BLOG For me, Perf just seems to be a copy of Rincewind out of the discworld series by Terry Pratchett.
Rincewind was an obvious inspiration for the character, and this early into the show it’s easy to focus on the similarities. But as the story evolves over future episodes and seasons, the differences will become starkly apparent. Perf is his own character, and is on a reluctant collision course with world-shattering destiny. But if he ever starts escorting around a rich tourist with animated luggage, you can call us copycats.
Why is this free when it obviously cost a pretty penny to make? Where’s the cash come back from?
We plan to pay for JourneyQuest with direct fan support, direct DVD sales, digital downloads, and more. We could spend countless dollars and hours fighting what the web does best—making perfect copies of our work—or turn those strengths to our advantage. Then it just depends on the market.
If enough people want to see a second season, they’ll find ways to support us, whether that means becoming a contributor, sharing the film with their friends via BitTorrent, translating it into other languages, or screening the film at regional conventions. By self-distributing, we also guarantee that a much larger percentage of every sale actually goes to pay for the movie, rather than lining the pocket of some third party.
So you’re going with fan funding? Aren’t people tired of that by now?
Partially, yes, we are counting on fan funding. Crowdsourcing works incredibly well when you reach critical mass. And we hear you on the “finance my project” exhaustion. That’s why we went ahead and made season one first. That way, you get something real to experience from the very beginning, rather than the vague promise that eventually we’ll (maybe) get our project made.
I greatly hope that you guys get the financing to keep this running.
So do we! At this point, it’s all about getting a big enough audience for the show. With 10,000 core fans, we could keep going indefinitely. With 20,000 we could do it with style. Either way, we’d be completely independent of networks and studios.
So with two eps. out on Monday, is next Monday going to be ep. 3? Wondering which days to check so I can plan lunch breaks around it.
New episodes will launch on Tuesdays until we run out, which will incidentally be the end of our season. We have seven full episodes shot and ready to go!
If you reach the $100,000 mark will the next season have longer episodes? (or more per season?)
We’ll be able to do a significantly longer season for $100,000. We’ll likely keep episode length about the same, mainly because detailed analysis of viewing statistics reveals that the online audience loses attention at about the five-minute mark. (Our core fans, of course, stick around through the credits for the outtakes.)
If fan-funding, DVD sales, and other revenue sources go substantially over $100,000 for the first season, we can make season two even longer! We have another thirteen episodes written and ready to go, plus many more outlined.
Where does the $100,000 go?
First, we have to pay for season one, which had a tiny budget by Hollywood standards, but still made a massive, $30,000+ hole in our pockets. After that’s paid back we can direct net revenues toward a second season.
Can we pre-order the DVD? And how much will it cost?
Not yet. We’re still setting up accounts with Amazon—they don’t like their Marketplace sellers to do pre-orders, but we hope to have a solution figured out soon.
The DVD will be $14.99, with as many special features as we can squeeze on.
Where will the DVD be available?
The DVD is available now through our partner storefront, www.strowlers.biz, as well as paizo.com and amazon.com.
Will the DVD be shippable from within Europe? I have run in to the frustration of wanting to buy merch of a webcomic and finding out that shipping from the us to Europe was actually more expensive than the book I wanted to buy.
We’ll do the best we can to make the DVD available everywhere. We’ll be shipping through Amazon Fulfillment, which has the lowest rates around. However, an even better option for Europe might be to ask your local game store to stock it. They’ll be able to get it wholesale through Paizo Publishing. Amazon also has decent international shipping rates.
When will the downloads be available?
Since JourneyQuest is Creative Commons licensed, you can use a service like http://keep-tube.com/ to download the episodes from YouTube and share with others as you like. If you still want to pay us for those downloads, just hit the “Donate” button and put in what you think is fair.
Have you thought about Kickstarter for fund raising?
We considered Kickstarter, but ultimately decided to run own own platform, based on Paypal for the moment and Amazon’s micro-payments processing in the future. If you take a look at the upper left corner of the site, you can see the widget that’s the core of our Kickstarter-like campaign. By doing it ourselves, we’ll save some money, be able to include more information, and have the flexibility to run the campaign for a longer period, which a goal of this size needs!
I love you and I want to have your babies.
Thanks?
Few things. Comments, and then I have questions/suggestions.
Firstly, I’m happy you guys were finally able to release this. I remember meeting Brian at the 2010 Norwescon in Seattle, and him talking about this. I had been waiting for an incredibly long time to see this, and my biggest disappointment is how short the whole thing was.
Second, the costume design is amazing. The orcs are the best orcs I’ve seen that aren’t CGI-developed. I loved all the costumes in general, and really appreciate how Perf’s robes are dirty. It’s subtle but still nice. Buy your costume designers some sandwiches.
Now, with funding… how about some merchandise? I totally want a Meat Hedge shirt, for one, and I want you guys to get the funding you need so we can grab ourselves some Season Two goodness.
So it boils down to this: Can we expect to see JQ Merchandise any time soon?
Yes! We’re just finishing up a big t-shirt deal!
Awesome! Let us know with who, when, and how much so I can wear my JQ shirts.
when’s the next episode coming out?
Once we shoot season two.
Hey JQ-Team,
after the fifth time watching episode 3, we still haven´t figured out the right pronouncing of the orcish dialog. Perf´s voice is not loud enough to understand his orcish completly.
We, my husband and I, wish to have the orcish lines, just for fun.
Greetings from germany, good job, we admire your work.
Apologies if you already know about this, but Hulu appears to have a playlist order problem with JQ; ep 3 is placed first, then the rest 1-2, 3-7. Hulu never fixes any playlist order problems reported by viewers AFAICT, so perhaps you as the source of the material might be able to fix it, to assist future viewers in avoiding confusion.
We’ll try…
Thanks for catching the problem!
I’m kind of lost. I stumbled on the series through checking out Dorkness Rising on IMDB. I’ve tried watching Episode 1,which starts with a female bard meeting some orcs. They speak of things which already happened, but I can’t find any background story or video of what they’re talking about. Am I missing something?
Yes. Keep watching – the flashback begins a few minutes in.
Any chance of subtitles/captioning on the DVD?
The DVD has subtitles in a number of languages!
Hi, guys! I am writing from Moscow. Thank you very much for the show, I’m waiting for a second season. You are really better, funnier and more talented than the Guild!
From Russia with love )
P. S. I’d like to order a shirt or poster, if you sell it.
Posters available right here: http://www.zazzle.com/zombieorpheus
Hope that doesn’t come off as snippy or anything, by the way. I realize you guys have a bit of a task, and it’d be kinda obnoxious for me to act self-entitled about it.