WHO AM I?
My name is Alan Becker. When I was 17, I made a short animation on my laptop and put it on the internet. Now, including its sequels, it has 218 million views. It’s called Animator vs. Animation. It has been featured on CNN, G4 – Attack of the Show, the Wall Street Journal, 10 international film festivals, and has been included in a few published art commentary books. Because of this one animation, clients came to me with animation requests and I became a self sufficient freelance animator right out of high school. Here’s my website.
WHAT IS IT ABOUT?
Animator vs. Animation plays with the idea that the little stick figures that you animate can fight back and do damage to your computer. Since the world of computers is so vast, the possibility for gags is endless. I’ve had the stick figure engage in matrix style fighting with all the icons on the desktop, a one-on-one duel with Clippy (the old Microsoft Word Assistant), a solitaire fight with another stick figure using cards, the list goes on. Now we’re entering the age of tablets and iPhones, so the spectrum of possibilities is even wider now.
WHY DO I NEED MONEY?
It told everyone I was done after number three. It’s such a conclusive ending, so hard to top, plus, film history shows us that any series that goes past three starts to go downhill at four. But people were so upset that I was ending the series because they found it so entertaining. Requests for number four came at me from every angle. So I’m deciding to do it. It’ll be fun.
In the past, animating was easy because I was just a high school kid dependent on my parents. Now I have rent, car payments, and bills. I recently graduated from Columbus College of Art and Design, which is not cheap, so I also have loan payments. I want to make Animator vs. Animation IV because it would make SO many people happy, but now that I’m grown up, time is literally money. I’m predicting that this film will take 300-400 work hours, since the third one took 325 hours. Since the fan base is so big, I decided to let those who want number four help make it happen.
WHERE IS THE MONEY GOING?
I promise that all of your donations will go into the production of this film. And I assure you I am qualified to be asking this much. This is not your ordinary stick figure animation that teenagers will make over the summer for fun. This is professional level motion graphics, animation and live action compositing, with the inclusion of stick figures as a means to mimic the spirit of the teenaged animator. Once the project is funded, I will set the funds in a separate account and only pay myself as I work, by the hour. Any extra funds will go into post production, including film festival fees, etc.
WHAT ARE STRETCH GOALS?
The official definition:
A stretch goal is a funding target set by the project creator beyond the original Kickstarter goal. Stretch goals as a term and a practice emerged from the Kickstarter community as a way for creators to “stretch” beyond the initial, official goal of the Kickstarter project and raise more money (and often make cooler stuff!). Funds are collected whether stretch goals are met or not, as long as the project has met its Kickstarter funding goal.
I’ve estimated that 10k will allow me to work part time on AvA4 for a year, while also doing freelance work on the side. The more stretch goals I reach, the less I’ll have to rely on freelance projects and the more time I can devote to AvA4! This will truly be a gauge of how many people want to see it.
REWARDS
Here are some incentives to back this project. Every reward includes the rewards above it.
- $5 – HD versions of Animator vs. Animation (everything you see on YouTube is based on a source file that is 550×400 pixels. I will remaster them to be 1080p)
- $10 – BEHIND THE SCENES ACCESS. I’ll release a video every one or two weeks explaining my process and showing progress. This is education you can’t get at school because a lot of techniques I came up with myself.
- $15 – YOUR NAME IN THE CREDITS.
- $20 – The original .FLA files of Animator vs. Animation 1, 2, and 3. If you have access to Adobe Flash, you can pick through the source files for your own reference. I’ve denied many requests for access to these files in the past, but now I’m opening it up.
- $30 – A SIGNED POSTER designed by me. It’s got a retro pixel art look to it.
- $75 – AN OFFICIAL T-SHIRT designed by me. Also with the retro pixel art look.
- $100 – CAMEO APPEARANCE. Your name and/or photo will be somewhere in the animation. Maybe a photo in the Photos Folder or iPhoto, a profile picture in the animator’s Facebook, or a contact photo. Definitely bragging rights.
- $250 – ONLINE VIDEO CHAT. Using Skype, Google Hangout, or ooVoo, you can ask me about anything, show me any of your work, or just chat for as long as you want, or until it gets awkward.
- $1,000 – SPECIAL THANKS. You’ll get a special place in the credits as well as a “Special Thanks” credit on IMDb.
- $5,000 – EXECUTIVE PRODUCER. You’ll get an even more special place in the credits as well as your own credit on IMDb. I’ll throw in a personal random gift sent to your door.
- $10,000 – “PRODUCED BY” You are the person that singlehandedly funded my project. I am eternally grateful to you. It’ll be like “animated by Alan Becker” – fade in, fade out – “produced by ______”. You’ll also get your own credit on IMDb. And I’ll send a personal random gift to your doorstep.
Here’s a link to my IMDb page so you know what I’m talking about.
http://www.imdb.me/alanbecker
Apparently, someone with IMDb authority registered Animator vs. Animation as a short film and listed me as the author. I didn’t know about this until a few months ago. A separate person registered Animator vs. Animation 2 and 3, and created a new Alan Becker. So I had to go through the complicated process of merging the two Alan Beckers.
As soon as Animator vs. Animation IV gets approved by a film festival, it is eligible for inclusion on IMDb.
RISKS AND CHALLENGES
Even though this animation series has received 218 million views, the amount of people I can actually reach out to with my current social network is much smaller. I have only 10,000 YouTube subscribers, 1,000 likes on Facebook, 300 Twitter followers. The challenge is being able to get the word out to all the people that have seen these animations and would like to help make the fourth one possible.
I also know that a huge chunk of my fans are too young to own a credit card. I hope they have nice parents. 🙂
