Week 1 Update!
Wow. Just one week into our Kickstarter campaign and we’re almost halfway to our goal. Daoud and I are truly humbled.
In all honesty, this whole process can be a bit exhausting. About a year ago Daoud and I sat down to start writing this film, and in the time since we’ve been through a re-write, storyboarding, location scouting, casting and have started to put together our production team. And, on top of that, we spent a good three months preparing for the Kickstarter campaign http://kck.st/sCw92g. I’ve learned more about social media during this time than I ever thought I would: and this for a film with a theme about the dangers of spending too much time plugged in! Then again, there are some aspects to social media that are so worthwhile and are helping to connect people in very positive ways, and Kickstarter is definitely one of them.
The hardest part of the Kickstarter project is accepting that our efforts are all or nothing: If we don’t reach our goal, we can’t collect any of the money that has been pledged. Then it’s back to the drawing board. But that is also why we’ve always focused on how we need to hustle and plan to be successful, and not have the mentality of “ trying to be successful”. As a great Jedi master once said, “Do or do not. There is no try”.
So, with that, let me reiterate how humbled we are by your support thus far, it’s been absolutely amazing. Kickstarter itself has even given us some recognition (we are featured on their “Discover” page: http://tinyurl.com/43zuhpu), and our story has led to a possible writing opportunity for another project. Our team has also been working to think outside the box daily to keep our content fresh and new. And we are proud of our self-conceived Instagram campaign, that has our protagonist Jabari taking photos and revealing his backstory, which has been a really cool experiment. Even the ESPN podcast I did earlier this week about being the voice of their “30 for 30” series was timely, as they graciously allowed me to speak about the film http://bit.ly/uaqDp7.
Week one, by our standards, has been a rousing success. But there’s still more to do, and we are very very hungry! Our Kickstarter goal may be reached at the end of this month, but there remains a lot of work ahead and our drive will not rest until we see “…The Harder They Fall” projected on large screens nationwide. Then everyone can sit back, watch with a sense of pride and say “Yeah…I am a part of this.”
Peace
Dahkil Hausif
Sunshowah Films
