We Have 10 Days to Make History: #ManChild Could Be the Most Funded Film in Kickstarter Narrative History
FIRST: with only ten days left in my campaign to make my first feature film, I just discovered that if we're successful, we will make history. I didn't start out with this goal in mind, but as I was exploring Kickstarter I found that if Man-child is funded it will become the single most funded project to be listed in Kickstarter's narrative film category. Wow.
SECOND: we are officially most of the way there. Most of the way to making history, that is! 51% and counting. However, the campaign is ending next Friday. As you know by now, Kickstarter projects are all-or-nothing, so if we don't make history we'll make... nothing. Now is a great time to get on board!
THIRD: last week's Twitter outreach campaign was extremely effective. Thank you to everyone who helped reach the basketball community -- it was a classic case of "strength in numbers," as I never could've done it alone. In fact, we now have a success story worthy of an official press release (after the jump). What happened? Well, we were able to reach none other than one of the greatest basketball coaches of all time:
[twitter https://twitter.com/#!/JeanieBuss/status/111468867267723264]
The "Phil" from this tweet is 11-time NBA champion coach Phil Jackson, who coached Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Shaquille O'Neal and has more NBA championship rings than anyone in history. The tweet itself is from Jeanie Buss, EVP of Business Operations for the Los Angeles Lakers. To both of them: thank you for making a huge difference. It was truly one of those magical, unexpected moments in life; I saw that the project had received a bump and so I logged into Kickstarter to see where it came from. This was my reaction:
[twitter https://twitter.com/#!/ryanbkoo/status/111478361448128512]
After I finished picking up the pieces of my exploded head, I realized this was a potentially newsworthy item to help attract the larger basketball community to the Man-child campaign. So I enlisted some help from my roommate (who works in the PR world), and just now issued this press release.
Special thanks to @StereoMob, @natekaramanski, @Efowl4, @vtkproductions, @soniglf, @fishxpressions, @WhoIsTheRockman, @Morris_Young, @WagonTrailBrew, @edwardkwak, @ihateyourfavmov, @jnzproductions, @ambigouslilly, @Everything_Film, @CineDSLR, @galaxyTwelve, @nobull408, @zdlldz, @ChunkyB101, @MVBotefuhr, @ThePrain, @pgrandstaff, @Miles_McNamara, @jenna_payne, and @natums for reaching out to the basketball community on Twitter and making this possible. You are the #manchild #streatteam! Sorry for anyone I missed -- and thanks to everyone else who has twittered or otherwise shared it so far, as we are more than halfway to making history because of you. ((Outside of Kickstarter's narrative film category, there are a few films (though not many) that have raised more than Man-child's goal. However, they are all documentaries (and one animated film) with the possible exception of the in-a-class-of-its-own Save Blue Like Jazz, which is based on a bestselling spirituality book. As it is based on a autobiography of sorts, I suspect it will be a narrative, but they chose not to list their film as a narrative, so Man-child will be the most-funded film in the narrative category -- if we make it, that is.))
Here's the video of the Twitter campaign, which is most definitely still relevant (the twitter lists mentioned are here):
Sorry about all the "ums" and "ahs" -- I'm working on getting better on camera (I'm used to being behind it, after all)...
And thank you for your support over these last 10 days! If you know of any outlets that might be interested in this news, here's a link to the press release. And while we're officially "most of the way there," 49% is a lot to cover in 10 days. A LOT. I truly appreciate any sharing efforts you can make during this home stretch!
[Phil Jackson photo by Keith Allison]
