This Thing is Still Alive?

Yes it is! This past year feels like it's been the busiest of my life... Nonetheless, I will find the time to get this pilot finished and out the door.

We ended up filming the pilot in Chicago. It was a great weekend full of enthusiastic performers-- exactly what we'd hoped to encounter on the road.

We are still getting new fans on Facebook every week, which is great. And complete strangers to boot. Thanks for the continued support, random fans, we WILL pull it together!

-Lee

The First Webisode and Dropkicking Kickstarter

This is me not believing we will raise $8,138 in 15 days from friends, family, and complete strangers.

I would like to thank everyone who did believe in us enough to contribute! Thank you!

To my disappointment, our Kickstarter campaign received an overwhelming LACK of responses. Around 700 people were contacted. Perhaps some people thought us rude for asking to contribute to a film, perhaps some people don't understand the pitch or the scope, and even a friend of mine told me he was worried I'd be spending the money on beer when on the road (insulting). I've come to the conclusion that I haven't given people enough of a reason to believe in me and that there were a few other fundamental flaws in our approach.

My warrior spirit is charging forth, however, with a deft tenacity to keep the project alive. So I've decided to shoot our first webisode with the money we already have set aside for OpenMicUSA. As of now, I've my sights on Detroit [Rock City]. Stay tuned!

[o ]=====III
-Lee

Kickstarter Cabin!

Good morning.  There is still a lot of ground for our group if ever this film will solidify from our airy dreams. That will only happen through your contributions, contributions that will not go unrewarded. More information here. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dylanjamesbrock/open-mic-usa.

With the exciting addition of Nick Nummerdor to the Open Mic USA team, I thought it would be useful to give some information regarding his previous video projects. Little Cabin Films, his production company, has impressive credentials to be found at http://www.nicknummerdor.com. Nick went to school for what we are doing, making documentary films, but he has made a fictional web-series called Hot Rod Hearts. Sporting impressive professionalism and drawing laughter from all around, this sequence of short comedies is definitely worth checking out. You can view the first episode below:

Introducing our Cinematographer

We would like to announce that we've officially brought on a cinematographer, Nick Nummerdor, for Open Mic USA. It took a mutual friend (Big thanks, Brian!), some informal correspondences, and the genuine groove of the idea to make it official (I'm sure our showing of support on Kickstarter didn't hurt. Thanks, contributors!).

I'm really geeked for a few reasons. Nick explicitly studied documentary filmmaking at Columbia Chicago and expresses great taste in cinematic style. Not to mention he's a working director/editor/producer in Chicago, and he's establishing himself as a break-out MidWest indie filmmaker with the Youtube series, Hot Rod Hearts (which I've been a fan of long before being personally acquainted).

Before this moment it was three, and now it is four of us, in it for the passion of the project. I'm happy to have such talented and driven people working with me-- and we haven't even started shooting yet! Just goes to say that when the camera does roll, we'll be more than ready.

Rock on!
-Lee

This Does Not Exist

I am always impressed by how many brilliant people with brilliant ideas are shining their brilliance on us all through the glow of a CRT or an LCD screen. With brilliant people everywhere, the official blog for the official kickstarter page is officially looking into an official website. Like everyone else in this world, we are good at designing web sites, so we do not need anything more than a domain name. Catchy and specific ideas for the domain name run from officialpagefortheofficialkickstarterpage.com and effingmothereffer.com. Never in history have so many things been said to so many topics about so many concepts and all of it was put there by the work of humans or the programs they build to work like humans. We have made life and it is far more interesting than most interesting people anticipated being interested by it. Meanwhile geniuses are everyone so no one is a genius; college graduates are everyone so no one went to school, and above all everyone is really good at making amazing use of the amazing internet, meaning everyone is a web designer so no one is and what you just read doesn't exist. Look for our URL very soon, and be sure to bring your dry sense of humor, and a taste for the sulfur of damnation through praise.

Ticket Lessons

Listening the early songs of my life and realizing that the vast majority of them were written, recorded and performed by artists from the UK. Then there was a moment, perhaps too late for my own good, but early enough that I got in before the bandwagon was finished being built, when I decided I would only listen to only American music for the summer of 2001. It turned out to be the most influential summer on my development as an artist. Open Mic USA is an idea rooted in that sentiment. I hope will grow into a fruitful, nourishing product that is enjoyable to consume. This film, whether or not is gets made, will still screen in my heart, in it I will see cuts between the characters of great American song and those who must quest to make songs like that of their own, whether or not they fail. For in failure, there is always a lesson, just as on fortune cookie there are always letters - they do not necessarily convey more than the obvious - there will be a simple, persuasive perspective shown to me. I will fail if you fail me. The control is in now in the hands of those who might buy ticket that cannot be redeemed for love, but will get you into or behind the film or both.

Firsts

I feel strangely elated to get pledges  for this project. For some reason I had the idea that this whole project would sit up there on Kickstarter and never get one dime. I am still waiting for this whole dream to make me feel like a fool for knowing I can do it, but I don't care if I am a fool for shooting so high. I will never live up to my own expectations unless I go for them. Ian seems attached to this work as well, contacting me frequently for updates. I get the feeling that Lee, Ian and I will be talking many times daily for the next however many years it takes to see this through. Lee and I were talking last night and agreed that a successful Kickstarter project would only mean work and more work, though lovable labor it will be. We will have a film to prep, shoot, edit, promote, and festival with - if enough goes well. I have never looked forward to being boringly productive more than I hope for now. In the meantime I sit clicking and clicking and reloading and reloading all hoping that the reward will be worth the vigilance. - Dylan