Vox Heroica
Aug 31st, 2010 by Frank
Hello again! I’ve been so busy these past few weeks that I’ve completely neglected to get back here to spread the good word! Normally, I’d try to split these subjects into their own posts, but who has the time? Not me, that’s for sure!
First of all, we got the results from the Miami 48-Hour Film Festival. We took home three awards: Best Costumes, Best Use of Prop, and Best Cinematography. Were we disappointed we didn’t take home the trophy for Best Film? Of course. But I’m incredibly proud of the film we made in just two sleepless days.
I could talk about this film for a week, but that would run contrary to the theme. As I mentioned in a previous post, we drew the Silent Film category as our genre. We were required to include a brush (prop), a character named Doug Whyte (who was a fundraiser), and a line of dialogue (”What do you mean?”). I’ll leave it to you to decide how well we succeeded.
I’ll be happy to answer any questions about the production in the comments below. I’ll definitely be working with some of these people again. The cinematographer and I are already collaborating.
Next, I’m just bursting at the seems to tell you about the radical shift in my life since I last discussed the sad demise of iHero Entertainment and our magazine, Cyber Age Adventures. It occurred to me just a few days later that what was true when I started that magazine back in 1999 wasn’t true today. When I started the magazine, there was no iPad, no Kindle, no iTunes iBookstore, no precedent for a digital magazine that could be delivered to screens that fit in the palm of your hand. Once I realized that, I immediately contacted the original iHero creators and asked if they’d like to collaborate on a new magazine. Every single one of them said yes.
We decided to come back for a six-issue limited series, to return to the universe we created and tell the stories we wished we’d told before we put up the chairs. This is our chance.
We’re funding the limited series through Kickstarter, which allows folks to pledge their support and help us raise the capital we’ll need to pay for writers, artists, ISBN’s and the barrel of monkeys that goes into this kind of endeavor. Pledges start at just $5 and it includes the first issue. Think of it like reserving your copy ahead of time. There are bigger rewards the higher you go. Check it out!
I know that the $3,000 price tag seems high for this kind of thing, but it funds all six issues, allowing us to promise the audience that we won’t shut down half-way through our run because we ran out of cash. We’re paying our writers and artist pro rates, marking us once again as a magazine to be taken seriously.
One of the great things about Kickstarter is that you don’t get charged a dime unless we meet our goal. I like that. We’ve been gone a long time, but we still have some fans out there. And the original creators, myself included, haven’t exactly been idle. If you think about what these folks can do 10 after we published our first issue, it’s pretty awe-inspiring. If I have my way with this, you’ll be seeing iHero-based short films within the year. We’re already working on the costumes.
Our goal is to make this an ongoing series again. Having the six month cushion would allow us to find our place in the market and make the magazine self-sustaining for the first time in our history. That’s just plain made of awesome.
So please consider helping out if you are so inclined. Thanks, and be excellent to each other out there!
excited



