When a simple little robot falls off his spaceship home he finds himself lost in a strange world. Encountering a young boy and girl, he finds companions on his epic quest to return home.
This is the story that the start-up company Mighty Treehouse want to bring to life in a full-feature 90-minute movie/series. Mighty Treehouse is a digital content creation and distribution company founded by Mickey Worsnup and world-class illusionist/really smart guy John Carlos Ynostroza.
They are teaming up with renowned visual FX and 3D artist Brandon Fayette (worked on Star Trek, Super 8, Cloverfield, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol) to kick-start this thing into existence.
But Mighty Treehouse is not some big-time studio fuelled by business-minded corporate CEOs who are constantly thinking about the bottom-line. These guys are artists who want to do what they love: create art.
The plan is to raise money on Kickstarter to fund the first 10 minutes, or what they’re calling the first episode. The money will go to employing 10 young artists to work on the episode, and to pay for a small office home base and their equipment. They’ve promised they won’t run off and buy a jet ski.
Each subsequent episode is supposed to raise money for the next. They have 9 episodes planned, each approximately 10 minutes, to combine into the 90-minute grand epic.
If the plan works, many more ‘seasons’ could be in the making.
It’s an alternative way to make a movie, circumventing the giant studios and the hassles that come with it. This way they get to create content with their (really talented) friends and generate something they’re truly proud of.
But it’s not selfish art. The beauty of this project is that those who donate over $250 get access to an exclusive R&D website where you will get to see the inner workings of the movie – and even give feedback on what’s working and what’s not!
Larger donations get a whole heap of awesome stuff like unique merchandise, a character modelled after you in the show and even a 3D version of you signed and framed!
Even smaller donations get you some pretty cool stuff like limited edition t-shirts and signed DVD sets of the series.
The real point-of-difference here is that this project only exists if the public want it to. A movie like this is the kind that studios dish out millions for. Their ethos is not about stroking some rich person’s ego to get them to invest; it’s about creating something that’s appealing to the public so that the average Joe donates and makes it happen. It’s even about letting the public in on the development process, to create the best show they can.
These guys are giving us access to their very inner workings and all we have to do is put our money on them.
Who knows, maybe those signed DVDs will pay for themselves and more when the show makes it big.
While the story itself does seem very Wall-E in style, it seems like it will be a pretty cool story, for geeks and non-geeks alike. But even if the story doesn’t appeal to you, I would support this project simply because…well…they seem really cool and I want them to make more for me to watch!
Make sure you watch the end of this vid – it’s pretty awesome!
[Via Kickstarter – DOME]