jpg?v=142178828
4amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=e2f86e80d7c007e6348bd5ba9f
d7b0e8" /figure /div piDog Bowl/i is a short about what happens when a disaffected young woman
steals the vest from a service dog and finds herself contemplating the answer to her very
existence./ph1a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1857730587/finders-keepers-a-straner-than-fiction-documentar" target="_blank"Finders Keepers /a/h1div class="template asset"
contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/kickstarter-at-sundance-2015/assets/3164503/edit"
data-id="3164503" figure img alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/164/503/387c98c926be86b7934585c0740f1f6b_original.jpg?v=142178912
3amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=b066681f4ac482f0807fe71871
42b515" /figure /div pIn 2007, a severed human foot was discovered in a grill bought at a North
Carolina auction. Bryan Carberry and Clay Tweel'si Finders Keepers/i is the story of what happened
after that -- and it only gets weirder./ph1 a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1446680731/ill-see-you-in-my-dreams-narrative-feature-f
ilm" target="_blank"I'll See You In My Dreams/a /h1div class="template asset"
data-id="3164740" figure img alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/164/740/37b194320b5cac646e9cdb0e4278487d_original.png?v=14217920
48amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;lossless=trueamp;s=ffebc3f9351db23d57b
356eb790eb96f" /figure /div pIn iI'll See You In My Dreams/i, Blythe Danner plays an older woman
who begins dating again when her routine is shaken. She finds herself connecting with two very
different men -- one older and exuberant, and the other young and unsure about his next steps -- as
she enters a different phase of her life./ph1a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/815346089/in-football-we-trust-a-sundance-documentary
-premie" target="_blank"In Football We Trust/a/h1div class="template asset"
data-id="3168436" figure img alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/168/436/8e5929beb09950225f2c7483451548f6_original.jpg?v=142186197
3amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=6f408c75a4f8f023a6c3196efa6
9d86d" /figure /div pFilmmakers Tony Vainuku and Erika Cohn have spent the past five years
following four Polynesian football players as they try to make it to the NFL. For these Salt Lake City
teens, football isn't just a game -- it's a way out of poverty and gang violence. /ph1 a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2104379593/borderline-films-presents-james-white"
target="_blank"James White/a /h1div class="template asset" contenteditable="false" dataedit_url="/blog/kickstarter-at-sundance-2015/assets/3164780/edit" data-id="3164780" figure img
alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/164/780/e090227c856faad8c60468fe0ffea787_original.png?v=1421792650
amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;lossless=trueamp;s=099beeba4f5ee038adb7
d5cdeeceda19" /figure /div pThe third feature from filmmaking trio Borderline Films, iJames White/i,
is a coming-of-age story of a young man caught in a spiral of reckless behavior -- but it's also a film
about the relationship between a mother and son. (See also a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/blog/interview-sea-durkin-and-antonio-campos-on-producing-james-whit" target="_blank"our interview/a with two of
the filmmakers, from earlier this year.)/ph1a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hereticfilms/misery-loves-comedy-with-kevin-pollak"
target="_blank"Misery Loves Comedy /a/h1div class="template asset" contenteditable="false" dataedit_url="/blog/kickstarter-at-sundance-2015/assets/3164807/edit" data-id="3164807" figure img
alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/164/807/dc1ddd1ac137d91d8268eac2d9caa60a_original.jpg?v=142179296
2amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=497f6d7025d53468695eedf05a
f97024" /figure /div piMisery Loves Comedy/i is a documentary about the darker side of comedians -in it, actor (and comic) Kevin Pollak examines the popular notion that the people who make us laugh
are, in fact, miserable. /ph1a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/papamachete/papamachete-a-short-film-about-haitian-machete-fe" target="_blank"Papa Machete /a/h1div
class="template asset" contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/kickstarter-at-sundace-2015/assets/3164996/edit" data-id="3164996" figure img alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/164/996/ae43c3846eda2da61e7c5da1b9b0780c_original.jpg?v=142179511
5amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=901209ba2ccf516ff4d6ac7fa7a
c0d84" /figure /div piPapa Machete /iexamines the art of machete fencing -- and talks to the main
man doing it -- in Haiti. /ph1 a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ops/the-heist"
target="_blank"Racing Extinction/a /h1div class="template asset" contenteditable="false" dataedit_url="/blog/kickstarter-at-sundance-2015/assets/3168465/edit" data-id="3168465" figure img
alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/168/465/1ff0c912ce89daece2d8693cec150cd2_original.jpg?v=1421862511
amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=c819af6b776ebc5d12a648c2e38
8d18d" /figure /div piRacing Extinction /iis a film by the same people that made the Oscar-winning
documentaryi The Cove/i. It takes on the topic of mass extinction as something our planet might be
facing soon./ph1a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/258631210/saturday-short-film-abut-the-hillsborough-disaste" target="_blank"Saturday /a/h1div class="template asset"
data-id="3168066" figure img alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/168/066/0ff445fc6d38ec3103492c42a22e4cad_original.jpg?v=1421856419
amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=33c216cb45bd2402503d84e100
1b48dd" /figure /div pSet against the backdrop of the a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillsborough_disaster" target="_blank"Hillsborough disaster/a of
1989, iSaturday/i is a fictional account of one family's experience -- one brother is at the football
match, and the other is at home, watching events unfold./ph1 a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1119748368/sembene-help-launch-the-tale-of-africas-gre
at-film" target="_blank"Sembene!/a /h1div class="template asset" contenteditable="false" data-
edit_url="/blog/kickstarter-at-sundance-2015/assets/3165103/edit" data-id="3165103" figure img

alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/165/103/b7434dca57780d11ad0e759aac41f44f_original.jpg?v=1421796490
amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=e5f34e1b57180b796301d63c87
9acf6a" /figure /div pOusmane Sembene is one of Africa's greatest storytellers, on the page and
screen. iSembene!/i is the first documentary about his life. /ph1a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/990433900/lee-0" target="_blank"Songs My Brothers
Taught Me/a/h1div class="template asset" contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/kickstarte-at-sundance-2015/assets/3168085/edit" data-id="3168085" figure img alt="" class="fit"
src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/168/085/09d4aacadffa5ef5f55fdd2d26ca4109_original.png?v=1421856674
amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;lossless=trueamp;s=9b301b6da13d394f66af
141bf225cdf3" /figure /div pA reckless decision changes everything for three Lakota best friends in
this coming-of-age film from director Chloe Zhao. /ph1 a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jensiebelnewsom/the-mask-you-live-in"
target="_blank"The Mask You Live In/a /h1div class="template asset" contenteditable="false" dataedit_url="/blog/kickstarter-at-sundance-2015/assets/3168103/edit" data-id="3168103" figure img
alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/168/103/6f7f005840994b22911b1b5ebcd42dd0_original.png?v=142185723
9amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;lossless=trueamp;s=83c8f8fea7587d33e301
d87578856a9d" /figure /div pAn exploration of the way that American masculinity is portrayed, iThe
Mask You Live/i In is a doc about the ways in which certain behaviors and traits are socially imposed
on boys from an early age -- and how it affects them negatively throughout life. /ph1a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jenniolson/the-royal-road-a-film-by-jenni-olson"
target="_blank"The Royal Road/a/h1div class="template asset" contenteditable="false" dataedit_url="/blog/kickstarter-at-sundance-2015/assets/3168117/edit" data-id="3168117" figure img
alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/168/117/3452ad5ee28138f9238e3129ef9a00c5_original.jpg?v=1421857603
amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=cc0518f53141b2182a0c8f98440
aeb85" /figure /div pSan Francisco filmmaker Jenni Olson's contemplative iThe Royal Road/i takes on
ideas of colonization, nostalgia, butch identity, and more, and sets them against a backdrop of 16mm
California landscape. /ph1 a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/volta/volta-a-short-film"
target="_blank"Volta/a /h1div class="template asset" contenteditable="false" dataedit_url="/blog/kickstarter-at-sundance-2015/assets/3168171/edit" data-id="3168171" figure img
alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/168/171/21d1203467908052ca3c4935505a6b59_original.jpg?v=142185838
9amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=d5f68ebd468bf8f54cc2238855
541e66" /figure /div piVolta /iis the Greek word for a stroll. In this short film, a single mother and
her daughter take a journey across Athens by foot, bus, and more. It's part road movie, part love
song to a city in crisis. /ph1a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/903839421/welcome-t-leith-feature-documentary" target="_blank"Welcome to Leith/a/h1div class="template asset"
data-id="3168285" figure img alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/168/285/51b21d74aa9da8332e10bd5c105abc69_original.png?v=14218601
68amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;lossless=trueamp;s=7479f2614aa7d8c6a0
86ba9ad2d41235" /figure /div pIn a town with a population of 16, an individual begins buying up
land in order to turn the town into a white nationalist community. iWelcome to Leith/i is the story of
the town as it struggles for sovereignty against his vision. /p Niina Pollari
https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/niina tag:www.kickstarter.com,2009-05-04:BlogPost/1540 201501-15T14:12:00-05:00 2015-01-15T14:12:15-05:00 div class="template asset"
contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/how-we-made-the-kickstarte-
-ipad-app/assets/3144544/edit" data-id="3144544" figure img alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/144/544/13ef8f4b9d32bcd5ac421b11635ebdaf_original.jpg?v=1421343259

amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=e47dc95f63599ae0ba9fd30216fc
d184" /figure /div pBy now, apps are such a routine part of our daily lives that we rarely think about
what actually goes into making one. We sat down with Brandon Williams, our iOS Engineer, and
Zack Sears, Product Designer, to discuss how they created Kickstarter's iPad app even as they were
updating the iPhone app. If you've ever wondered how something like this comes about, read on. (If
you just want the app, you can a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/mobile" target="_blank"get it
here/a.)/ppbHow do you start making an app?/b/ppbZack Sears:/b We would lock ourselves in a room
with a whiteboard. The primary problem we wanted to solve was how you navigate from a list of
projects into a specific project, to other projects, and then making that flow work. The iPad is such
an interesting device in terms of how you open or close things with pinching, dragging, and swiping
-- we really wanted to think through all the different ways of navigating through. Once we solved
that we went into mockup phase. I started working through different concepts of vertically scrolling
through projects, horizontally scrolling through projects -- what do we think the transition is going to
be when you're going from a project within a list to a project page, and then into the next project,
and then how do we close that? Is there a visible close button? Or is there some cue to be able to
drag it and close it or pinch or something like that? /ppbBrandon Williams:/b We just wanted to
visualize it so I wouldn't be coding blindly. Then I would experiment a lot -- I had things like a white
screen with samples of project cards, showing what the transitions would be for blowing them up
and shrinking them back down. It was a lot of coding. We did so many versions, and the one we
settled on was having this entire vertical world spectrum of categories, and within each of those,
sideswiping between projects. It had all been converging on that, but we went all over the place
along the way./ppThe entire app, the code, it opens up with splitting: "Am I on the iPhone or on the
iPad?" And then along the way there's more and more code saying "if iPad, if not iPad." That's the
route we went because we were like, we're just going to do the iPad. /pdiv class="template asset"
contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/how-we-made-the-kickstarte-ipad-app/assets/3144550/edit" data-id="3144550" figure img alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/144/550/5a300fa9b24b540fa3110f4bb86995ea_original.jpg?v=1421343310
amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=b00b39a6acc96a36dbe613eff0f1
817e" /figure /div pbWhy an iPad app?/b/ppbBW:/b After we launched the iPhone app, it just made
sense to have an iPad app too. Zack, back in the day, worked on something that was internally
known as "Lean Back," and became publicly known as video mode, which is what should have been
on an iPad. No one wants to do an intensive video discovery on their desktop computer./ppbZS:/b
The idea was to be able to, quite literally, "lean back," and browse Kickstarter projects based on
their videos. We built the feature but the technology wasn't right -- it really was an experience
intended for the iPad. The iPad is the perfect device for that. It's geared toward casual
discovery./ppbBW:/b And the entire point of the app was to focus on discovery./ppbZS:/b I think a lot
of our power users -- people come to Kickstarter to find out about new cool stuff -- are not
necessarily looking for a specific thing they want to back. It's more like, "I just want to see all this
cool stuff that people are making." Really embracing the idea of being able to get a cross section of
this creative universe./ppbBW:/b That's also a relatively recent user pattern -- for people to just
casually browse. Historically, so much of our traffic has been someone going straight to a project
because a friend shared a link. But we've reached a point where people are going to come to
Kickstarter without knowing about a project, just wanting to explore./pdiv class="template asset"
contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/how-we-made-the-kickstarte-ipad-app/assets/3144552/edit" data-id="3144552" figure img alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/144/552/31c0ea2a519018e00ea7e0e62891670c_original.jpg?v=142134334
0amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=7ae06083c60d9fdb12fed183c8
bf06a2" /figure /div pbIs that something you've already noticed happening?/b/ppbBW:/b Yeah. We
were surfacing that data and seeing more and more repeat backers./ppbZS:/b We've reached a
certain level of maturity where people are comfortable enough with the platform that they're coming
back and looking for stuff./ppbBW:/b No one is downloading the iPhone app who only ever backed a
single project. It's going to be people who are repeat backers and just want to be in this mode of
browsing. If you just backed a single project, you'd use the website. So we could also use the app as
a playground for experimenting with our brand, where it would typically be a bit more scary to do
that on the site./ppbDo you have an example of that experimentation?/b/ppbZS:/b The way we
revamped Discover -- the pages for finding projects -- last summer on the actual website was very
much inspired by what we had done already on the iPad. We had this back and forth where we got
inspired by using the iPad as a testing ground and solved a lot of things. Then we actually brought it
to the website, and solved all the other things that weren't quite finished yet./pdiv class="template
asset" contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/how-we-made-the-kickstarte-ipad-app/assets/3144553/edit" data-id="3144553" figure img alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/144/553/2f9276afdb20774d53218e789bab0500_original.jpg?v=142134335
6amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=f2d597ecc7e49d812d480fe44c
2e61b0" /figure /div pbWhat was your vision for the app?/b/ppbZS: /bIf you download the app, you
probably already know what Kickstarter is. That's a huge hurdle that's already been solved. So the
things that motivated me were, first, the opportunity to make a really nice, optimized experience on
this device -- but second, I think the most important part was creating something that really caters
to our hardcore, passionate users./ppbBW:/b When I first started working here, Kickstarter wasn't
really looking for an iOS developer. It's a web company -- the conversation was, "does Kickstarter
even ineed/i an app?" I grappled with that for a long time. It really is serving some of our core, most
vocal people. We aren't trying to push everyone into this app. If you downloaded it, you get
it./ppbCan you talk a bit about how you started working on the iPad app iand/i revamping the iPhone
app that already existed?/b/ppbBW:/b It wasn't part of the original scope. Zack and I were working
all day in a conference room. I had the iPad and the iPhone hooked up to my computer. You can
install the app straight from your computer as a test. I accidentally installed the iPad app on my
iPhone, and it was all gigantic and didn't make sense, but there was enough there that it could
totally work. The project cards were the size of the phone, but you could scroll through them
sideways and flip through categories./ppbZS:/b Even tapping and pulling it closed and stuff like that
-- we were like, ithis could totally work/i./ppbBW:/b We saw it and couldn't un-see it, so we worked
on it in secret just as a side project, spending a couple hours on it, getting it more into shape and as
we worked on new designs for things we hadn't nailed down. /ppbZS:/b We went rogue and did it
silently because, honestly, we wanted to make sure we could actually do it before we promised
anything. This is a huge win, technically, because we now have a universal app with a shared code
base. It's also a win for us in terms of creating a nice, unified experience across phone, tablet, and
desktop./ppbBW:/b Pulling up a category page, seeing a splash of color, you can tell that all these
things were influenced by each other, and it's the first time we've had that ever./pdiv
class="template asset" contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/how-we-made-the-kickstrter-ipad-app/assets/3144555/edit" data-id="3144555" figure img alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/144/555/0303066e2a2ff517c332d7f6a68e7fdc_original.jpg?v=1421343382
amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=bc2100a6baf88c29584f58a9f63
4e45d" /figure /div pbAs you were working on the iPad app, did it change the way you thought about
looking at the site on a desktop computer?/b/ppbZS:/b I think it has informed a lot of future direction
for the project page. We recently rolled out a revamp of the project page, and I think there are
ihints/i of this new stuff, but we're going to do it a little more incrementally on the site. It's almost
entirely changed the way we think about the Discovery section of the site and what we care about
putting front and center -- how we present categories, how we present the primary ways of slicing
and dicing the projects./ppbCan you give some examples?/b/ppbZS:/b Right now, if you go to a
category page, the category name is front and center and all the sub-categories are below that. The
content you want will be grouped together. We're basically pulling out of the advanced filter and
putting that front and center, so it'll be category sorted. That's something that we found just by
looking at the data around the new Discovery experience. That's what people are doing nine out of
ten times. /ppbBW:/b And the project cards are precious./ppbZS:/b They're representations of
people's projects, and we don't want to clutter that view with 50 things to look at. This is very much
about making sure that we're not putting too many things in front of you at once. We left everything
on the table forever, but we decided on certain interaction patterns early on -- this idea of swiping
horizontally through projects, whether that's in discover view or once you actually open up a project.
We thought, this is the way it has to be. We knew that was right. Everything had to fit around it./p
Sam Hockley-Smith https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/1250323841 tag:www.kickstarter.com,200905-04:BlogPost/1539 2015-01-15T11:00:00-05:00 2015-01-15T11:02:12-05:00 p The a
href="http://www.cesweb.org/" target="_blank"Consumer Electronics Show/a is so big that it no
longer fits into the main convention center in Las Vegas. There's another show floor down the street
at the Sands, and a big chunk of it, called Eureka Park, is set aside for startups. We spent a lot of
time there last week, because Kickstarter creators took up nearly a quarter of the booths!/ppThe 102
creators who were at CES raised more than $50 million on Kickstarter. We had such a great time
stopping by the booths of old friends and making new ones. Here are some highlights from the
floor./pdiv class="template asset" contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/kickstarter-at-es-friends-old-and-new/assets/3140690/edit" data-id="3140690" figure img alt="" class="fit"
src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/140/690/5ee6ad7cd599a9d1bd7c045679ce886d_original.jpg?v=142126196
6amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=e5b1d0fed94c50c356d5e102bf
88039b" /figure /div pThe WobbleWorks team launched their a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1351910088/3doodler-20-the-worlds-first-3d-printing-pe
n-reinv" target="_blank"3Doodler 2.0 project/a at CES, and decorated their booth with lots of
amazing things that people have "drawn" with a 3Doodler.../pdiv class="template asset"
contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/kickstarter-at-ces-friends-od-and-new/assets/3140692/edit" data-id="3140692" figure img alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/140/692/646d31018d7241227a4001513408597c_original.jpg?v=14212619
82amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=e02b175baf6a584dd600f18e2
40c92aa" /figure /div p...including a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1351910088/3doodler-20-the-worlds-first-3d-printing-pe
n-reinv" target="_blank"this dress/a, which was the work of two design students in Hong Kong./pdiv
class="template asset" contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/kickstarter-at-ces-friend-old-and-new/assets/3140695/edit" data-id="3140695" figure img alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/140/695/6a16aee60b23aec1aecb06a563b9dc54_original.jpg?v=142126205
4amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=008139ede3c4619cc754c40cbd
dc9d9e" /figure /div pThe folks at a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1375236253/electrically-conductive-pla-3d-printer-filam
ent" target="_blank"ProtoPlant/a are running a project to make 3D printing material that conducts
electricity. They showed it off by printing a game controller that connects to a a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/joylabs/makey-makey-an-invention-kit-for-everyone"
target="_blank"MaKey MaKey/a and lets you play drums./pdiv class="template asset"
contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/kickstarter-at-ces-friends-od-and-new/assets/3140702/edit" data-id="3140702" figure img alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/140/702/57222149b4ff94fd9718d76972d9c203_original.jpg?v=142126213
6amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=b5691fb1aae69a59a5fa8dc7c4
22706d" /figure /div pJanelle Wang and Peter Treadway of a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/petertreadway/acton-r-rocketskates-worlds-first-smart-w
earable-m" target="_blank"Acton RocketSkates/a let the public try out the skates for the first time.
The public did so, a href="https://vine.co/v/OpBVq5AIWHm" target="_blank"very carefully/a./pdiv
class="template asset" contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/kickstarter-at-ces-friend-old-and-new/assets/3140704/edit" data-id="3140704" figure img alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksr-
ugc.imgix.net/assets/003/140/704/83aae7aac03f40d5de95d1a9086630f4_original.jpg?v=1421262155
amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=9dd2c8b4e1aa80a52b9796f7063
4f610" /figure /div pThe RocketSkates app lets you find people near you who also have the skates, so
you can rocket together. PicoBrew, which makes home beer-brewing machines, does the same thing
on its site: live updates showing a href="http://www.picobrew.com/whatsbrewingnew.cshtml"
target="_blank"what's brewing where/a./pdiv class="template asset" contenteditable="false" dataedit_url="/blog/kickstarter-at-ces-friends-old-and-new/assets/3140710/edit" data-id="3140710"
figure img alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/140/710/9675318e78f7582bd5a9c45f4544eb4f_original.jpg?v=1421262207
amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=202c56d64dce777ad8841ad850
afbe13" /figure /div pSpeaking of PicoBrew, Greg White let us try a fresh batch from their a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1708005089/picobrew-zymatic-the-automatic-eer-brewing-applia" target="_blank"Zymatic brewing machine/a, which is pioneering the a
href="http://techcrunch.com/2015/01/09/picobrew-zymatic/" target="_blank"Internet of Beer/a.
Tasty!/pdiv class="template asset" contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/kickstarter-at-es-friends-old-and-new/assets/3140723/edit" data-id="3140723" figure img alt="" class="fit"
src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/140/723/6100d1613f6e57a7e79007d931c1e0a1_original.jpg?v=142126240
0amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=7327eb3a5601ca4ec067b2a80
ed5e1a9" /figure /div pJohn got his head scanned by Occipital's a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/occipital/structure-sensor-capture-the-world-in-3d"
target="_blank"Structure Sensor/a, a 3D scanner that snaps onto the back of an iPad. (Action figures
coming soon.)/pdiv class="template asset" contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/kickstarte-at-ces-friends-old-and-new/assets/3140715/edit" data-id="3140715" figure img alt="" class="fit"
src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/140/715/b8806e3ad11d88cada6b94a2433e10c6_original.jpg?v=142126234
6amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=a618c80943c56b432c186c643
2257b9e" /figure /div pAnd he also checked out the new design of the a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/avegantglyph/a-mobil-personal-theater-with-built-in-premium-au" target="_blank"Avegant Glyph/a, a pair of headphones
with a video player inside that tricks your eyes into thinking you're looking at a giant screen. /ppWe
also saw Tony Hawk ride a a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/170315130/boostedboards-the-worlds-lightest-electric-vehicl" target="_blank"Boosted Board/a, danced with dinosaurs
in a demo of the latest a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1523379957/oculus-rift-stp-into-the-game" target="_blank"Oculus Rift/a prototype, and celebrated a batch of project launches,
including a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1450125572/lyteshot-a-sensor-based-moile-gaming-platform" target="_blank"LyteShot/a, a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1658373341/vikaura-screen-use-your-smartphone-to-cus
tomize-yo" target="_blank"Vikaura Screen/a, and a
href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/797220287/listnr-your-listening-assistant"
target="_blank"Listnr/a. /ppAll in all, quite a week! Maybe we'll see you in Vegas next year./p David
Gallagher https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/davidfg John Dimatos
https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/jsd tag:www.kickstarter.com,2009-05-04:BlogPost/1538 201501-14T13:45:00-05:00 2015-01-14T16:30:15-05:00 pChristopher Doyle is perhaps best known for his
work as cinematographer on the films of Wong Kar-wai -- Doyle worked on every film the iconic
director made from iDays of Being Wild/i to i2046/i, including the classic iIn the Mood For Love/i.
He's also collaborated with countless other directors, directed several films of his own, and become
a mainstay in the world of international cinema./ppBoth Doyle's biography and work style make him
a bit of a character in the film world -- he held a range of oddball jobs before picking up a camera,
including cow herder, practitioner of Chinese medicine, and a stint on a cargo ship. But when he
ended up behind the lens, at the age of 32, it was magic: Doyle's freedom for improvisation, sense of
movement, and ability to think on his feet make his work recognizable in a world where
cinematographers often blend into the background./ppHis latest project with producer Jenny Suen,
ia href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/722057066/hong-kong-trilogy-preschooed-preoccupied-preposte" target="_blank"Preschooled Preoccupied Preposterous/a/i, is a three-part
series telling the stories of three generations of people in Hong Kong. iPreschooled/i features the
voices of Hong Kong's schoolchildren; iPreoccupied/i takes on young adults during the antigovernment protests of the a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umbrella_Movement"
target="_blank"Umbrella Movement/a; and iPreposterous/i is set aboard a tram filled with seniors on
their way to a speed dating event. The three parts are very different, but combine to create an
impression of the chaos and pattern of life in Hong Kong./ppI spoke with Doyle and Suen over Skype
shortly before Christmas./pdiv class="template asset" contenteditable="false" dataedit_url="/blog/an-interview-with-christopher-doyle/assets/3137331/edit" data-id="3137331" figure
img alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/137/331/b3bb7e38b40b5552e18044d6be662628_original.jpg?v=14211875
19amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=53fe16e75708b7a0b61e89a20
c1ca59e" /figure /div pbHow did you come up with the concept for the series? /b/ppChristopher
Doyle: I'll give you a little bit of background. It's strange, because I've shot eighty films, and every
time I've directed, I've always just done it. /ppJenny Suen: We didn't pitch it. /ppCD: It just
happened. This time it happened because the Hong Kong Film International Festival wanted to do
something that was a reflection of Hong Kong kids. We had the idea in 2014. When you're 14 years
old, you don't know what it's going to be like when you're 20. When I was twelve, I thought I'd be
dead by the time I was 20. We understood the theme of the film to be youth in Hong Kong, and it just
evolved from that. Then Jenny did all the work. /ppbCan you talk a little bit about your style, and
how it works within this film?/b/ppCD: I'd done many different kinds of films, and one of the films I'd
directed previously was in Polish. I don't speak Polish so there was almost no dialogue. This attracts
me because visually I can express whatever -- what is the poetry of the image? /ppSo in this film also
there's no dialogue. I didn't think I had the right to speak for the kids -- we were giving them their
own voice and letting it take us somewhere. It's not a documentary, it's whatever it is. /ppJS: There's
no script, we didn't ask any questions. We didn't cast actors. We talked to them about their everyday
lives, what they want to be when they grew up, what they do after school. From our simple dialogue,
we got stories that inspired us to have them act out certain things on screen. The voiceovers you
hear in the film are all the kids talking about themselves. /pdiv class="template asset"
contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/an-interview-with-christoher-doyle/assets/3137327/edit" data-id="3137327" figure img alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/137/327/3d317920d390cf3d71467b411c6c95c6_original.jpg?v=142118750
0amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=cb634d52284562325454c5eac
8cdfc6e" /figure /div pbHow did you decide to do parts two and three?/b/ppCD: We thought the first
part of the film was a great pleasure. It's complex, it took a lot of interviewing, but the actual
process of the film flowed very smoothly -- partly because the kids were pushing us in a very specific
direction. /ppSo then we thought, well, we started with the kids, why don't we keep going? So the
next thing is the next generation. And just as we were preparing for this, suddenly the next
generation took over central Hong Kong. At least a part of what's relevant to these kids at this point
in their lives is what happened in the last three months in Hong Kong. /ppbWhat happened in those
three months? /b/ppJS: Students were boycotting classes because they were protesting an antidemocratic bill that was going through the legislature, and they were camping outside the
legislature. /ppCD: They took over four or five city blocks. /ppJS: It started when the police started
firing tear gas into the crowd. At the height of the movement a quarter million people came out for
the political rallies. At the height of the protest camp, there were 2500 tents. It's as if, for two
months, you couldn't drive down Broadway, 5th Avenue, and Park Avenue. That's how incredible it
was. They really occupied the city. /ppCD: What we found in the process was the sense of community
-- it was so unexpected. Hong Kong is a very materialistic place, and there is very little room. Most
people live with their parents, and young married couples could never afford an apartment. The
calm and the sense of community, the experience of having a whole city with no traffic, it was
astonishing. Kids were studying. And they were recycling everything. /ppJS: And there was a
charging station for your cellphone. /ppCD: There were turbines, and bicycles creating electricity.
/ppJS: And a farm. /ppCD: It pushed us to celebrate this aspect of community. It was very uplifting
for everyone involved. Just editing it the last couple of days, the poetry and complicity that came
from what we shared has made this part very solid. /ppJS: When the movement began we realized
that the questions the kids were asking -- what is this city? And what is its relation to mainland
China? And all these questions of identity were really the same questions we were asking in making
the film. /pdiv class="template asset" contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/an-interviw-with-christopher-doyle/assets/3137333/edit" data-id="3137333" figure img alt="" class="fit"
src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/137/333/9e8ad080d7dad3ce62ee717a1889e29e_original.jpg?v=142118757
9amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=3b77b49cc5dd843dacbfb4eac8
14f3d2" /figure /div pbWhat does Hong Kong in 2014 mean to you?/b/ppCD: You know a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Jordan" target="_blank"Neil Jordan/a, the Irish director? I
made a film with him in southern Ireland a couple years ago, and he asked me, "Chris, how come all
your films are different?" That really shocked me because I thought they were all the same. All the
films I did with Wong Kar-wai were the same -- the story just got simpler and simpler and more and
more precise. It just evolved into what most people regard as the best one, which is iIn the Mood for
Love/i. /ppBut Hong Kong is where I started making films. People ask me why all my films look
different -- they look different because they're done with different people in different communities.
But the ones that have really centered me and pushed me along, and the ones that most people know
best, are Hong Kong films. /ppHong Kong created me. The energy and space and the intimacy of
people's relationships, and the intensity of it, and the colors. That's what pushed me toward what I'm
doing now. Hong Kong created my life, and created the rhythm and the dance of the films we do. It's
what is so exciting about the first part of the film: we don't know five-year-old kids who think things
in real life, so it's enlightening. And through our experience of filming it, we got to share an
extremely important moment of Hong Kong history. There will be so many kids born in nine
months. /pdiv class="template asset" contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/an-interview-wth-christopher-doyle/assets/3137334/edit" data-id="3137334" figure img alt="" class="fit"
src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/137/334/a4fd6ed57a83efc05be03ac6ed8f0aa2_original.jpg?v=1421187589
amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=ba47a07a84c7e9374869be85e0
58951d" /figure /div pbIt wasn't something you could have planned for. You just let the city be what
it is. /b/ppCD: Hong Kong is the dynamic of our films. I've done at least ten films within ten blocks of
where we're sitting now. It never stops energizing me. There's always a detail that pushes you
further into the poetry of space, or the eclectic nature of how people engage, or the energy of the
city. /ppJS: For example there's this old man who we saw all the time. He makes these piles of
cardboard. At first we thought he was some kind of crazy artist, because the piles were quite
sculptural. But then we interviewed him and we found out that he was just taking it to the recycling
station and getting a couple of bucks. /ppCD: And he's become our best actor. /ppJS: He actually has.
He's the most reliable, and a bit crazy. /ppCD: He never remembers us. /ppJS: We've spent so much
time here but it doesn't cease to put us in awe. We thought he was an artist and he was just a
cardboard man. /ppCD: You know the famous line from Rauschenberg, the artist: "If I walked
completely around the block and didn't find enough to work with, I could take one other block and
walk around it in any direction." You walk around a block and something visually unexpected hits
you and it carries you on./ppJS: Hong Kong gave us so much and the only thing for us to do is give
them back. /ppbYou described your process a bit like jazz music. It made me want to ask -- what are
some of your non-film influences? /b/ppCD: (Holds up a glass of beer.) This. And women. And the
sea, because I grew up by the sea. I used to be a merchant marine, and all the cities I love are cities
by the sea. Amsterdam, Hong Kong, New York. The only exception is Berlin. The depth of the sea
and its sense of possibility. And dance. When I first started in Taiwan, we'd drive around and just
film. We were always moving. We'd come up with subjects like the wind, or the mountains. We
wouldn't have a narrative, we'd just let people tell their own stories and have the visuals take you on
a journey through whatever subject we were working with. /ppFrom there, I started doing a lot of
stuff with dance. It's always a dance between the person in front of the camera, and the camera
itself. The engagement is like a dance. 90% of the films I've shot are handheld. It seems more
intimate./pdiv class="template asset" contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/an-interviw-with-christopher-doyle/assets/3137336/edit" data-id="3137336" figure img alt="" class="fit"
src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/137/336/19afdc1b79430d5feb3132aeb7c8d8fe_original.jpg?v=1421187590
amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;q=92amp;s=9e0683f6554cc3d8d6fae77f4cda
177f" /figure /div pbIt also seems less invasive./b/ppCD: We were in an argument about that subject
last night. We were in a bar and some guy was saying something about the objectivity of the camera,
and all this kind of crap. I usually say there's the person in front of the camera communicating to the
audience, and the bridge between them is the camera. The process is not about the lens, it's about
creating complicity. People in front of a camera need an incredible amount of love. They really need
to be taken care of, and if you don't give them that sense of security and if they don't trust you, it
won't work. The engagement is much more important than the technical stuff. As you'll see with this
film, they just evolve naturally from the engagement you're having with the subject. There are no
tricks./ppbYou aren't trying to be objective or detached./b/ppCD: This is why I've made so many
films. I like to move, and I like to think on my feet. I made my first film when I was 32 years old. I
didn't even like photography. But somehow I fell into this engagement that is so appropriate to my
own physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual needs. That's why it works. Because I'm not trying to
be an artist or a great filmmaker, I'm just getting on with it. /ppWe saw that with the kids -- we were
there with them in the center of Hong Kong and suddenly the sun came out. We said, "Why don't you
respond to the sunlight?" I didn't plan it. But the great thing is that reciprocity that the process
allows us. it's there, the stuff is given to us with whoever we've decided to go with. They're not
faking it or acting it. They're just sharing. Our job is to be the conduit. /ppbHow did you decide on
the scenarios that featured the kids?/b/ppJS: We didn't have a plan. We know the characters and
where we'll shoot and it happens from there. /ppCD: We did a thing with Jessica Chastain last year.
We had two or three hours, and we didn't have a plan. She got frustrated because she was used to
people telling her exactly what to do. I said no, it's fine, just walk around, it looks great. So maybe
we've been spoiled -- there's a certain lack of pretense in Asian actors. Some of the greatest actors
I've worked with are great people first of all. They're humble and easy to get along with, and they
just do it. Maybe we've been spoiled by that, that we think filmmaking should always be like that, a
give and take between what's possible and what's doable. /ppIn the style of these things, the
interviews in the film are a tangent to what's happening, it's not an explanation. /ppJS: And it's not a
narration. /ppCD: It has this abstract and poetic nature to it. It's not an explanation -- it's not "I go to
school at eight o'clock and I always say hello to the bus driver because he gives me a candy after
school" -- no, you just let them go in and take the bus and see what happens. It's parallel storytelling.
/pdiv class="template asset" contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/an-interview-wth-christopher-doyle/assets/3137338/edit" data-id="3137338" figure img alt="" class="fit"
src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/137/338/ee26764d103f7be1aa1988b225567c23_original.png?v=14211876
04amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;lossless=trueamp;s=3682911d06ade28502
39500efb37044a" /figure /div pbYou use a lot of empty space and slow shots -- there's a lot of room
for things to happen in iPreschooled./i/b /ppCD: We work with a lot of younger people, and I have to
tell the kids -- it's usually a younger person editing -- to slow down. They just cut out of habit
because they're used to doing commercials and music videos. Once you let the image take you
somewhere, there's more space for your own engagement. That's basic to our style. /p Niina Pollari
https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/niina tag:www.kickstarter.com,2009-05-04:BlogPost/1536 201501-06T10:05:00-05:00 2015-01-15T18:12:43-05:00 pToday we're excited to announce a seemingly

small change that will actually make it a lot easier to use Kickstarter: We're partnering with a
href="https://stripe.com/" target="_blank"Stripe/a to seamlessly collect and process payments for all
projects on Kickstarter. We've already started moving projects over to the new system, and by next
week, it will be in place for all new projects./ppFor project creators, this means you won't need to
set up an Amazon Payments business account anymore. Instead, you'll just enter your bank account
details on the Account tab when you're drafting your project on Kickstarter. It takes about two
minutes, whereas the old way could take a few days. It will look like this (with some small
differences depending on your country of residence): /pdiv class="template asset"
contenteditable="false" data-edit_url="/blog/making-payments-easier-for-creatos-and-backers/assets/3110305/edit" data-id="3110305" figure img alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/110/305/96ca5d4d9ae392abd52c7573acb177b7_original.png?v=14205565
28amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;lossless=trueamp;s=8bc2bf0695f0d23923
535f48f14f1856" /figure /div pFor backers, this means a simpler, faster and easier checkout process.
No more being redirected or having to log in to a separate service. It takes half the steps, and it all
happens on Kickstarter. Here's how it will look: /pdiv class="template asset" contenteditable="false"
data-edit_url="/blog/making-payments-easier-for-creators-and-backers/assets/3110299/edit" dataid="3110299" figure img alt="" class="fit" src="https://ksrugc.imgix.net/assets/003/110/299/64612b20b6dc49ec4774d47b7370c0e8_original.png?v=14205563
62amp;w=700amp;h=amp;fit=maxamp;auto=formatamp;lossless=trueamp;s=d89ff8d4e2b3abf2f18
143448a930f3a" /figure /div pHere are answers to a few questions you might have:/ppbI'm about to
launch a project. Should I wait?/b/ppWe always recommend launching whenever you're ready. If
you've completed all of the steps of project build, have the green light to launch, and want to go live,
then go forth! If you're still working on getting your project set up, we should be fully transitioned to
Stripe by next week./ppbAre your fees changing?/b/ppNo. You can view a complete rundown of our
fees a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/help/fees" target="_blank"here/a, but the short of it is that
they're staying the same. If your project is successfully funded, we will apply a 5% fee to the total
amount of funds raised and Stripe, our payments processor, will apply credit card processing fees
(about 3-5%)./ppbWhy the move to Stripe?/b/ppWe've worked with Amazon Payments from the very
beginning of Kickstarter -- a year before we launched, in fact. They've been an excellent partner,
processing $1 billion in pledges. Late last year Amazon decided to discontinue Amazon Flexible
Payment Service, the payments product that we have used. We took the opportunity to consider the
best possible partner to process payments for creators and backers moving forward. After careful
consideration, we decided on Stripe. Stripe processes payments for Twitter and Facebook, and we've
gotten to know their team and product well. We're thrilled to partner with them./ppAny more
questions, you can reach us a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/contact" target="_blank"here/a.
Thanks! /p Kickstarter https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/kickstarter
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