For this week’s article I want to put in a shameless plug for my boys, Matt and Ben. You read about Matt in my article a few weeks ago... He and his brother Ben have started a production company to develop a youtube based variety show of clean, family-friendly entertainment. They hope this production company will grow to develop family entertainment in more venues than youtube, but for now, this is where they are starting.
They have started a Kickstarter.com campaign to raise the money they need to take their productions to the next level. For those who have never heard of Kickstarter.com, it calls itself a “funding platform for creative projects”. These projects include everything from art to theater and everything in between. It has been featured on NPR, CNN, BBC, and in Wired, Time, and The New York Times. Their goal is to help big and small creative independent projects get the funding they need to succeed. This is what NPR said about Kickstarter.com:
“We all know that dreaming is free, but converting fantasies into reality can be pretty expensive and that’s where a new website, kickstater.com can help”
How does kickstarter.com help? With Matt and Ben, they had to develop the idea of what they wanted to do and how they were going to do it. Then they had to decide how much they would need to get things off the ground. After that, they had to develop incentives for the people who pledged. If you pledge $1 what is the premium? How about $25? Or $100? I want the birthday premium- a birthday message from “Walker” from the “Band” skits! I love Walker! Their sister chose the Sharpie marker on the forehead premium. Nothings says sister love like Sharpie marker!
After deciding on the premiums, they had to do a promo video to let people know about their project. Once they had these ready, plus a written description of their project and who they are, they submitted the project to KickStarter.com for review. Once approved, their project went live. Projects on Kickstarter.com have a limited time to reach their goal. If the goal isn’t met, then Ben and Matt don’t get any money (and you don't pay your pledge). They only get the money if they reach their goal by the set date.
They now have only 11 days to go and they are only at 12% of their goal. One reason, (besides the fact they are my boys!) that I am helping them promote this project is that Matt graciously helped me with the LDSHE Conference the week his campaign went live. He spent the week helping with all the AV and Audio needs at the conference and there were many. We couldn’t have done it without his help! So with that in mind, I am plugging his project.
I hope you will take the time to go to the links and watch their videos. If you have the means I hope you will help them out. We homeschoolers, as a family friendly people, need to be willing to support independent production companies if we want to have clean, family- friendly entertainment we can enjoy without worrying about the content. Please pass this on to others you think would be interested in helping.
Here’s to the success of ALL homeschoolers out there who want to make a difference in the world!