My first novel - Pyrotechnicon: Being a TRUE ACCOUNT of Cyrano de Bergerac's FURTHER ADVENTURES among the STATES and EMPIRES of the STARS, by Himself (dec’d); Englished from the French by Adam Browne - was published by Coeur de Lion in 2014. 

There was critical success ('A rich dessert of a novel, filled with finely crafted wit and adventure - Adam Browne has resurrected Cyrano in fine form. Delightful!' Greg Bear - Hugo and Nebula award-winning science fiction author) - but no one much read it. 

My father once said that I'm famous, just that no one knows it.

So  - I planned to make one of those book promo films - but didn't - then, years later, I did.

But it's not just a book promo. It's a short film with Cyrano de Bergerac played by David Tredinnick, and shot by Michael Wilkins, and makeup by Lou McLaren, and sound design by Livia Ruzic and music by Nicholas Kumashov - and on and on - it's a beautiful little film, about 10 minutes long at the mo; but it's not finished; it needs a scene with Cyrano in his 17th century spacegoing elepantship; it needs money.

Filmmaking is a dark and hideously powerful moneymagnet (fig. 1). 

It's just a little scene we're shooting, but it's going to cost heaps, no matter how we go about it. There'll be a set, an art director, there'll be lights from a hire company - there'll be editing and other post production - even at superlow mates' rates, the moneymagnet will grip hard.

Yeah, nah, it'll be great: we know what we're doing. Only danger is that I'll go over budget; in fact, I almost certainly will end up spending more than the crowdfund provides, but that's ok; I'll cover the difference.