Tag: IndieGoGo

Crowdfund This: WowWee’s LUMI Gaming Drone!

by Derek Kraneveldt

I’ve never been overly interested in drone products; their high cost and limited options always had me thinking that a drone would be something I’d play with once or twice before allowing it to gather dust in storage somewhere.

That sad, WowWee’s (yep, the same WowWee that created Robosapien) newly launched IndieGogo campaign for the LUMI Gaming Drone has definitely piqued my attention.

The LUMI is a small (and indoor friendly) drone that does so freaking much. From stunts (like one-touch barrel rolls and more) to obstacle avoidance, built in games (more on that below), and even the ability to follow the user, it’s insane that the LUMI is able to offer so many features in such a well priced package.

Don’t take it from me though, take a look at the LUMI campaign video below to see the LUMI take flight:

I’m actually really interested in the gaming aspects of LUMI. WowWee detailed a single and multiplayer title called ‘Lumi To The Beat’, and it sounds like a lot of fun:

LUMI TO THE BEAT is a game of rhythm and reflexes. Lumi’s luminescent surface will flash various colors (red, blue, yellow, green) while users try to press the corresponding light on their mobile device Lumi app as quickly as possible.

If you miss or tap the wrong color, Lumi will drop in altitude. Make too many mistakes and it’s game over!

The longer you keep pace with the beat while Lumi is airborne, the higher your score. As you progress, Lumi’s LEDs will flash faster and faster, making it more difficult to reach new levels where you’ll unlock new tricks and entirely new aerial maneuvers.

The LUMI campaign has just launched, and has already hit $2500 of its $25000 goal. With a month to go, it seems highly likely that LUMI will hit its goal.

There are currently Early-Bird LUMI’s available for a reduced price of $59, so you may want to jump on this one fast. Again, you can head here to back LUMI, and be sure to let us know what you think when you get your drone!

Crowdfund This: ‘Beats Of Rage: The FP Part II’

by Derek Kraneveldt

Jason Trost’s The FP was one of my favourite films of 2011.

The film sounds absolutely absurd when you try to describe it; it’s a classically-styled action set in a dystopian future filled with hilarious slang, gangs that fight each-other by facing off in ‘Beat-Beat Revelation’ matches (yep, it’s basically DDR), and of course, ducks.

But it’s pretty much impossible to watch it and not fall in love. The heart and soul emanating from The FP is a rare joy, and has led the myriad of friends that I’ve shown the film to fall in love with it just as I have. We even had Jason, Brandon, and Sarah Trost on Geekscape to discuss the film way back in the day.

Now, it’s finally getting a sequel: enter Beats of Rage: The FP Part II

What a freaking title.

An Indiegogo campaign for the sequel launch yesterday, and JTRO let us know just why it’s taken so long for a sequel to finally be official, and why he’s decided to try it now. Here’s just a few words from the heartfelt campaign:

Since THE FP, I’ve been trying to figure out what to do next with my career.  Financially,  THE FP was viewed as a failure.  It wasn’t my big break, it wasn’t even a small break.  So I’ve been forced to make a series of movies based on the piles of trash I’ve had available to me at the time, which have all served as great learning experiences, but I’m not truly proud of any of them in the way I am THE FP, because none of the others have been my dream movies.  I’m sick of making movies I like, I want to get back into making movies I love and I know you love.

Things wrapped up nicely at the end of the first film, so what could the sequel be about? Well, The FP needs saving… again! Here’s the plot description:

In this ghetto ass fantasy, in order to save The FP once again… again, JTRO and KCDC must quest deep into The Wastes in order to compete in the ancient Beat-Beat tournament, “Beats of Rage.”  JTRO travels deep into the realm of his birthplace where he must dig deeper than six feet to vanquish the self proclaimed lord of the Wastes, AK-47.  Will JTRO fullfil KCDC’s prophecy?  Will he be able to RENIG before it’s too late and save The FP from runnin’ dry once and for all?

How could you not want to see that?

This time around, JTRO and company are looking for a cool $100,000 to make Beats of Rage happen. Sure, it sounds like a lot (well, not if you compare it to the myriad of video game campaigns that are funded millions of dollars in just a few days), but this time around, Trost wants “to actually spend that money on the movie and give you guys something new, fresh and exciting.  We want breathing room.  The time to make the right choices.  The ability to not have to rip half of the script pages out on set.'”

Sounds fair.

As always, there are plenty of sweet, sweet backer rewards up for grabs, including producer credits (you’ve always wanted to be a producer, haven’t you?), signed copies, ducks, posters, street cred, and way, way more.

So let’s make this happen! The campaign till has 59 days to go, and has made great progress in its first 24 hours. Take a look at the Beats of Rage: The FP Part II teaser trailer below, head here to back the project, and be sure to SHARE it with everyone you know. Everyone.

https://youtu.be/PFeQ2m3dF24

After watching that teaser, is anyone else planning a The FP re-watch this weekend?

Crowdfund This: ‘Jo and the Pirates’!

by Derek Kraneveldt

Jo and the Pirates is set to be a short film about growing up…and space pirates. Who can’t relate to that?

The project honestly sounds pretty insane (and the best ones usually do); it’s something that I can barely imagine actually watching in this day and age, which really makes me want to see it even more. Here’s a breakdown of Jo and the Pirates‘ plot:

Jo, a fourteen-year-old sarcastic tomboy lives with her foster family, which includes her foster mother Nancy, Nancy’s deadbeat but lovable brother Kyle, and two horrible foster sisters, Amber and Gina. Jo feels like a speck in a universe full of jerks, her only real friend being Corey, a kind-hearted boy who is more or less Jo’s sidekick.

On Halloween night, Jo is hiding from a bully in the woods, where she finds a strange piece of metal debris. The moment she touches it she’s teleported from the woods into the cockpit of a space ship, crewed by intergalactic pirates.

After helping the captain of the ship with a bounty hunter problem, the crew decides to take Jo with them as they blast off through space.

Basically, creator Adam Murray has spent the 1.5 years writing the project, with the full intention of selling it to a studio. Then, as often happens, he absolutely fell in love with it (and doesn’t want anyone to ruin it), so he’s planning to make it into a short film himself. Of course, he needs our help to do it!

Adam and company are shooting for a respectable $15,000, and just one day have already raised $1077, so with 39 days to go, things are looking quite good for the project. Where’s the money going? It’s all headed “towards paying the cast and crew, as well as renting equipment, locations, creating the alien crew along with their space ship.”

Now, this isn’t one of those crowdfunding projects that hits YouTube the day its finished. Jo and the Pirates will be hitting the festival circuit once finished, meaning that it can’t be publicly released online. If you want to see it (and with the team shooting for a film that feels like the Amblin movies and other films they watched growing up like The Goonies, Gremlins, E.T., ect., who doesn’t), the only way to check it out is by being a backer.

Sold? Good. There are plenty of awesome rewards available to backers, including digital copies of the films, posters, signed scripts, stickers, screen prints, producer credits, and more.

The project sounds fantastic, so take a look and the campaign video below, and head to the IndieGogo page here to back!

https://youtu.be/0DAeSQSmvrA

The Saint Mort Show Episode 096: Kulap Vilaysack

by Saintmort

Skype strikes again with an obnoxious delay. I beg you to look past that however because this interview is among my favorites of all time. Kulap Vilaysack is the co-host of the Who Charted podcast and the director and star of the upcoming documentary Origin Story. Go to her IndieGoGo account and donate to the cause!

The song playing during the intro is Blizzards and Bygones by Five Iron Frenzy off their album Engine of a Million Plots.

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Crowdfund This: ‘Sheltered’

by Derek Kraneveldt

Briefly: Here’s a neat short film project that definitely sounds worthy of some support!

Right from Sheltered‘s IndieGoGo campaign, the project descries itself as “the story of Cody and Sam who have ended up at the LGBT homeless shelter for completely different things, but in the end they are able to seek comfort in each other in the attempt to overcome their problems.

The story focuses on how the characters ended up where they are today, told via flashback. It really gets down to the nitty gritty and focuses on some very real issues that are occurring today for the LGBT youth.

It’s an important message that has been kept hidden from a lot of people and we are hoping with this film we can shed some light on this situation and make a change or at least push progress in the right direction, and we can do that with your help!”

Sheltered hold an extremely intriguing theme that many (including myself, being from a small city in Canada) won’t be overly familiar with. Its also this important, affecting subject matter that makes Sheltered so worthy of support. This short sounds like something we’ve never seen before.

The team is looking to raise $11,000 by May 17th to complete the film. Here’s the breakdown of where each dollar will go:

$3,000 – Renting Arri Alexa Camera and Lenses
$3,000 – For locations, permits, and insurance
$1,500 – Art, props, wardrobe, and set dressing
$1,500 – Grip and Lighting equipment
$500 – Sound Equipment
$1,500 – Trucks, Production supplies, and remaining misc.

Being a short film with such an important message, here is what the creative minds behind Sheltered are hoping that the film will accomplish:

-By gaining exposure for the film, we are able to send out the message about LGBT homeless youth and attempt to make a difference.

-After it has completed the film festival circuit we will look into various distribution methods to continue spreading the message.

-Media is one of the largest ways to reach a mass audience.

-Together we can hopefully make a difference with a beautiful film.

As always, there are plenty of worthy rewards up for grabs if you back the project, including signed scripts, your name in the credits, DVD’s, tickets to film festivals, and more. Again, Sheltered definitely looks to be worth the support, so check out the film’s campaign video below, and head here to back the project.

Crowdfund This: The Rufus Cuff Takes Wearables To The Next Level!

by Derek Kraneveldt

Briefly: Now that the wearable computing market is here in full force (well, almost; it’ll be some time before products like Google Glass are available and affordable for the general public), and companies are finally aware that these products will sell (Pebble Inc. is making a lot of money last I heard) a myriad of new wearable devices are coming to market. Many are not-as-good variations of what the Pebble has already done so well (*cough* Galaxy Gear), and then there are the products that are actually trying to do something different.

Enter the Rufus Cuff, an interesting and intriguing product that mashes Sci-Fi style with, well, today.

The Rufus Cuff labels itself as a “wrist communicator”, and that’s exactly what it looks like. The device features voice control, a 3″ capacitive touchscreen, notification and control support for your smartphone, as well as full access to the Google Play store on its own. The Rufus Cuff also hosts a unique, wrist-friendly UI, that looks as though it will be extremely easy to read and understand, even while on the go.

I could go on and on about the features of the Rufus Cuff, or you can watch what it can do in the IndieGogo video from Rufus Labs:

It may look a little odd on the wrists of the video’s models, but I believe that’s simply because a device like this is so far and away from what we expect to see on someone’s wrist. The future is coming faster than we may expect it to, and it’s devices like the Rufus Cuff that will be at its forefront.

There are great rewards available to backers of the Rufus Cuff’s IndieGogo campaign, including the device in custom colours, special edition units, and even one reward level that includes 40 Rufus Cuffs.

You can head here to learn more about the project, and to become a backer yourself!

Crowdfund This: ‘Nightmare Code’

by Derek Kraneveldt

This is a very cool project, and is most definitely a film that I’d love to see completed.

Nightmare Code utilizes surveillance cameras, PC cam, video call capture and eyeglasscam to tell the story of a troubled software start-up that is creating an advanced form of behavior recognition software capable of reading the thoughts and feelings of people on camera regardless of what they’re actually saying.

The team behind the project has been working on the film for more than two years, and they’re getting close to the finish line, but they need our help if they’re going to cross it. The film features a ton of talent that have worked on a multitude of other projects, including The Walking Dead, Castle, CSI, Nip/Tuck, X-Men: The Last Stand, Parenthood, Mad Men, The FP, True Blood, and plenty more, so there are some absolutely fantastic people involved here.

The team is looking for $30,000 to finish the film, and with two weeks left they’re sitting at 52% of that goal. Here’s the breakdown of where this money is set to be used:

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As always, there are plenty of fantastic backer rewards up for grabs, but Nightmare Code also features a unique one. While lots of crowd funding projects offer backers the opportunity to be in a film, it usually requires the backer to be located in a certain area; because of the unique way that Nightmare Code is filmed and presented, backers can record their segments from anywhere. Pretty cool, huh? Other perks include t-shirts, digital downloads of the film and its soundtrack, signed posters, screening invitations, producer credits, and more!

You can take a look at the campaign video for Nightmare Code below, and head here to back the project!

First ‘Doomed: The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s “The Fantastic Four”‘ Trailer Debuts Online!

by Derek Kraneveldt

Briefly: We cannot wait for this to come out.

All the way back in April of 2013, we hosted a ‘Roger Corman’s Fantastic Four Reunion‘, which featured some of the film’s prominent cast and crew, as well as documentary producer Mark Sikes. The group was just about to start production on the Doomed: The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s ‘The Fantastic Four’, and today, the first trailer for that documentary was released.

I still haven’t had an opportunity to watch Corman’s version of The Fantastic Four, but have read up on its troubled production extensively, and am very excited for the documentary to release. You can take a look at the trailer below, which features some excellent interview clips with Corman himself, as well as a multitude of cast and crew members.

Be sure to let us know what you think, and if you’re excited to see the full feature!

Back in 1994, legendary B-Movie filmmaker Roger Corman produced one of Marvel’s first movies. It was a feature film adaptation of The Fantastic Four, which at the time never saw the light of day. It has since been bootlegged and leaked, and has gained a cult following over the years. Director Marty Langford has created a documentary called DOOMED!: The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s “The Fantastic Four,”  which gives us the full behind the scenes story of the film’s troubled production and release.

The Saint Mort Show Episode 064: Zach Gehring of Mae and Unsung Zeroes

by Saintmort

This week I skyped in with Zach Gehring. Not only was Zach the founding member of Unsung Zeroes (one of my all time favorite pop punk bands) he is also the guitarist of Mae. Zach is now working on his first solo project and asking for fans to help finance it via IndieGoGo. We talked about the recording business, touring, being on a christian label and music journalism among other topics.

Go Support Zach’s project on IndieGoGo

The intro music contains the song All The Things by Last Tuesday from Chords for Cures Volume 1.

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The Saint Mort Show Episode 63: Calen Fox of Beat My Boss

by Saintmort

This week I skyped in with Calen Fox. Calen is a UK filmmaker that I met through Dana Michael. His newest project is Beat My Boss a short film about revenge. Donate to their IndieGoGo and let’s get this short made!

The intro music contains the song To and Fro from Punchy’s Pilot

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The Saint Mort Show Episode 061: Philly I Hate You

by Saintmort

This week I was able to sit down with past guest Actress/Acting Coach Dana Michael and Jere Paolini part of the team working on the anthology project Philly, I Hate You.

Be sure to donate to their IndieGoGo

The intro music contains the song Danger City, Population: Me from Yale, Massachusetts ‘ album Act Like You’ve Been There.

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The Saint Mort Show Episode 059: Steph & Tim of Eventide

by Saintmort

Steph and Tim were awesome guests with a short film that has a title that’s a little hard to pronounce.  The short Eventide (pronounced Even-Tide) sounds like an amazing little short in the same vein as Rosemary’s Baby. Throw some money towards their IndieGoGo

Check out their campaign video!

Eventide: The Indiegogo Campaign from Steph Burke on Vimeo.

Opening Music is Gallows Hill (Part 2) by Those Galloping Hordes found on their album Things I Grew Up With.

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Crowdfund This: Jason Trost’s ‘#WetAndReckless’

by Derek Kraneveldt

If you’re a regular around these parts, you know how much we love Jason Trost. He’s the man behind last year’s phenomenal The FP (which made it on Jonathan’s best of 2012 list), and this year’s All Superheroes Must Die. We’ve also featured him on the podcast twice (here and here), and had a long conversation with him before All Superheroes Must Die released just a few months ago.

 

JTRO’s at it again, this time with #WetAndReckless. Grindfist Pictures has just released the film’s official trailer and poster, and they look bad-ass. Check them out below, and let us know what you think! The full feature however, won’t make it to release without our help, so read on for the details!

 

 

A reality television show goes horribly wrong forcing its ill-equipped stars to hunt for buried treasure to find a way home.

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#WetAndReckless stars Lucas Till, Jason Trost, Scout-Taylor Compton and Sean Whalen, and it should be a freaking blast! As mentioned above, it does need our help to see the light of day. Jason has has created an IndieGogo campaign to raise funds for the film’s distribution. Check it out here, claim some cool rewards (like a limited edition autographed poster), and help us all see JTRO’s latest!

 

Jason, we’ll be backing your shit up until the end, for reals.

‘Pure Pwnage’ Returns With Movie: And You Can Help With Their IndieGoGo Campaign

by Shane O'Hare

I am typing this after jumping around office doing my happy dance. My coworker across the hall thinks I am crazier for it, but I am not ashamed, for Pure Pwnage IS COMING BACK! AS A MOVIE! Take a look at their announcement video below.

OH MY GOD! What else is there to say? If you were a gamer and alive in the early 2000’s then you know who Pure Pwnage is. Even if you don’t, you at least know who FPSDoug is. “Everyone knows you run faster with a knife!” is a quote that echos through time, and to see the gang back together again is amazing.

So if you want to help the guys check out their IndieGoGo Page and DONATE! “Leik right now or I’m leik toly gon hafta pwn you…noob”.