Blokes

Well, it’s been a while since our last update, but we did film the episodes; we didn’t steal our backers’ money — the production and postproduction took much longer than we expected, but it all should be done soon. The funding took us all the way through production, but for post-production everyone has been basically working for free and putting in time whenever they could, which has made it go slower than we wanted. It also means since we were focusing on finishing the episodes we weren’t really focusing on keeping the website updated — we’ll be better about that in the future, and there should be an update coming soon including a special thanks to our donors.

If you’re a backer, you can check our Kickstarter page for a new update with some more specific information about your rewards.

You can also follow our progress on Facebook or on Twitter.  Our Facebook includes almost 200 photos from the set.

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Well, it’s been a while since the last update, but a lot of things have been happening. The biggest news is that we’re scheduled to start filming Episodes 1 and 2 on January 28th. If all goes well, we’ll wrap filming on February 6 (though it’s possible we may need a few pickup shots), and then… well, then comes postproduction, which we expect to take four to six weeks, so if all goes well we’re looking at a March premiere. Incentives for Kickstarter donors should be coming in late February or early March.

There’ve been a few changes in the cast and crew. Due to scheduling issues, one of our principal characters has been recast; Margaret will now be played by Anthony Martelli. We’re excited about what he’s bringing to the character, and looking forward to working with him. Also, we now have a production staff so the same people don’t have to try to act in the show and produce and direct it. Blokes is now a co-production with the Mental Eclectic, to be directed by Angela Tafoya. The producer, AD, DP, and other important roles will also be filled by Mental Eclectic members.

Meanwhile, we’ve been working hard on polishing the show… rehearsing, getting accent coaching, location scouting, and otherwise making sure the production is going to be the best that we can make it. Our budget (as generously provided by our Kickstarter donors — thanks again!) is going mostly toward props, costumes, and locations — our single largest expenditure may end up being the restaurant location we need for Episode 2, though we’re still keeping an eye open for a cheaper location so we’ll have more money to spend on postproduction and other aspects.

After the episodes are finished, we intend to enter them in festivals and contests and pitch them to various prominent producers and networks. Regardless of the results, we plan to film the rest of Season One late in 2012.

Below are some photos from one of our rehearsals; we’ll have much more to show you after production starts next week!

From left to right: T. K. Sandal, Angela Tafoya, Craig Wilson, Read MacGuirtose, Nora Novak, Erik Johnson, Ken Ellis

Director Angela Tafoya speaks at a Blokes rehearsal. Also pictured: David Sivits, T. K. Sandal

A rehearsal for Blokes. Left to right: Craig Wilson, Read MacGuirtose, Nora Novak

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Hey, sorry the site was down for a few days. To be honest, we’ve been kind of neglecting the site lately because we’ve been too busy with the show, and we didn’t notice the domain name had expired. It’s all back up now, though, and it’s well past time we made an update as to what’s been going on. So expect a major update on Monday!

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Originally posted: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/689802380/blokes-a-comedy-series/posts/116631

Awesome news…we are 100% funded! This after a crazy final 36 hours that saw new backers, increased amounts from current backers, and a big donation pooled together from hometown family and friends. I can’t tell you how excited we all are to have made it to this point!

I’d like to again express my undying appreciation to all those who backed the project or helped support it in some way over the past month. We’ve received a ton of constructive feedback on how to take the project forward, and are now on schedule to begin shooting the first two episodes in the coming weeks.

During that time we’ll be putting our newly founds finances to good use. New lights and sound equipment are top priority, and we’ll also now be able to nail down better space, costumes, props, etc.  The way we hope to shoot Blokes is quickly becoming a reality!

We’ll keep the Kickstarter updates flowing when significant strides have been made, and we’ll be in contact with those who have a physical reward (DVDs, Scripts, Posters, etc.) in the coming months. If you have any questions/comments feel free to send us a message. Make sure you stop by the Blokes website to keep up with all the latest media and blog postings as well.

Thanks once again for everything, exciting times!

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We’re in the home stretch for funding BLOKES, with just over 36 hours left on the clock. That means last call for any donations! If we haven’t reached our goal by 11 AM Wednesday morning we won’t receive a cent of what’s been contributed by all of our awesome backers. So if you planned on helping out with the project at some point, now is the time!

There’s some ground to cover, but we’re still very hopeful to reach our goal as family, friends, and many other supporters have continued to come through for us throughout the Kickstarter effort. We want to thank everyone for all the help and feedback provided over the past month. Now we’re asking for one final push to reach our goal, now more than ever any help we can get means the world.

To shake things up ever so slightly, we’ve added an extra bonus to the mix. Anyone who donates at or above the $24 tier (wouldn’t let me add to the $25 one!) will receive the entire first season of BLOKES (when it’s complete) on DVD, in addition to the already offered DVD of the first two episodes set to arrive later this year. That goes for anyone, which of course includes those who have already generously backed the project at that amount or higher.

Again, a huge thanks for all the support; now let’s finish it out strong!

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So, as you might have noticed in the link bar, we have a FAQ now. Of course, if you did notice that already, that would render this post basically purposeless. So we’re going to assume for now that you didn’t notice.
Anyway, to see the FAQ, you can go ahead and click on the FAQ link in the link bar. Or you can just click here. Or you can manually type in the URL "http://blokesshow.com/?page_id=114". But that would be kind of tedious and pointless.

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So, as of today, our Kickstarter campaign has officially launched! (And when I say “today”, I mean the day I backdated this post to, the post having been made on Thursday. Uh, yeah; we probably should have done this earlier.) If you’d like to take a look at it and possibly donate, and for some reason I can’t think of offhand don’t feel like clicking the link in the bar at the top of the page, you can click on the link here.

Or, you know, you can just click the link at the top of the page that says “Kickstarter Page”. That works too.

There’ll be a FAQ coming later today with more information. (And by “later today”, I mean Thursday, the day when this post was actually posted, not the day it’s backdated to.)

(We won’t backdate any more posts after this, we promise. Probably.)

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