s movie studios tighten their grip on development, Hollywood producers must search for creative ways to bring their ideas to life, and many see internet crowdfunding as the future of independent story development. Film and Video projects are the most successfully funded category on Kickstarter, with over 25,000 having raised more than $107 million dollars to date. Producer Kendrick Wallace is developing one such project, The Amazing Adventures of Victoria Clarke (http:\/\/www.victoriaclarkeadventures.com), as both a feature film and as an original series to be pitched to high-end content providers looking for tent-pole material for their networks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe successful crowdfunding of some very high-profile projects has empowered creative people with movie ideas to go directly to the audiences to get their stories told. I feel that ultimately it is more rewarding to interact directly with the people who are interested in your project. By having a dialog with fans of the genre, and by really listening to what they want, my hope is that they will feel invested personally in the success of the project and will be willing to support it by spreading the word in social media, and of course by contributing on funding sites such as Kickstarter,\u201d said Kendrick Wallace, Producer and Creator.<\/p>\n
Kendrick Wallace has been working in Hollywood feature films for the past 20 years, and has produced visual effects on numerous high-profile movie projects, most recently Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter\u00ae. This is his first attempt at developing a project using social media and crowd-sourced funding.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is important to me to set up a Kickstarter Campaign that has the greatest chance of success possible. For me, that means creating awareness and excitement with the fan base for this genre of movie. I\u2019ve been spending countless hours on social media spreading the word, but I\u2019m just one person and I can\u2019t do it all.\u201d<\/p>\n
In order to create exciting images that will fire up the fans, Ken turned to his peers in the visual effects community, and reached out to artists with an interest in steampunk stories and imagery. One of the first to help was award winning visual effects company Rodeo FX in Montreal, Quebec. (http:\/\/www.rodeofx.com)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is always hard to ask for favors, but I believe strongly in the potential of the project, and luckily people who see what I\u2019ve done so far immediately \u2018get it\u2019 and they are excited to help. That\u2019s how it was with Rodeo FX. I had worked with them on Abe Lincoln Vampire Hunter\u00ae, and I knew they had some amazing and talented artists there. The timing happened to be good for one of their top artists to do some work on Victoria between bigger projects.\u201d<\/p>\n
The result of these collaborations is a series of photos and conceptual art pieces that visually support the scripted material so that investors have a clear picture of Ken\u2019s creative vision for the project. Victoria Clarke tells the story of a female British agent, undercover in 1920s Hollywood as a B-Movie actress. The daughter of wealthy British industrialists, the independent and resourceful Victoria sets out on secret missions to destroy weapons being developed by powerful forces in post WWI Europe. The project has a fun, sexy and retro feel, with strong Steampunk and Dieselpunk influences.<\/p>\n
\u201cVictoria is a female cross between Batman\u00ae and Sherlock Holmes\u00ae, but set in Hollywood during the 1920s. She is playing at being a bad actress because she really has no intention of having a successful career in Hollywood–she\u2019s just hiding out. She has a family fortune and access to this amazing steampunk-style technology, but because of political enemies in Britain she can\u2019t return home. She is waging her own private battle against a brewing evil in Europe,\u201d Ken explains.<\/p>\n
As a filmmaker and science fiction fan, the concept of Victoria Clarke grew from Ken\u2019s love of movies from the golden age of Hollywood, as well as his fascination with the steampunk concept of alternative futurism. His goal was to combine the two genres into a classic adventure story that would showcase the best of both worlds. Victoria has a strong female lead, epic scale and Raiders of the Lost Ark\u00ae style action.<\/p>\n
The next stage in the Victoria Clarke is to prepare an informative and entertaining Kickstarter campaign site.<\/p>\n
“While I have been working on growing the social media audience through our website, Facebook and Twitter pages, I’ve also been taking a great amount of care to build a Kickstarter site with the right amount of information, entertainment, and rewards for contributors. It is important that people are excited about being a part of this project.”<\/p>\n
The Amazing Adventures of Victoria Clarke Kickstarter campaign is scheduled to go live in May 2013.<\/p>\n
If you would like to be notified about the latest Victoria Clarke developments email info(at)victoriaclarkeadventures(dot)com with the subject line KICKSTARTER.<\/p>\n
For more information about the Victoria Clarke project visit http:\/\/www.victoriaclarkeadventures.com.