THE END OF THE WEEKEND!

The problem with the weekend is that people take time off work and so when you are anxiously waiting for an answer from a person/place/agency, it means having to wait an extra two days! It's all good though, it means I am looking forward to Monday this week (for a change), in the hopes that I should finally have some answers as to whether people/places/agencies are able to help this project out! Fingers and toes crossed for the best and bring on Monday!!!!!

JUST WAITING....

I am just waiting for replies from people that i have reached out to for help either financially or just people/places I have asked for help from to try and rally up support for the web series. This is sometimes a frustrating time because you can never force people to answer you when YOU want them to and if you harass them too much then they will just not want to help you out at all. The trick is to have a healthy balance of harassment as well as giving people space. It's a difficult skill to achieve because different people/places/agencies need to be dealt with differently. Hopefully, this week i should hear back from some of these people/places and fingers crossed that I get positive responses!

YOUTUBE CHANNEL INTRO

Last night, Jade and Lana made an introduction video for the YouTube channel. I was unable to be there for this due to prior committments and to be honest, I am a little awkward in front of a camera - it's not really my thing! I can't wait to see what the girls game came up with and will add a link to this blog as soon as it has been edited and put up!

CHEERS!

Work is continuing on the first episode and it is steadily getting there. Jade is still hard at work and things are coming along. The rest of our crew are working hard to get their parts of the project sorted and so, I thought they deserved a bit of a shout out! Thank you so much to all of our hard working crew - you're doing an AMAZING job and we appreciate all the blood, sweat and tears you have put into this project so far! Cheers, guys!

E-MAILS, E-MAILS, E-MAILS!

I have spent the last few days trying to rally up support for our project. I have sent e-mails to lots of different people and places to ask if they are able to help us promote and gain some support for the project. Now, it's just a matter of waiting for those people to reply back to me, so fingers crossed that happens soon and I get a positive response from all!

DIALOGUE RECEIVED

We have been receiving some dialogue recordings from our amazing voice artists! The recordings have been great and if any revisions have been needed, the voice artists have been more than obliging to get the job sorted for us. This post is really just to say a HUGE thank you to our amazing voice artists for all the hard work that they have put in so far and we really appreciate your support and effort! You guys are amazing and we are so lucky to have you onboard!

EXPENSIVE ADS

After looking into using social media ads and Google Adwords to try and promote our web series and in particular the release of the first episode, we have decided that as we are a low budget project that these options will not be viable. It is really expensive to advertise using these platforms! So, we are definitely going to have to go back to basics and advertise by word of mouth and by hitting the streets! I am kind of looking forward to doing this kind of advertising because it means I get to talk to lots of different people and share this project that has been a long time in the making!

PLAN OF ATTACK

We have started to get together a plan of attack for marketing this web series. We already have some components such as a Facebook and Tumblr page and a Twitter profile. Jade is going to put together a website and Lana and I are going to be working on our plan of attack to hit the streets and try and advertise the series locally. 

This is going to be a big job but in order for us to have a chance at getting funding for the web series, we need to increase our audience. Our first episode needs to reach 2000 views once it is out up on YouTube. I will also be putting together a press kit for the series and seeing if the New Zealand Web Series Channel would be interested in airing our web series. We only have a couple of months to have everything sorted before we submit our funding proposal to NZ On Air. Time to knuckle down and get our project out into the big, wide world!

MARKETING STRATEGIES

I have been researching some marketing strategies for the web series. Marketing a web series seems like a challenging task. I have read quite a few articles on how to increase the audience for your web series and they all say similar things. 

• Advertise it locally - get out on the street and tell people about it
• Utilize Facebook and Twitter - Twitter is great for networking with people
• Have your own YouTube channel for your series
• Write a blog
• Purchase ads - Google, Facebook, Twitter
• Have a website for your series

Here's some links to a couple of the articles that I found but trust me there are heaps more out there too!

Links: 
http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/10-tips-for-using-social-media-to-promote-your-web-series/135179

http://snobbyrobot.com/2014/08/05/marketing-your-web-series-red-shirts-tips-on-the-worst-job-in-the-world/

NOT FUNDED

Unfortunately, our crowd funding campaign was unsuccessful! We did not reach our target of $1500 and even though we had $95 pledged to our campaign, we do not receive it because with crowd funding the campaign has to reach it's target to receive any money at all. I am a little disappointed but we will soldier on and come up with some more creative ways to try and fund our project! Keep an eye out for more updates on funding ideas and the progress of the project!

ONLY HOURS TO GO!!!!

This is it! Only 3 hours to go until our crowd funding campaign finishes and it is looking like we are not going to make it to our target of $1500. There is always hope though that somebody might put in some last minute pledges to help us reach our final goal! So, as a last attempt to try and get some pledges, here is the link and my last plea for help! Please if you can help us, click on the link and hook us up with a pledge or two! As the saying goes....... 'It ain't over 'til the fat lady sings!'

Pledge Me Link: www.pledgeme.co.nz/projects/4674-kiwi-web-series-needs-music-composer

WEIGHTING CHARACTERS

Jade and I had a Skype call tonight to discuss some things to do with the project. While we were talking, Jade was busy weighting one of the animated characters and the conversation subject changed from talking about general project chatter to that of weighting. Before I carry on, weighting is something that you do to a 3D character after you attach a rig or skeleton to your modelled character so that when you move your character it doesn't make your character deform weird or warped. 

Jade has discovered that weighting female characters is much more difficult than weighting male characters because male characters are fatter than females. (Fatter is the term that Jade used.) She explained that Kahu was way simpler and quicker to weight compared to all the female characters because all the parts of his body are larger and further away from each other. 

It's kind of a hard concept to grasp if you don't know anything about animation but I just found it interesting from an animator's prospective and a little bit amusing considering that there is only one male in this series. This project has been a huge learning curve and at times we seem to have done things the hard way usually finding an easier solution when the job has almost been completed. In saying that, it has been a great learning experience and I can't wait until we can share the finished product with everyone!

2 DAYS TO GO!!!!!

ONLY 2 DAYS LEFT!!!!! Share this link with everybody!!!!! PLEDGE!!!! PLEDGE!!!! PLEDGE!!!! 
There are only two more days left to be able to help us reach our goal of $1500!!! Sooooooo....... please be awesome and pledge us some money and encourage as many people as you can to pledge us some money too!!!! Any amount will be muchly appreciated!!!! 

PLEASE!!!!!

MORE EXPOSURE!

Jade and I have been discussing some ideas to get the project more exposure. We are thinking about making some more videos with behind the scenes footage and more breakdowns. We are also considering doing some podcasts and even getting our production assistant to start vlogging (video blogging) about the project because she has an awesome phone with a great camera! What ever we decide to do, I hope that it will give this awesome project much more exposure to a variety of audiences!

4 DAYS LEFT!!!!

There are just four more days left on our crowdfunding campaign! It is not looking hopeful at this stage, that we will reach our target. It's a little disappointing but in the same respect, there are four days left to go which is still four days that people can send in all those last minute pledges! So, here's that link for you to click and share with everybody you can!!!!

Pledge Me Link: www.pledgeme.co.nz/projects/4674-kiwi-web-series-needs-music-composer

VOICE ARTIST PROFILE - MARK THOMSON

NAME: Mark Thomson
ROLE: Character Voice Artist - Kahurangi

BIOGRAPHY:
Mark is a British born 27 year old man. He has always been a huge fan of animation, even as a child. He was drawn to the vocal side of animation when reading up on Chris Sabat and how he developed his abilities. Over the course of learning more and more about some of his favourite voice artists, he developed a real appreciation for the emotion and character that a voice can bring.

Outside of vocal work, Mark has two YouTube channels that he intends to relaunch after having had a break. He also loves music of most genres and is a self proclaimed HUGE nerd for anything manga/anime/comic book/graphic novel/game related.

CREW PROFILE - VINCENT HAYWARD

NAME: Vincent Hayward
ROLE: 3D Environmental Artist

BIOGRAPHY:)
Vincent is currently studying a Graduate Diploma of Screen Arts (Film) at the Southern Institute of Technology in Invercargill, New Zealand. He gained a Bachelor of Digital Media (Animation) in 2015.

Vincent enjoys prop and costume making as well as set building, dressing and concept work/drawing for all art aspects in film. In animation, he loves modelling and texturing using 3D software and has created some short animations of his own. Eventually, Vincent would like to work for an animation studio such as Weta Digital.

QUALIFICATIONS:
Bachelor of Digital Media - 2015 Southern Institute of Technology

WEBSITE:
kidinabush.wix.com/vincent-hayward

YOUTUBE CHANNEL:
www.youtube.com/user/Kidinabush

VIMEO:
vimeo.com/user22629285

TURBO SQUID:
www.turbosquid.com/Search/Artists/Kid-in-a-Bush

BLOG:
kidinabush.blogspot.co.nz

CREW PROFILE - LANA BLACK

NAME: Lana Black
ROLE: Production Team Member

BIOGRAPHY:
Lana is currently studying a Bachelor of Screen Arts (Film) at the Southern Institute of Technology in Invercargill, New Zealand. She has previously competed in the Rialto Channel 48 Hours Furious Filmmaking competition as a film team member and Producer.

Lana has made a few of her own short films and this year, produced a collaborative group short film which combined live action and animation. She enjoys working on films and prefers to work on set as opposed to being stuck inside a studio. Once she is finished studying, Lana would like to pursue a career in directing or producing roles, so that she is able to work with different grouos of people.

YOUTUBE:
youtu.be/9yAiojOXYuU

CREW PROFILE - KIMBERLEY WAUGH

NAME: Kimberley Waugh
ROLE: Social Media Administrator

BIOGRAPHY:
Kimberley is a self-proclaimed cat lady who has a bit of an obsession with Nintendo. She has a keen interest in a lot of creative and media driven aspects. From 2013 - 2015 she studied digital filmmaking, completing elective papers in drawing and photography. In 2014, Kimberley started creating the first season of 'The Cat Kids', which is a live action children's web series about superhero felines. In 2015, she began to write a feature length live action fantasy film, 'Ko's World' and created a trailer for the film. She also co-created and co-hosted a fortnightly radio show called 'Alternation' which aired on Southland's community radio station.

'Chino the Cat goes to Sushi Mountain' is the name of a small graphic novel that Kimberley created and drew, which can be found in a collective graphic novel named 'Dead End 3'. This year (2016), she has dedicated to the writing of the second season of 'The Cat Kids' as well as drawing up the new Chino series, circling around his adventures to fuel his sushi obsession, with the simple name of 'Chino the Cat'.

Kimberley has interned with Whitebait TV working on 'The 4.30 Show' and 'What Now'. She enjoys helping out with various projects run by other people because she finds helping fun.

QUALIFICATIONS:
Bachelor of Digital Media (Film) - 2015 Southern Institute of Technology

YOUTUBE CHANNEL:
youtube.com/silentwaughrior

TWITTER:
twitter.com/captainraison

9 DAYS & COUNTING!

Nine days of our crowd funding are left! The countdown is on! We still only have a total amount of $95 pledged to us which means we are seriously short of our $1500 goal. Please help us reach that target. Click the link and have a look at our campaign as well as sharing it with as many people as you can! Help us by pledging us some money........PLEEEASE???

PLEDGE ME LINK: www.pledgeme.co.nz/projects/4674-kiwi-web-series-needs-music-composer

CREW PROFILE - SARAH DEWBERY

NAME: Sarah Dewbery
ROLE: VFX Supervisor

BIOGRAPHY:
Sarah has competed in the Rialto Channel 48 Hours Furious Filmmaking Competition for three years in a row from 2013 -2015, directing and helping to run a small animation team each year. In 2013, she was a part of a team that was nominated for Best Animation in the Otago/Southland region and won the category.The same team that she was a part of was also nominated for the same award in 2014 and 2015.

Sarah has a keen interest in animating, compositing and visual effects. As well as working on the 'Mother' web series as the Visual Effects (VFX) Supervisor, she is currently undergoing study of the 3D Unity gaming platform to upgrade her current skill set.

QUALIFICATIONS:
Bachelor of Digital Media (Animation) – 2014 Southern Institue of Technology
Graduate Diploma in Filmmaking – 2015 Southern Institute of Technology

VIMEO:
https://vimeo.com/sdewbery

11 DAYS TO GO!

There's just 11 days to go in our crowd funding campaign! We have only got $95 pledged to us and we really need more to help us reach our target of $1500! If you haven't checked out our Pledge Me campaign, please click the link and have a gander at it! Any pledges would be much appreciated!

The first episode is still being worked on and is starting to come along nicely but there is still a lot of work to do. Keep an eye out for more update videos over the coming weeks which will show the progress of the project and also show everybody what we have been hard at work doing! Now please go and check out the crowd funding campaign and share the link with everybody you know and help us to rally up some support for this great project!

Pledge Me Link: www.pledgeme.co.nz/projects/4674-kiwi-web-series-needs-music-composer 

CREW PROFILE - JADE PATTERSON

NAME: Jade Patterson
ROLE: 'Mother' Web Series Creator/Creative Director/Lead Animator

BIOGRAPHY:
Jade studied at the Southern Institute of Technology in Invercargill, New Zealand towards a Bachelor of Digital Media (Animation Major) which she achieved in 2014. Jade was awarded the Weta Digital Award for Excellence in Animation by the Southern Institute of Technology in 2014 because of her high standard of work and ability to reach high stress deadlines. 

Jade is a 3D Modeller, Animator and Digital illustrator plus in her spare time she is a Pokemon Master. She is also the creator and writer of the ‘Mother’ web series and is the character and world designer for the series.

QUALIFICATIONS:
Bachelor of Digital Media (Animation) - 2014 Southern Institute of Technology

YOUTUBE CHANNEL:
www.youtube.com/user/TheNoody7

TWITTER:
twitter.com/A_Noody7

DEVIANT ART:
noody7.deviantart.com/


Check out the 'Work In Progress' video that shows some awesome VFX breakdowns. This shows some of the stuff that the talented Jade and our amazing VFX Supervisor, Sarah Dewbery have been working on over the past few months! Keep an eye out for more awesome updates and follow this link:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw-o_iFhatE

VOICE ARTIST PROFILE - LETICIA-ALEXIS GAYOSO

NAME: Leticia-Alexis Gayoso

ROLE: Character Voice Artist - Mikah

BIOGRAPHY:

Leticia-Alexis is an aspiring voice actress and the 'Mother' web series is the first project she has been hired for. However, she is currently voicing characters in two other series' and one character in a video game. Though new to voice acting, she does have three years of experience onstage as an actor and has take several years of vocal lessons. Leticia is 19 years old and resides in New Jersey where she studies at Susquehanna University.

TUMBLR:

kittieslovewater.tumblr.com

TWITTER:

twitter.com/LeticiaAlexis25

INSTAGRAM:
www.instagram.com/leticiaisalexis/

PLEDGE ME CAMPAIGN!

Our Pledge Me campaign is running out of time! We only have $95 pledged so far and our goal is $1500. The campaign will only be running for another 14 days so please click on the link below and help us out by pledging us some money! Share our link with everybody you know and help a great New Zealand made web series find a composer to make us some awesome theme music! Watch the video on our campaign and you will fully understand why we need your help! Don't leave it up to that guy!

Pledge Me Link: www.pledgeme.co.nz/projects/4674-kiwi-web-series-needs-music-composer

CREW PROFILE - LEE BOYD

NAME: Lee Boyd (Wahine is my legal name and Lee is my preferred name)
ROLE: Producer

BIOGRAPHY:
I have competed in the Rialto Channel 48 Hours Furious Filmmaking for three years in a row from 2013 – 2015, producing and running a small animation team each year. In 2013, my team was nominated for Best Animation in the Otago/Southland region and won the category. My team was also nominated for the same award in 2014 and 2015.


In 2014, I was the Producer for three television advertisements made for the Southern Institute of Technology. In February 2015, I interned as a Production Assistant for the test shoot/teaser shoot of the New Zealand feature film Human Traces. Aside from all of these, I have produced and worked on a number of student short films and have created and made some animated shorts of my own.

QUALIFICATIONS:
Bachelor of Digital Media (Animation) – 2014 Southern Institue of Technology
Graduate Diploma in Filmmaking – 2015 Southern Institute of Technology

VOICE ARTIST PROFILE - LIZ MADDEN

NAME: Liz Madden
ROLE: Character Voice Artist - Matariki

BIOGRAPHY:
Liz is a classically trained vocalist who comes from a family lineage steeped in Irish traditional music. Liz has toured globally, headlining such events as the Festival Interceltique de Lorient (France), Nobel Women's Initiative, World Music Festival (Israel), 7th Folk & Art Festival (China), Alberquerque Folk Festival (USA) and the Rio Grande Celtic Festival (USA).

Liz has contributed to over 12 albums and her new album "Legacy" was written and produced with Fionan de Barra (RUNA, Clannad, Keith & Kristyn Getty) and features Emmy winner Joanie Madden (Cherish the Ladies) and guest artist Eamon de Barra (Slide). As a songwriter, Liz has had tracks featured in films and TV shows worldwide.

Liz is an accomplished actress and musical theatre performer and has played lead roles in many shows/musicals. She is formerly a lead performer with the Drawing Room Opera Company. As a voice artist, Liz has voiced for radio, TV, theatre, game/animated characters and recorded narrations which have featured on albums all over the world. A voice teacher for 15 years, Liz has taught privately and coached workshops preparing hundreds of students for auditions, performances and exams.

AWARDS:
Pan Celtic National Song Contest 2016
Finalist with "Fado, Fado", written by Katie Carpenter, Liz Madden and Fionan de Barra.

Clancy Brothers Songwriting Contest 2015
Runner-up with "Southern Fire", written by Katie Carpenter, Liz Madden and Gary Burke.

New Mexico Music Awards
Nominated for Best Folk Song with "White Willow", written by Katie Carpenter, Liz Madden and produced and arranged by Fionan de Barra and Liz Madden.

Christie Hennessy Song Contest 2015
Finalist with "Southern Fire", written by Katie Carpenter, Liz Madden and Gary Burke.

Tipperary International Song of Peace 2014
Winner "Best Irish Entry" and overall Runner-up with "Open Up", written by Katie Carpenter and Liz Madden.

FACEBOOK:
www.facebook.com/LizMaddenMusic

TWITTER:
twitter.com/LizMaddenMusic

WEBSITE:
www.lizmadden.co

VOICE ARTIST PROFILE: EVA LOWE

NAME: Eva Lowe

ROLE: Character Voice Artist - Aasha

BIOGRAPHY: 

Eva has over 10 years experience in voice acting and also has onstage theatre experience in New York, England, France and Korea. Eva has done work for clients such as ESPN, Eli Lilly, Procter & Gamble and many others. She can be heard in many cities all over the world from San Francisco to Sydney and Boulder to Bristol in many different accents. 

Eva has been the voice artist for clients for e-Learning, narration, internet guides, commercials, radio, television, game/animated characters and many other different areas requiring voice art. Eva is the voice of Aasha in this web series and we are very lucky and grateful to have her onboard. Follow the link to Eva's website for more information and demo reels of her voice art.

WEBSITE: www.EvaLoweVoiceOver.com

WAITING GAME!

We still have 18 days left on our crowdfunding campaign, so at this point it is just a waiting game to see if we will reach our target or not. We do not seem to have had too much interest in the crowd funding campaign but there is still time. Sometimes, waiting can feel like an eternity and sometimes time speeds up faster than you would like. I only hope some people will see my pleas and jump onboard and pledge our campaign some money.

Over the next few days, I will start blogging crew profiles, promoting a different team member every day. Then everybody can get to know the team behind the web series! For now, I will leave you with my usual spiel about the link for the crowd funding campaign and sharing it with everybody you know....... aw here it is:

www.pledgeme.co.nz/projects/4674-kiwi-web-series-needs-music-composer  

PLEDGE US...... PLEASE?

We are starting to run out of time to reach our target for our crowd funding campaign. I know nearly every post has had the link for our campaign attached to it and something mentioned about it but we really need money for a composer and I am still hoping somebody will want to fund us. The Pledge Me team have emailed and said that they have chosen our campaign to promote on their social media which will hopefully help us succeed.  

On another note, we have just received the dialogue recordings for the second episode from our amazing voice artists and some great animation work is still happening on the first episode. So, here's that link again for our campaign which you should fully click on and have a look at.......... PLEASE?

LINK: www.pledgeme.co.nz/projects/4674-kiwi-web-series-needs-music-composer/

NEW CREW MEMBER

We have a new member who has joined our crew. He will be our new 3D Environmental Artist and will help Jade with some modelling and creating the environments (hence the title) for the web series. This has expanded the animation team and given Jade more help to relieve some of her work load.

20 days until the crowd funding campaign ends and a long way to go to reach our goal! Here's the link again:

www.pledgeme.co.nz/projects/4674-kiwi-web-series-needs-music-composer

Keep checking back here for more daily updates! Exciting and interesting times ahead!