This project will only be funded if at least $80,000 is pledged by .
Pitfall Paradise is the saga of the NWO's estranged father/son duo, Juno and Jakobi Benza, the true harbingers of all things criminal.
About this project
Note: If you see the term "trailer" used, that's our throw-around slang for "short film", so understand you're investing in a stand-alone FILM, no matter the length. Thank you for this understanding!
If you've got questions, we've got answers. Consider this a FAQ section for all intents and purposes.
Q: What is Pitfall Paradise?
A: Pitfall Paradise is a concept we hope to turn into an animated television show through breaking our piggy banks open, collecting coins from our couch cushions, and the support of backers like you.
Q: What is the premise of the show?
A: Establishing that Earth had a serious overpopulation/overpollution issue to contend with, the New World Order (NWO) built a large device that would help clean out the prisons and thrift stores on Earth simultaneously! Surely dumping the worst criminals on the planet into an isolated trash-laden prison world called Core Cast would prove to be a great idea with no long term ramifications.
Over the years, Core Cast was affectionately renamed Pitfall Paradise by the population and began to establish it's own broken but functional economy, establish schools (run by criminals), and implement its own multi-tiered government to oversee all aspects of life. The plan seemed to work on used tissue paper, but things quickly went south with multiple factions popping up all over the convict-populated planet. Since the trip is one-way, not a single inmate has ever escaped this eternal prison, and things just begin to fester and get worse for the more peaceful citizens. Crime is glorified, even escalated to celebrity status. Criminals are Hollywood icons, household names, and even write their own books or star in movies. Things are quite upside down in Core Cast.
Q: What have you done and what are you planning on doing?
A: Pitching a show to a network isn't that difficult. You simply have to hold something in your hands worth showing. Heck, in most cases you don't even need that! Writers, as we're told, are a dime a dozen in the industry. To really stand out, you need a bit more than a screenplay to get a ball rolling. This is where people typically get a proof of concept or a pilot made up. Well, here's the thing: like everyone else in a down economy, we're a little short on cash; however, we did have a little stored away in our secret stash. With these limited funds, we had to turn a simple idea into a marketing monster. If we were going to make it big in the business, we didn't want to go toe-to-toe with a network without a gang backing us up. We needed to amass an ARMY! So, we gathered around one night and pooled all our money together, went on Deviant Art, found a handful of talented artists deserving of the spotlight, and did a little hand-shaking.
Not only did we have commissions made in the effort to help Deviant Artists get some exposure, we also found a local music guru, named Spencer Hutchison (with vocals by IsaBella Goakey) with the skill to lay down beats that fit the theme of our show PERFECTLY.
Here are a few tracks we're going to have on the album later this year...
More songs & samples: http://www.pitfallparadise.com/#!music/xf3xh
Once we had the commissioned art and the music, we needed to figure out how to make this pitch package REALLY take on a life of its own. After brainstorming, we realized the best course of action was to use crowd-funding through Kickstarter to help showcase the talent behind us even further.
Studio Stray Dog
If we were going to use Kickstarter and the help of the masses, we needed to make sure we had everything lined up ready to knock down. We had to have an animation studio backing us, ready to take the money when we succeeded. After a great deal of phone calls, emails, snail mail, door-knocking and ultimately Google searching, we were lucky enough to come across Studio Stray Dog. Their style matched the theme of Pitfall Paradise so closely that it almost felt too good to be true. Following the animation studio, we decided to do a lot of grass-roots work with getting the word out to the people who matter most: potential fans! Finding people to follow you is as simple as telling them the truth and by going into a project with no intention of actually making money off the initial investment. In the end, it honestly SHOULD be about entertaining, and that's very difficult for some individuals to pick up on when starting a big project and approaching the public.
Naseer Pasha, animator and one of the creative directors of Studio Stray Dog, has dedicated himself to his craft for many years. His studio is made up of 10 members is growing. Rest assured that they mean business."
For the photos that accompany me, I think a good way to do it is get rid of all the photos there except the commissions I did for you. As for the photo next to my name, you can use that drawing instead of me pulling out my hair.
Voice Actors
As far as voice actors are concerned, we have always wanted to use a blend of veteran voice actors primarily, with a few modern-day non-union members to fill in the gaps. We do not want to stifle creativity, so we really only chose voice actors based on internal discussions regarding who our "dream team" would be. We are going to go by personal preference the best we can, but while some voice actors are more than happy to commit based on a few conversations, others wish to see a finished product before agreeing to come on board. We do not blame those voice actors, as we will get to our goals, and we will do right by all parties involved. At this time we have gotten the following voice actors to commit, assuming funding is reached:
You may remember them as being voice actors on the english dub of Tenchi Muyo! We are exceedingly proud to present...
Petrea Burchard
KT Vogt
Matt K Miller
*Those of you familiar with those names should be excited at the synergy they will bring to the project*
We are also going to be in talks with Ian Sinclair and Johnathan Brooks about voicing Markol and Juno, if they are interested when it is time to produce.
Q: Can you cut to the chase already?
A: We'll make this quick and to the point: animation isn't cheap. You're not going to find a studio that will do work for free, especially when you're making a project as risky as this one. A show about criminals? It doesn't sound like the most marketable story idea to these softer networks. We have, however, fine-tuned this baby to be as marketable as possible, while still maintaining a large degree of human drama/romance blended with crime, action, and comedy. We call this Frankenstein genre hybrid a "crime-comedy." Be honest with yourself for a second. You love CSI, Law and Order, and NCIS, but you also love to laugh at sophomoric humor contained in Family Guy, Simpsons, and Archer. That's what you're buying into when you back Pitfall Paradise...but you're going to get a good deal of everything mixed together at the right degree.
Q: What's this going to cost me?
A: For $50,000, Studio Stray Dog has signed on to animate a 4 minute trailer/short-film/proof of concept. This project will show you all the great things you can expect from a season of Pitfall Paradise: action, comedy, drama, professional voice acting, and exclusive music made specifically for the show. This will give you the basics of what we have to offer, and it will give us the ammunition needed to go before the suits at the networks and pitch the show...these totals also reflect the Kickstarter fees, and the voice actor compensation.
For $100,000-120,000 the studio will create a 7-minute short film. This will be a self-contained story, but also feature a lot of other sub-plots and segments conjoined into one.
For $150,000-200,000 the studio will create a, straight up, 11-minute pilot, and the prequel/set up to the show. The sky is the limit after that, but we would need to look at expanding our animator count significantly. With an 11 minute pilot, we wouldn't even have to pitch the show to the networks. They would come to us, and it's a guaranteed 2 season gig....trust us, we may be a little bias, but the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. While it is true we have received several offers, we absolutely want to do this Kickstarter first as a grand audition to the world, and help all those that have gotten us this far.
Prizes
You can find more about the prizes on the right, but here are a few images (mockups) of things we'll be offering:
Closing Word...
We want to deliver you a finished product sooner, rather than later. With that in mind, we will focus on the 4 minute trailer for the time being, and set a stretch goal of $100-135K for a 7 min short-film. The more money the Kickstarter brings in, the sooner we can get rewards to people (even shortening the longer reward delivery deadlines)...aside from the voice actors and the artists, none of us will receive even a PENNY of profit from the total. We are not desperate, because we know the project will succeed no matter the obstacles in our way. Even if it takes us multiple Kickstarters to make that happen, we are in this for the long haul....but now that you're here, why not get your name on something great before it really takes off?
Whether or not you want to back the project boils down to essentially the following: (1) Review the Kickstarter, (2) Review the Site, (3) Make a decision if you want to see this show on TV. It's literally that simple. If its not for you, that's no sweat; it's not for everyone. We just want to help the artists make something great, and hopefully entertain you with something new! The best part about Kickstarter is, it's all-or-nothing. If you back the project, and we don't hit the goal, you get your money back. If we do make the goal, you get the show. It's really win-win for all involved.
At the end of the day, it probably doesn't hurt that this team is made up, predominantly, of military veterans (some of whom are disabled). Funding a project run by veterans that funds art? That's the world I want to live in.
For more details on this aspiring show, go to www.pitfallparadise.com
So back us, especially if you want to see any of the following:
-The largest gang war in animation history
-Veteran voice actors working together to create a familiar, but new, cast of nitwits, vagabonds, and ne'er-do-wells...
-Talented artists and animators breaking their fingers to bring you a level of detail that is lost nowadays
-Towns/Mayors forming their own hapless bands of criminals to wage war on other mayors/towns...its literally City vs City! Town vs Town!
-Some crazy stuff that will make people in the next room scream over: "What are you WATCHING in there!?"
-Us succeed at entertaining you. Rock on~
Risks and challenges
While there are risks with every project, this one takes into account all shipping/funding issues ahead of time, and we have set aside $10k from our own pockets to ensure all overflow or unexpected costs of rewards are taken care of.
The reason some rewards will take longer to get to you is both production time, and our dedication to provide EVERY SINGLE PERSON that helps us in one way or another a just reward. If problems come up with the animation production, rest assured Studio Stray Dog has had plenty of experience solving them. Our rep is on the line with a great number of people (some of great influence)...we aren't going to go down without a fight!
If we succeed on this first Kickstarter, Studio Stray Dog will start storyboards in August, as they are currently finishing up prior jobs until then. Please take this into consideration before backing. We will use the gap between the Kickstarter's end and the beginning of storyboards to work on rewards that are able to be made/shipped this year.
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Have a question? If the info above doesn't help, you can ask the project creator directly.