Edison: Adventures in Power
A$34,417
of $7,500 targetyrs ago
Successful on 8th Feb 2013 at 12:00AM.
We're seeking $7,500 to construct, animate and release a 3-minute stop-motion pilot episode of Edison: Adventures in Power.
The Concept
We've all heard of Thomas Edison. He invented loads of stuff. Like electrical power and contributions to other advances for the car battery, recorded music and motion pictures.
He was also a bit of a dick, a Tesla-hating, self aggrandising douche who knew his way around a sharp tailored suit (inch cuffs, Texas tie, uncomfortable levels of starch).
Our Edison series will be based on the facts - but spiralled out of control, exaggerated scientific extrapolations from the era, and lies for your entertainment. We'll concentrate more on the failures, villainous capers and plain weird moments... I'm not even going to go into the time he fired x-rays into his own eyeball.
Edisons main goal is to belittle people, hate on Tesla, and get a Nobel prize.
So in the pilot we will set up the world of Edison, introduce his poor armless assistant Clarence and explore his ventures into profiteering from science... mainly we'll explore how he electrocuted an elephant to prove a point. Classic dick move.
And who doesn't want to see an elephant explode in stop-motion?
The Funding
We were lucky enough to raise $7,500 in the opening 24 hours of our campaign, as a result we triggered $22,500 in funding from ScreenWest. All money raised from here on in (i.e. above the $30,000) will be channeled towards making more characters and bigger and better sets in preparation for a series of Adventures in Power we hope to launch later in the year.
The Form
We produce work in stop-motion animation with latex puppets. Each of the characters is carefully sculpted in clay, moulded, then baked in latex with a wire armature and dressed in miniature costumes. We build intricate sets of pine and bolsa and love, with miniature props for our characters to live in.
We film in 1s, that is to say we shoot 25 frames a second, moving the characters ever so slightly to create a moving image.The work is long and completely annoying. You can see how it's done at a Studio Tour or a Personal Tour of the studio.
The Team
Pierce Davison has been animating stop-motion puppets for 10 years. He has completed over 60 minutes of animation for ABC, SBS, Channel V and Nickelodeon. His films have featured at over 80 international festivals and has been a finalist at Tropfest, the Dendy Awards, the IF Awards and has won prizes around the world.
Supporting Pierce in this project will be his long-term producer Jacob Fjord, the amazing voice artist James Magnus, editor extraordinaire Merlin Cornish from Siamese, seamstress with the mostess Dimity Magnus and the talented storyboard artist Anne Barnetson.
You can find our work at youtube.com/davisonbros
Find out more about what we're up to at facebook.com/davisonbros
Get infrequent tweets at twitter.com/davisonbros
or view a website we haven't updated since 2008 at www.davisonbros.com
A Personalised “Thank You” Image. Incorporating the lead puppet and a personal message – don't be surprised if the "thank you" is in the form of an insult.
9 chosen
Est. delivery is Dec 12
A copy of the completed film on DVD (or Digital copy). We'll post you a copy of the final film on DVD (or get a Digital version to you) and chuck in a compilation DVD too. Reward includes: + A Personalised “Thank You” Image.
26 chosen / 274 available
Est. delivery is Jul 13
Your own Element included in the Lab*. We’ll name an element after you (such as “Bradeon” or "Angelinium") and pop it on Edison’s shelves. We’ll send you a photo (in case you can’t see it in the film) and when the film is done, we’ll send you the bottle. Reward includes: + A Personalised “Thank You” Image. + A copy of the completed film on DVD (or Digitally). * We've got some more bottles so we're able to provide some more of these rewards, sorry we weren’t able to add them at the same rate.
1 chosen / 49 available
Est. delivery is Mar 13
Invitation to a Studio Open Day. You'll be invited to an open day at the studio. We'll open the doors and let you all get up close to the sets, the characters and let you go behind the scenes. Pierce and Jacob will be there to take you through the animation process and will let you get hands on at an animation station where you can try your hand at stop-motion animation. Reward includes: + A Personalised “Thank You” Image. + A copy of the completed film on DVD (or Digital copy).
15 chosen
Est. delivery is Mar 13
Personal Studio Tour Spend an hour with Pierce one-on-one in the studio asking all sorts of personal and probing questions, find out what you want to know about stop-motion animation first hand. For out-of-towners we'll give the same experience through the power of Skype. Reward includes: + A Personalised “Thank You” Image. + A copy of the completed film on DVD (or Digital copy). + Exclusive Invitation to Studio Open Day.
5 chosen / 15 available
Est. delivery is Mar 13
Invitation to Craft Workshop Pierce will hold 3 intimate 2 hour workshops: Making Characters, Building Sets and Using Materials. You'll be able to choose the workshop of your choice and you'll gain the skills to start making your own animations. Attendees must be 15+. Reward includes: + A Personalised “Thank You” Image. + A copy of the completed film on DVD (or Digital copy). + Exclusive Invitation to Studio Open Day.
6 chosen / 9 available
Est. delivery is Mar 13
Be an Intern Spend a week in the studio helping out. Sure this is us getting you to pay us for the privilege of working for us, but how often do you get to say you helped make a stop-motion animation. Reward includes: + A Personalised “Thank You” Image. + A copy of the completed film on DVD (or Digital copy). + Exclusive Invitation to Studio Open Day.
1 chosen / 4 available
Est. delivery is Mar 13
Be a Voice We'll take you into the recording studio and give you the opportunity to voice one of the minor characters in the animation Edison: Adventures in Power. Reward includes: + A Personalised “Thank You” Image. + A copy of the completed film on DVD (or Digital copy). + Exclusive Invitation to Studio Open Day.
1 chosen / 1 available
Est. delivery is Mar 13
Your own Element included in the Lab. We’ll name an element after you (such as “Willenium” or "Kateon") and pop it on Edison’s shelves in the film. We’ll send you a photo of it (in case you can’t see it in the film) and when the film is done, we’ll send you the bottle as a momento. Reward includes: + A Personalised “Thank You” Image. + A copy of the completed film on DVD (or Digital copy).
50 chosen / 0 available
Est. delivery is Mar 13
Associate Producer Credit We'll take you to breakfast and discuss the film. You can tell us your ideas and give us script notes and we'll nod politely and take notes. Of course you can also take your pick of the other rewards, you're an Associate Producer god dammit.
3 chosen / 0 available
Est. delivery is Feb 13