Mythos Media Fundraisers 2012

Rather than these vague twitter posts let me be very clear what is going on.

There are several projects in production and all of them need some seed funds to really get off the ground beyond a sort of "pilot episode."

And this is of course despite conjecture such as this. The fact is, it costs money and time to produce media, and I've killed myself (and years of my life) too many times on projects that made it through round 1 of funding only to die at round 2, which often means due to contracts that no one even got to see anything for our labors. No more. Beyond the most bare bones, which usually amounts to words on a page or on a screen, transmedia and multimedia projects need to gets funded and produced, or they have to get shit-canned. I am streamlining production cost but there is only so far you can go and produce the kind of quality that I am aiming for, and in the past I've encountered problems of retaining talent when they have studios like Image and Vertigo and movie studios knocking on their doors and it comes down to "I really like this script, James, but I've go to go where the money is."

So in a sense I'm counting on all of you to vote with your dollars, cause that's what we have to vote with these days. And our past track record of production at least shows that well--considering what we've done on shoestrings, what we could do with slightly longer ones could be amazing. 

Nyssa:

A dark modern fairy tale. 

Below is a piece of artwork-in-progress from the artists I am working with on issue 1. At least some of these will appear in the ongoing series if we raise the necessary funds to produce a multi-part series that will also be collected as a graphic novel. The production will include a lot of mixed media material, availability as print and ebook, and short video trailers and web materials that add layers or other angles to the narrative. (Transmedia.)

Fundraiser: September 1 - October 10. 

I plan to run this Kickstarter in September and really hope I can get some press help and bloggers and all of you on twitter to get the word out because it does come down to a popularity contest at the end of the day. We will work our asses off to make something beautiful and unique if we can fund it. 

Estimated necessary budget: $30,000. (I have to review the spreadsheet before I say this is final.)

Giveaways: Just initial thoughts...We will be giving away various artist prints, of course e- and print versions of the illustrated story 'pilot' (issue 1) as well as the lowest donation tier which will be the unillustrated text. The pilot is why I'm waiting until September to begin the Kickstarter which will run for 40 days. Of course I have ideas for posters and some unique items, but the question does arise of production cost of giveaways vs. funds raised and production overhead itself so I have a lot of math to do...

Words of Traitors:

These Are Not My Memories. A collection of stories that get at the nebulous - fate, faith, choice, death of the self, death of another, young lust - while they are in transit from one place to another.  These are works of "honest fiction" that I've been working on by way of 'stretching' myself as a writer. Or that is how it began. As all projects do, this is taking on a life of its own, and I am now seeing the final version being ideally a hardcover with a single very nice illustration to accompany each piece. I would like to pitch first rights for each short story to publishers but want to retain creative control over the final version which means having money for an editor, for luring artists to actually hit deadline, and for a marketing campaign that actually gets the word out.

Fundraiser: July 20 - August 20. I plan to run this on Indiegogo. This is because even if we get partial funding, we can make some headway with this project. They say that August is a terrible month to fundraise. I guess I'll find out.

Estimated necessary budget: $7,000.

Giveaways: obviously, early editions of the stories will be giveaways, as 1 offs and as a collection at a higher tier and then in an early print chapbook at a higher tier. I'd also like to offer something unique, so I'm thinking about that as well. Then those at a certain tier will also receive a final, hardbound copy when production on that is complete - likely several months after the fundraiser is complete, but long before it is available on the public market. You can read first (and I mean first) drafts of pieces for this project on my tumblr under this tag: http://fallennation.tumblr.com/tagged/writing

If you'd like to get in ahead of the curve and donate to Mythos Media / Modern Mythology productions in general:

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