19 Mar Thank you to our Donators! Funemployment is going to be a reality!

Dear Team Funemployment,

Some of you out there may be aware about how my brain works, especially those who are unfortunate to have me as a their crazy filmmaker friend. As you know, I constantly see the world as one big movie or TV episode. What I mean by this is I literally see events in my life play out like a big film set (complete with someone yelling action and cut, I kid you not).

To give you an example, when someone said something definitive like, you will never raise that kind of money through Kickstarter, I literally envisioned that statement and a jump cut to a screen with text “30 days later,” followed by another jump cut to a scene with the entire “Funemployment” team standing in a row looking into the horizon with cinematic victorious music subtly playing in the background. I break the third (or fourth) wall, look directly at the audience, and in slow motion take off my imaginary aviator sunglasses (I don’t own any) and I say, “We did it.” Fade to black. The End.

Riding the Kickstarter wave, for me, can be equated to a psycho thriller mixed with intense drama, and some occasional comedy. What a rollercoaster it has been, but the team came out victorious thanks to the support of the three infamous F’s, friends, family, and fans as well as the community.

When I first found out that we had broke $25K, it was extremely accidental. My lead actor, Adam Duncan, and I had just gotten off of another film set and decided to search for some free wifi in order to put in whatever savings we had left to ensure that we could get the money we had raised so far. At this point, despite all of the successes, we only had 2 days left, and were both in the frustrated, nervous state of “WE WILL NEVER MAKE IT” bottom part of the rollercoaster. When Adam opened the Kickstarter page on his iPad, while I was busy plugging in my 17-in 2008 Macbook Pro, he exclaimed, “Holy $&*#!”

My heart literally flew out of its protective cavity when I heard these words. Being an emotional sap, I cried. I am pretty sure Adam was trying not to as well. It felt as if so much weight had been lifted from our shoulders. But as quickly as that relief hit us, it disappeared just as quickly as we envisioned all the worst-case scenarios that could happen in the next 2 days. What if we piss everyone off somehow and they all pull out their funding? Being in the film industry unfortunately trains you to always be cautious about your celebratory moments. Too many times have we gotten jobs and roles and had them pulled out the day of filming.

Luckily, that didn’t happen. In fact, 2 minutes before the Kickstarter ended, my fabulous roommate and one of my closest friends of all time (Suma) texted me. I was on set at the time, but happened to be taking a break so we did our own countdown (via text message). We both watched the clock go to zero. Suma took a picture with her phone and sent it to me. Here it is.

That picture means so much to me. It is not just the amount that we raised or the fact that it was successful, it is years of hard work that will now get to see the light of day. That picture means that a story I had written about 4 years ago will be told in a way that multi-million budgeted films are told. That picture represents all of the emails (Kickstarter sends me an email every time people donate), the facebook messages, and the tweets that were sent to show how much support my team and I have. That picture represents a step closer to career goals and to a dream. As cheesy as it sounds, that picture is hope.

I know so many people have worked so hard on this project and the best thing is that all these people will continue to work even harder after this project has completed. We love what we do and we are so thankful for the privilege of being able to pursue our passions as our careers. This is only possible with your constant support and I and of course the rest of my team are so very thankful for it. Unfortunately, words cannot describe how we feel, so we are in the process of making something pretty spectacular for everyone to enjoy (stay tuned).

So what now?

We keep going! There is still a crap load of work that needs to get done. From making sure all donators get their awesome prizes to editing to scoring. I will do my best to update everyone about the process because you guys are part of the team now. The success of Funemployment is because of you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Ugh… I’m crying again. No joke.

#areyoufunemployed? Yes I am. I am proud of be “Funemployed.” I hope that the film we create will inspire people to #nevergiveup. -C.W.C

P.S. I’m starting to get a lot of messages from people looking to run their own campaign. I will have a blog soon about the entire process and some tips!