In anticipation of The Dark Knight Rises, I was going sit down and write a blog post about Batman. But that can wait until tomorrow. I’ve got something more important that I feel like I need to talk about.
If you know me fairly well, you’ll know that I’m part of an amateur film group called Cheesemint Productions. Myself and some friends founded the group nearly three years ago. It all started back in August 2009 when my friend Matt and I were pratting around in our friend’s living room and someone happened to film it on their mobile. It got a few laughs on facebook and we all decided to parody a recent viral music video. The result was met with a high view count on Youtube and a lot of positive feedback so we decided to keep going with the filmmaking by making more short films and a web-series called ‘Unlocked.’
Fast forward two and a bit years and we’d come a long way. We released three music videos, eight short films and a six episode web series. Some of us even got to go to MCM Expo (London Comic-Con) and help promote Unlocked on a panel and on the show-floor.
But working creatively with friends is tough. Differences of opinions and visions for the work can get in the way, almost destroying the friendship you had in the first place. And so two friends left Cheesemint to pursue other projects and passions.
With a new era of Cheesemint, the remaining members decided to freshen things up a little. Not ignoring or forgetting what we had achieved in the past but learning from it. We also thought about what we wanted to get out of Cheesemint in the long term. We’d been approached by youtube in the past to become a partner and monetize our videos but didn’t pursue it because a lot of the films we had made had third party content in them.
So, we updated the logo, giving it a bolder, more adaptable look. We decided very early on to create a new youtube channel so everything we put on there would be 100% owned by us or use content that we had permission to use or had paid for.
We also thought long and hard about Unlocked. With the first series on the old channel, we wrote the new series in a way that wouldn’t alienate new viewers but wouldn’t bore the audience we had already built. We bought new equipment including a fancy new camera and proper audio equipment. We wanted to equip ourselves with everything we needed to make professional looking films so people would take us more seriously.
We spent months writing the new series of Unlocked. A lot of the groundwork had been laid before the change in members so we had a core idea of the story we wanted to tell but we wanted to be a bit bolder, a bit braver and ultimately create something incredibly entertaining. We introduced more characters, locations and special effects. Of course this meant spending more money and more time on the series. Which created some problems.
I don’t think I’ve made this clear. There are five full-time members of Cheesemint. Four of us work full-time. Two of those work weekdays. The other two work in retail and often work weekends. The other member is a student and works weekends and often evenings. It’s tough enough getting us all together, let alone getting the extra cast and crew free too. None of our jobs pay that well either. All the equipment was bought and paid for by us out of our own pocket. Then there’s costumes, locations, props, petrol etc. The list goes on.
So. We came to a crossroads. We could either carry on as we are, scraping money together where we can and filming at sporadic times. Or we could try and make things easier on ourselves and ask for help.
We decided to up our game. Take things even more seriously. Like we said before, if we take ourselves seriously, everyone else will treat us the same. So we made a bold and potentially life-changing decision. We registered the company. Cheesemint Productions Limited was born. We all became managing directors. And then we launched a crowd-sourcing campaign on Indiegogo asking for a small amount of $500 to cover some of the costs we’re facing. We’re making a six episode web series that, in total, is nearly two hours long. That’s the length of a film. A film would normally get millions of dollars and take months on end to film. We don’t have either of those luxuries.
$500 is nothing compared to what most of these kind of campaigns ask for. We’re not taking the piss, we just want some help. And there are even perks to donating, we’re taking something and giving nothing in return. We’ll show our gratitude with gifts!
Filmmaking is all I’m good at and all I want to do. I feel so grateful for being fortunate enough to end up with a bunch of friends who are as crazy and ambitious as I am. We’ve come such a long way since our first video and the stuff we’re making now is still a little rough round the edges but it’s a learning curve and hell, we’re doing this in our spare time but treating it like’s a full-time job!
And even though sometimes we snap at each other, it’s only because we all care so much about what we’re doing and what this to succeed no matter what it takes.
I can only pin my hopes on the lottery so much so I’m asking a massive favour of you, whoever you are, taking the time to read my crappy little blog post. Please donate some money if you can. Anything you can give will be appreciated. I know that’s the kind of phrase you hear all the time but I genuinely mean it. Every single penny will help.
If you can’t donate then there’s other things you can do. You can tell other people about the campaign. Sharing something on the internet is so powerful. You sharing it could create a chain reaction that changes our lives forever. Cheesey, yes, but also true. Rebecca Black didn’t get anywhere on her talent did she?
But the most important thing you could do for us is also the easiest thing. Just support us. Like us on facebook. Follow us on twitter. Watch our videos and most of all, enjoy them.
We’ve been overwhelmed by the support we’ve received so far. To everyone that’s donated and helped spread the word, thank you so much. You rock.
Let’s see how far we can push this.
28 days to go.
Check out the campaign over at Indiegogo - http://www.indiegogo.com/cheesemintunlocked?c=home
Find us on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/CheesemintProductions
Follow us on Twitter - https://twitter.com/Cheesemint
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