In a few short years crowdfunding has revolutionized funding for filmmakers and artists.
Puppeteers and puppet filmmakers alike have fully embraced the crowdfunding model and several impressive-looking puppetry-related films like An Attic Full of Puppets, I Am Big Bird and Cicada Princess have been funded in whole or in part by supporters on crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and IndieGoGo.
The latest in this string of impressive-looking projects to seek crowdfunding is Monster of the Sky by Sam Koji Hale.
Sam describes Monster of the Sky as a “clockwork sci-fi film of forbidden love and revenge, inspired by a 19th-century Lord Byron poem.” He intends to produce it using the same hybrid Bunraku-style puppetry/CG animation approach that was used in his last film, the award-winning Yamasong, which has played at film festivals around the world and enjoys a small cult following.
Prince puppet head and Helmet created for the puppet film Monster in the Sky.
Sam recently sat down with The Sci Fi Review podcast to talk about Monster in the Sky, his background in puppetry and why he’s making the film:
While I’ve had to adopt an informal policy of usually not promoting crowdfunding campaigns due to the sheer volume of requests that get sent in to PuppetVision (if I posted about every worthwhile campaign out there, crowdfunding puppetry is all I would be sharing here lately) I try to make exceptions for projects that seem a little bit special. I think you’ll agree that this is one of those.
In the interest of transparency, I should mention that Sam is a friend of mine. In addition to knowing each other for years through the online puppetry community, we’ve worked together a bit (I’ve helped out a bit with the Handmade Puppet Dreams film series, of which Sam is a Coordinator and Producer) and Sam will be talking about his work and puppetry in general in my own partially crowdfunded film, PuppetVision: The Movie. He’s a great guy and an amazing artist. Yamasong was one of the most original-looking puppet films that I’ve seen and I can’t wait to see this new work.
As of this writing, Monster in the Sky has raised almost $16,000 of the $25,000 it needs to be pledged in order to be made. As is the case with all projects on Kickstarter, if Sam falls short of his fundraising goal he won’t receive anything. So while I’m clearly biased, I hope you’ll support him and help make this film possible!
You can learn more about Monster in the Sky, see some really impressive conceptual art and discover the great perks that are available to supporters on Kickstarter.
