PledgeMe up and running

I think I first came across the wonderful site, Kickstarter, earlier this year, when Taika Waititi was raising money to promote his marvellous movie, Boy, in the USA.   He had a goal of raising US$90,000 and exceeded that by over $20,000.  The donations came in from around the world. 

Kickstarter is a site where you can promote a creative work of any sort and give people the chance to invest in it by offering a sum of money, usually anything from $5 upwards.  You become part of the creative process, a kind of mini-producer/entrepreneur as it were.  Your reward can be nothing at all, if you wish, or you can take up one of the rewards that are offered, depending on the size of your donation.   (Check out some of the hilarious but actual 'rewards' Waititi offered in relation to Boy.) 

If the project doesn't reach the target mark, then you don't pay anything.  It's disappointing for the project initiator, but as the site states, it's better to have the full funding you requested than trying to complete the task on partial funding.   Kickstarter has an excellent site with plenty of information about how to go about presenting your project and what you need to know. 

The only bugbear about Kickstarter is that it's based in the US and only connects to US projects.  (Which is why Waititi had to be there to get his funding off the ground.)

Now New Zealand has its only equivalent.  It's called PledgeMe and it subtitles itself: New Zealand's first crowdfunding platform.  Things are small-scale, at this point, with the number of projects under a hundred, but the quality is good, and there are some very interesting projects available.  Some, remarkably, have had no investment at all (To Go Viking in Moesgard - pictured at right - for instance).  Some are doing very well (the Gone Curling movie, for exmaple. It's centred in Naseby).  Often a video accompanies the project's details, which helps to give a good idea of what's up for grabs.   And, as with Kickstarter, people offer rewards to the investors. 

Unfortunately it's probably a bit too late for us to try and get some funding for Grimhilda! - though if anyone wants to help fund it I won't object!

Just a little overview

While commenting on Facebook this morning, I thought that it would be interesting to list the number of different skills that have been employed since I began to work on the musical, Grimhilda!   It hasn't been quite a matter of everything and the kitchen sink, (as in Sienna Sinks stainless steel sinks) but it's felt close to that at times.


Of course, the first skill was writing the thing, in collaboration with my friend, Cherianne Parks (she contributed many of the crazier ideas, and is very strong on structure and plotting).

Then the was the writing of the music, first in a piano/vocal score, and then gradually this was orchestrated.   None of these skills, so far, were new to me.

Next, and these aren't in any particular order, I had to discover how to apply for funding and how to fill in applications forms to funders.  I was greatly helped in this by Sally-Anne Howes, who's done it before and made editorial comments and did the budgetting side of it.  As a result we got some $6000 of funding!

Then there was my involvement in the auditions.  I didn't make the final decisions on casting, but was involved in the process with the director and music director.   When we didn't have a complete cast as a result, in collaboration with the D and MD, I began the search through every means I could think of to find the additional actors we needed.  So you might say I acquired some casting skills...

Then there was advertising.  Initially I was doing this in a kind of ad hoc way, and then somehow it became my job altogether.   It's been interesting, and I've met some great and friendly and helpful people.   And been overwhelmed, as always, by the willingness of people to get involved.

I also recorded two selections of music and put these on SoundCloud, along with some of the instrumental music - courtesy of the Sibelius program.   And last weekend, I went through and checked (and corrected) the instrumental parts, and printed them out, and, with my wife's assistance, taped all the individual pages together into a concertina format, so the musicians don't have pages flying everywhere during the performances.  That was a much bigger job than I anticipated.   And then we'd no sooner done that than we had to add in a number of bars because the Director wanted a bit of dancing in one place.  Such is his prerogative, but it's surprising how much extra work that was.  It's much easier to cut stuff than add stuff!

And then there's what you might call my 'producing' role: finding things, and people to do stuff, and making decisions that something is far too expensive to go with and trying to find a better and more economic option.   Surprisingly the economic options are often because other groups in town, or people, are willing to be generous to a degree that continues to amaze me.  This week has shown me just how generous people can be - we were even offered a keyboard for the celesta part in the score after I advertised on Twitter.  Someone retweeted the original tweet, and within five minutes, I was on the phone to a resident saying he not only had a keyboard he was willing to lend (to a complete stranger!) but was willing to drop it off to the theatre.   Wow!

I've just been having coffee and liaising with the MD and the man who's going to look after the mics for us.  He's even willing to go chasing up additional items we need to get this part of the show to work properly.  Again, Wow!   (And he's been willing to come to rehearsals and see how things run and what needs to be done.)

My list of helpful people is growing - and I'll keep it for future reference!

Meanwhile, Cherianne has also played multiple roles: props person (collecting them and organising for them to be built where necessary); overseeing the making of the costumes and liaising with the scenic designer; ongoing script consultant and much more which she could tell you about better than I can.  And of course, she'll be Stage Manager during the show's run.

I'm sure there are other jobs I've been involved with (such as putting together the promo at the Library yesterday) but they're all beginning to merge...maybe I'll update this as the other jobs come to mind!

Culture as a social ingredient

In [a] far more perfect world ... culture would be recognized as a crucial social ingredient and would be funded as generously as science and social services. Public art would be part of curriculums from kindergarten through doctoral programs. Bureaucracy would be cut to a minimum, and all concerned would be trained in collective process. Writers and other related workers would be involved in public art projects from beginning to end, so that words as well as images, physical residue or experience would be part of the collective communication.

Lucy Lippard
The Lure of the Local

Kiva

Kiva is finally starting to make headlines. Well, when I say that, I mean that the first headline I've seen regarding Kiva apart from those on the Kiva site itself turned up in the Guardian online today.

I first came across Kiva last year, in relation to Blog Poverty Day. It seemed a good scheme then, and it's proved itself since. I think what I like about it is that the money you lend out actually comes back to you and you can re-lend it to another person in the queue. And there are plenty of people in the queue, too.

It's very simple. The website shows you a bunch of photos of people who would like a loan to fund either a small business starting up, or one that's already underway. These loans go to people who are already on the move; they may live in poverty areas of the world, but they're doing their best to make sure they don't go down the tubes.

Some of the photos show groups of people who are working as a collective. You can lend to either. And the amount you lend is minimal, really: $25US. I've had it paid back three or four times over already, and there's still money in my account. If I need to top it up, I just draw a bit off my Paypal account and it's done! Kiva asks for a small donation usually, for admin purposes, but you're not obliged to pay this.

I'd recommend it to anyone: it's certainly better than spending your money on diet pills that work (or don't work, as the case may be), or on some new clothes, or a DVD or book (the last two are where I fall down when browsing in shops). Kiva is a way to make a difference in the world. It's a tiny difference as far as I'm concerned, perhaps, but combined with thousands of others' money, it makes a huge difference to people in places we've often never heard of.

Check 'em out!

Pre-Budget Announcement

Yesterday, two of my daughters and their respective (five) children gathered together with my wife and I to celebrate a pre-budget announcement from the Minister of Health, Pete Hodgson. He was in Dunedin for a regional (and small) Labour Party conference, and brought his press secretary with him – a delightful lady who took to our grandchildren with enthusiasm.
TVNZ was there, and TV3, and the ODT reporter came along too. As well as these, there was a woman from the Ministry of Health, and Fiona Colbert, the general manager of the Meningitis Trust. I’ve forgotten some of these people’s names, since it was quite distracting having to hold my latest granddaughter some of the time, or play with other grandchildren at other times.
Why were we involved? Because last year, one of my grandchildren got pneumococcal meningitis, and went through a terrible time of fits, and some weeks in hospital. He gave us all an awful fright, since at one point we thought we were going to lose him. We’re one of the very few blessed families in this respect, not only because we didn’t lose him, but because he didn’t get any of the possible after-effects of the disease, such as deafness, blindness, or the loss of limbs.
And what was Pete Hodgson’s announcement? That after considerable politicking on the Trust’s side, the Government had decided to fund Prevenar inoculations to try and prevent this disease from damaging other lives. They’re spending $68 million on the job from 2008 in order to offer free immunisation to all new-borns.
My daughter appeared on the National News last night, on two channels, and some of the other members of the family were also visible, including the grandchild himself, of course. TVNZ came up to the house and did some filming here, but only a fragment of it made it onto the news – as you’d expect.