Thank you all so much for your patience regarding the campaign perk surveys. We have just sent out a small batch of surveys in order to make sure things are running smoothly. If you don't see a survey in your inbox yet, don't worry! Only 130 have been sent out so far. If all goes well, the rest of the surveys will roll out shortly.
Please note, these surveys are MANDATORY for you to receive your backer perks as it's how we are collecting shipping information for orders. If you encounter any issues, please reach out so we can resolve them before we send out the rest of the surveys.
The pledge manager here on Backerkit has just been approved for the Puppet Master Trading Cards. As of a few minutes ago the first survey emails were sent. Backerkit sends out 10% of surveys first and then a few days later the balance are sent. So if you are one of the early 10% you should have your survey today (please check your email and junk/spam folders). If you don't see it today - you will probably see it on Monday.
The printer is wrapping up their production of the trading cards and we expect to have a firm shipping date coming up soon. When we get the tracking information for the cards shipping to our warehouse we'll update again to keep you posted on the cards schedule. Upon their arrival we'll send out some pictures to get everyone excited for the shipping to backers.
Lastly - check out our poll. Do you want to see a puppet master streaming break video? Let us know! We're taking feedback through next Friday.
The development and pre-production phase of Manhattan Transfer is going very well. Since our BackerKit campaign closed, we have added Brad Rushing as our Director of Photography and Jamie Christopherson as Composer to our crew, as well as a few more actors and producers!
Brad Rushing (L) and Jamie Christopherson (R)
Most importantly, though, we are making great progress in our production financing campaign on WeFunder, and we’re looking to reach our next major milestone of $250,000!
If you are interested in investing in our exciting project, and would like to possibly make a little money back on your investment (or a lot!), please look over our WeFunder page: https://wefunder.com/manhattan.transfer.film.fund.1
We have several new videos on the page, including some great information and insight into the project from our director, Shaun Piccinino, a talk with science fiction icon Walter Koenig, as well as some great inspiration from our lead actor, Casper Van Dien.
Our WeFunder campaign features investment levels for any budget, large or small. We need your support at this critical juncture. If you have ever considered film investing (or know someone who might be interested), now’s the time to get in on the action. Who knows - someday you could tell your friends “I had a part in making the newest SciFi phenomenon!”
Ok, ok, we know, this is our first email for all of you lovely people who've signed up and want to make 80s Babies a reality! When it comes down to it, we recognize that email lists can be a bit annoying when your inbox gets flooded. That being said, we just wanted to pop in quickly to give you this update.
We are one month away from our campaign launching and we've been working on some pretty rad reward ideas for the different pledge levels!! While that is all still being finalized, we've included this little "sneak peek" image of some of the physical rewards you can expect to see when the campaign goes live. Keep in mind that all of this artwork is subject to change, but at least you have an idea of what you can get when you support our project.
While we are very excited about our campaign going live, we are also a bit worried by the relatively low number of email subscribers we've gathered so far. Please please do encourage your friends, family, coworkers--anybody that you think might be interested in this project--to sign up to our mailing list. We promise we won't flood your inbox with constant messages! Just a few reminders here and there to make sure y'all know what's going on.
After all, you're reading this message because you want to see this film become reality and we need all the emails we can get to boost our chances of that happening! Thanks again for supporting our project!!
Apologies for the delay in updates- we're a small team and we've had to spend the last few weeks doing a lot of prep work for attending LightBox Expo in Pasedena, California over the last weekend. Before we talk about that, let's get to the production updates-
MERCH:
You haven't missed it, the surveys have not been sent out yet! Our sincerest apologies, that's on us. Besides the very busy prep work for LightBox expo mentioned earlier, we miscalculated some shipping prices for international backers. We wanted to make absolutely sure that shipping prices were as accurate as we could get them, and that they would cover all needs necessary, across as many regions as possible. We could not in good confidence rush that job before LightBox, so we had to put in on the backburner to ensure no one got ripped off. That being said, it's most of the way done already- and now that we're done with LightBox it just needs some final adjustments, a small test run, and then they should be out to everyone by mid-November at the latest! After the surveys are sent out, we'll be able to start shipping as soon as we get all of the surveys back.
ANIMATION PRODUCTION:
LightBox prep has also slowed production a bit, but we're still going strong behind the scenes! The re-write is incredible, and some small (but needed) tweaks to the visual development are underway to ensure we can make the episode faster without compromising on quality.
And lastly, a word on LightBox Expo...
Seeing so many of you in-person during LightBox Expo was incredible beyond words and we are still processing it!! We're unbelievably thankful to be reminded of the amazing folks behind our screens. To everyone who came to our booth, whether you were there to buy merch or just talk- thank you!!! We can't wait to finish this episode and come back even stronger <3
And to those of you from around the world who couldn't make it to California for LightBox- we haven't forgotten about you!! (On the contrary, it's why the surveys have been taking so long, sorry again...) We hope to table at other events when we have the time and resources to do so, feel free to suggest some in the comments if you know of any! But for now, it's time to take a step back and go full throttle on Mandelbrot Hall.
If any of you have questions about the upcoming surveys or have concerns about shipping to your country/region of the world, feel free to comment or send an email to BackerKit support!
Thank you for your patience, flimp on Flimpos!! -Milo
By helping funding for this you all will be able to see all kinds of sneak peaks of the rejects world itself! Everything is needed to make this project come true and finish by 2026 hopefully!
This looks like such a great show, the designs are amazing and really show how much personality each character will have! Just from the clip shown I can tell the VAs are giving it their all to bring everyone to life! I especially love Pumpkin's voice and design, I'm already simping for him lol! But that works out, I saw the Pumpkin Set tier and said "Don't mind if I do!"
I'm very excited to see where this goes and I'm glad I can help support such an awesome project! ;v;
I’ve been reading through Ken’s book and just made an interesting connection with Phantasmagoria. He mentions that the director of the live action video, Peter Maris, worked on several B-movies including Terror Squad. This one was filmed in my small home town of Kokomo, IN. Calling it a “B” movie might be a little generous! I was in middle school / junior high at the time, and even though it was technically rated R, my parents had no problem with me watching it given how cheesy and low budget it was. I’m glad Phantasmagoria was a bigger hit!
