So I was supposed to be busy today and as such I hadn’t booked a guest on this week’s #WebSeriesWednesday twitter interview / review. With a last second change in plans I decided to open things up to the twitterverse to see what people would send my way. Ultimately I looked in at three crowdfunding campaigns that are currently in progress, and all of which managed to seriously grab my attention.

This week’s wrap up article, rather than being a typical review is going to look a little closer at these three campaigns and why exactly I reacted so positively at them.

Special Forces

Phil Bucci, best known in our part of the internet for his editing on the Snobby Robot Award winning series ‘Destroy The Alpha Gammas,’ tweeted me this week that he is currently crowdfunding for this own, rather ambitious, series called ‘Special Forces.’ The series promises to be a rather light hearted take on the more serious side of super heroes. While no where in the pitch does it say this my expectation is for something along the lines of ‘Kick Ass.’

Now the thing that I found most interesting about the pitch is what they hope to achieve with the money and their long term goal for the series. Phil and his team are looking to raise $16,000 – for a single pilot episode (to go along with more money Phil has thrown in himself).

The idea is to make the best damn episode they can, then pitch it to Hulu and Machinima to fund a whole series. The value of creating a great team of proven Hollywood talent and combining that with a proof of concept is huge. Starting with a successful crowdfunding campaign is even bigger because not only does the pilot prove the concept, but the campaign proves the marketing aspect.

Now I have no idea how many pilot pitches Hulu and Machinima, among others, get, and what their success rates are but you gotta love the plan. With so much content out there the answer is to go big or go home.

You can find the campaign for ‘Special Forces’ here:  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/636300722/special-forces-the-series

The Digressions Season 3

If you read this blog with any regularity you’ll find that I absolutely adore The Digressions, particularly the second season. Our pal Tim Keaty over at The Surfing Aliens feels the same way, he’s always bringing it up on his podcast.

So, beyond the great content of their show, it’s the campaign itself that I love right now, and there are two very specific reasons for that.

While there are already two seasons worth of content available the pitch video isn’t asking you to go back and watch them for an idea of what they are capable of. The video itself is a great example of the type of humor and quality one can expect from the show.

Secondly, and my favorite part of the pitch, is that The Digressions crowdfunding pitch video is pretty much the definitive web series pitch video. For anyone who doesn’t really understand how web series work, or what goes into making them this videos is exactly what every series creator wants to explain.

For your average viewer the expectation is that creators just borrowed a camera, called up some friends, pointed and shot. This is not always inaccurate, which is why creators have to fight the stigma, and pitch videos like this one go a long ways towards selling a concept to viewers and proving without a doubt just how much the money is needed. The last thing we need is something heavier than a boom mic falling on our actors. This is a safety issue!!!

Check out their campaign here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-digressions-final-season

Camp Ambercorn

I have to say, as good as the previous two pitches are, Camp Ambercorn might be the best one I’ve ever seen in terms of providing the whole package.

I called ‘Special Forces’ ambitious, but ‘Camp Ambercorn’ is looking to raise $100,000, for one, television length, pilot episode. Can they pull it off? Well they are at nearly $70k with more than two days to go.

While I don’t have any behind the scenes information on their campaign, I want to give a lot of credit to their amazing looking campaign that features a polished trailer and individual videos featuring scenes highlighting each major character.

Perhaps most importantly, the show is tackling a social issue that is sure to inspire discussion. While being inspired by creator Jeffery Simon’s background as an Eagle Scout it is framed by his experience as a homosexual in an institution that has not tolerated openly gay members until recently.

The Boy Scout issue and the high production quality have helped the show to be highlighted in The Huffington Post, IndieWire and Gizmodo, as well as several other outlets for the gay community.

Beyond that the campaign itself just looks fabulous, with scouting inspired artwork and animation, not to mention a great budgetary breakdown. The perks include handkerchiefs and badges, among more common things like dvd’s. All in all expertly thought out and executed.

You can find the Camp Ambercorn’ campaign here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/camp-abercorn-a-new-dramatic-series