Meet Cinnamon, our titular Donkey! (Seed&Spark update)

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Hi everyone, 

We're at 30% with 25 days left, thanks to all of you! We're so excited to keep pushing forward to bring this film to life, and are so grateful to have you along on the journey with us. To celebrate hitting this milestone, we'd like to introduce you to Cinnamon, who will be playing TG, the donkey, in our film! 

When brainstorming how we'd get a donkey for the film, we knew we wanted to avoid reaching out to any petting zoos or pony ride type companies that would potentially exploit or abuse their animals. We set out to find local sanctuaries and rescue groups. Thankfully, we came across this NY Times article (video included) about Donkey Park, a non-profit in Upstate NY that takes donkeys to nursing homes and schools for the disabled as therapy for both people and donkeys. (The article explains more about their mission.) 

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We reached out to the founder Steve Stiert, and he was just lovely. He was very excited by our film and the opportunity to promote the loving nature of donkeys to more of the world. I think there is also some parallels with his own story and that of Tim, the father in the film. He agreed to let us use one of his donkeys for the film once he verified we were the real deal and aimed to care for the animal as much as he does. Cinnamon is about 8 years old. She and her mom, Susie, are rescues. If Steve didn't take them in, they would have been slaughtered for meat. 

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Donkeys are companion animals. They tend to bond strongly to another. Steve said that even if Cinnamon and Susie weren't mother and daughter, he'd still bring both to set because they're best friends (kind of like me & my mom!) and need to be together. So lucky for us, we'll get to have both cuddly cuties on set with us for three days at the end of March! 

In the film, TG is just a donkey being a donkey. Cinnamon will only have to act natural and be herself. But we do have some moments where we'll need her to look or walk in a certain direction for the camera. Steve let us shoot some video to demonstrate how he's been training her with positive reinforcement to get her to learn some cool stuff. 

We'll have more videos of her training later, exclusively for all you supporters. And even though Susie won't be in the film, she'll surely be in our behind the scenes videos with Cinnamon from set!

Our big push now is to hit 50% by the end of this week. Please keep spreading the word so we can reach more of our audience and get this film made together!

Sample tweet:

Meet Cinnamon, the donkey from #AboutADonkey! Want to see more of her? Support the project on @seedandspark: https://vimeo.com/202790888.

Thank you,

Christina, Kelsey & the team

Table Read Video (Seed&Spark Update)

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Good morning, 

I'm just going to start every update with THANK YOU because you're all awesome and we can't thank you enough. We're at 24% and moving at a nice pace. But getting to 30% as soon as possible is pretty key, so we're looking to reach a lot of people today!

If you missed yesterday's preview of the first scene of the film, it now lives in the media section of our campaign. Hopefully you enjoyed it. Please do share it with anyone you think might dig it too!

A few weeks back we had our first reading of the entire script. It was a very low key get-together for the cast and core crew. We recorded it for our own purposes, since Kelsey and I were still revising the script at the time. But we decided to throw together a super short highlight reel to share with you all. I doesn't reveal much, just a quick intro to the ensemble. 

We've got more videos to come! Stay tuned.

-Christina

Two Minute “About a Donkey” Preview (Seed&Spark Update)

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Good morning wonderful supporters!

We've made it to 20%! And in under 48 hours! We're aiming for 30% before midnight tonight. Hopefully releasing this two minute preview of the opening scene of the film will help us reach more people. Watch below. Hope you enjoy it! It's two minutes of a nine minute scene that we shot in preparation for this campaign. Please note that this is a rough sound mix and color. We won't have the real post-production work done until after we shoot the rest of the film, which we can't do without making our goal!

Spread it far and wide. Here's a sample tweet or post: 

Watch a preview of the opening scene of #aboutadonkey: https://vimeo.com/202384983. Then join in making the rest of this inclusive, comedy film!

We put out a new batch of donkey thank yous on our Facebook page. More coming soon!

-Christina, Kelsey & the team

Learned Since "Summit," Now Onto "About a Donkey" (Kickstarter Update)

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Hi everyone, 

It's been awhile since I've sent an update because I added you all to our monthly newsletter. However, I thought I'd check back in here because there's some exciting stuff going on and I know not everyone receives every newsletter. It's been four and a half years since we ran this campaign for Summit! I don't know about you, but it feels like forever ago. I often feel like my life is divided between before Summit and after Summit because making it was such an intense experience. I have a real love/hate relationship with the film, to be honest with you. I wouldn't be the filmmaker I am now if not for mistakes made and lessons learned through that film. It's very flawed. But I love it because of the fact that it made me that filmmaker -- that I learned so much from it. And there is a lot in it to be proud of -- aspects of the film that did work out, largely thanks to the talented people I was lucky enough to be surrounded by. Thank you for becoming part of the film and allowing us to make it. I'll never stop being grateful to you for that. 

Since its festival run and VOD release, and since it started getting reviews and audience feedback, I've learned a lot, as well -- particularly in terms of how different people will view your work based on their life experiences and existing biases. Some people totally get the stuff I was trying to say about gender, race and tropes, while with other people it just goes right over their heads. Some reviews hate the pacing, others appreciate it. Some consider it a horror film, some do not. It's interesting taking in the opinions that come out, especially knowing when they come from a deeply personal place. It's been nice seeing people objectively engage with the work, even when their objective opinions aren't fully positive. It's given me further perspective on how intentions don't always translate, and that you can't meet everyone's expectations. I learned where I could have balanced the commentary more and done better to serve the story while still making the film I set out to make. But I also learned to just embrace the film for what it is and accept the way some people may feel about it. That said, there are people that really like it and get what I was going for, which has been lovely. In any case, I hope you enjoyed being part of the experience of making it. I hope you're proud to have contributed to it. But also please know that I know it's a flawed first feature. I've definitely grown as a filmmaker. 

I'm not sure how closely you've been following our work since Summit. But you should know there's a lot of free content to dive into, if you'd like. From our 10-episode web series 'Kelsey,' to shorts: "Juice It," "We Had Plans," "Not Our Living Room," and "Hello." "Not Our Living Room" and "Hello" are probably of most interest for genre fans. (You'll recognize familiar faces in all those shorts, by the way.) I also have a comedy pilot, "Two Gays and a Girl," and two shorts, a horror titled "Night In," and a thriller titled, "Enough," currently in post-production.

But my main focus right now is my second feature, About a Donkey. It's not a horror film. It is a character-driven ensemble piece though. And it's definitely subverting expectations, which is a pattern in my work. It's generally more in line with my comedic work above, like 'Kelsey, ' and "Juice It." I'll definitely be back to my horror roots (*cough* already wrote third feature script *cough*) but this project is really near and dear to me and my collaborators. It's a film we've been wanting to make for years, but it feels especially timely. I think art matters more than ever right now -- reaching people and spreading empathy and hope is crucial. This film, if made, will do that.

We're currently crowdfunding for the film: https://www.seedandspark.com/fund/about-a-donkey. (I wrote a blog post recently about why I keep crowdfunding. You can read it here: http://www.congestedcat.com/blog/2017/1/27/working-towards-sustainability-why-i-keep-crowdfunding-making-shorts.) I hope you'll check out our pitch and consider joining us on this journey towards making another feature film. I truly believe this project matters and that it's something worth being part of. 

Thank you for all the support,

-Christina & the team