I am writing this newsletter on the Monday after a weekend in which the aim was to try and raise £500 in donations in order to allow me to start filming. What I had forgotten though, is that nobody seems to grasp the idea of crowd-funding anymore.
You pay (in the UK) £150.50 a year for your TV Licence. Your input of £150.50 funds television, radio and online content. It isn't just your £150.50 that finances an episode of Eastenders, your payment is pooled to finance content that anybody is able to watch. You put in a little, you take out a lot.
I am not asking for multi-million dollar blockbuster money here, my work is on the low budget spectrum and I will share the finished product on YouTube for everybody to enjoy. Here's another example, it costs £8.80 to go and see a film at Broadway Cinema in Nottingham (or 'the house of stolen ideas' as I call it). One of the films currently being shown at Broadway is Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and that, according to Wikipedia, cost $170million to make. You put in a little, you take out a lot.
Here's something else, here is my Twitter statistics for the weekend - it isn't massive but I am strangely underfollowed, no, I don't understand it either.
My point is that if the above figure was translated into pounds, I would have more than enough to get to work and start making entertainment for people to enjoy. Unlike the cinema or theatre, or even your TV Licence, you can choose how much you donate.
To keep the costs down, although it won't make them disappear altogether, I have made the decision to make several documentaries as audio rather than video, I will still need to do a fair bit of travelling though. However the comedy projects need to be visual (especially as one is a silent film) and they aren't cheap. I reckon I can do the first project for £300 at a push, it'll be tight but I am sure I can do it without losing quality.
Filming wise, I have been through my notebooks and a box with 'Notes and ideas' written on and need to get moving. There are seven short films, mostly comedic that I want to get off the ground and am scared that I will die before I get everything finished off my ideal to-do list. Once I have finished I am not bothered because I would rather leave a legacy of entertainment behind than a box of notebooks.
The PayPal button is at the top of this page, please donate as much or as little as you can. It will be worth it. If you are in a position to bung a larger amount there then I would be forever grateful. You could also download one of my audio books from my Bandcamp page. There are more audio books to come in December and rather than a kazoo Christmas album this year I am making an album of Glenn Miller compositions.
In other news, I am not doing my Die Hard one-man show this year due to not having finished it properly. I will instead be doing more readings of A Christmas Carol and Finding Scrooge (which is being published this year and I have written the foreword to. Hopefully I will be able to tour Die Hard towards the end of 2019.
Here are some other ways you can help swell the coffers and be a part of something brilliant:
Kazoo:
For £5 I will record the song of your choice on kazoo and send it to you, it is the ideal present for someone you love.
Typewriting
Letters, essays, whatever you like. I will type it up for you old school for 50p a page.
Just email me steveEoliver@gmail.com, which is also my PayPal email
Thanks in advance!