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?
I love you and I want to have your babies.
If you reach the $100,000 mark will the next season have longer episodes? (or more per season?)
Great job, guys! Keep them coming. Have you thought about Kickstarter for fund raising?
FAQ updated with replies to current questions. Thanks, everyone!
Are there plans to release the DVD in Europe too (to be more precise in Germany)?
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.
When will the downloads be available?
I’ve got a group of old D&D mates I meet up with twice a year and the next meet is at the beginning of november in deepest darkest wales where there’s no internet…….. I’d love to be able to buy the downloads of the episodes and take them along
FAQ updated.
How many episodes will be in the first season?
Seven.
Where is the series filmed? Who does the music for the series and are you in need of any mandolin players? All questions aside, we truly love your work and plan to support you for a very long time. Brian Lewis and Christian Doyle are a joy to watch, chemistry like there’s is rare anymore. Let’s not forget the rest of the cast and crew, truly thank you all.
The series is filmed primarily around Seattle, although we did some traveling. The music is by Steve Wolbrecht, who also scored The Gamers: Dorkness Rising, Dead Camper Lake, and who wrote many of the themes for The Gamers. We may well need a mandolin player once the party reaches Cobalt Springs, but that’s a season or two away. Thanks!
“detailed analysis of viewing statistics reveals that the online audience loses attention at about the five-minute mark” I wonder what kind of online media was taken into account. Although “numbers never lie” they have been known to “not tell the whole truth”. I have doubts about how much context surrounds aforesaid “analysis”. Watching any given vlog, I myself give it at most 5 min till I hear something interesting. I daresay such an entertaining production as JourneyQuest commands a much longer attention span. Which is to say I can’t get enough of it
I’d welcome longer and more episodes and I’m definitely buying the DVD as it comes out. Many thanks to all who have worked on this!
P.S.: I’d love to see Emily Olson in the next season, even if it was just a small role.
In this case, we’re using the “Insight” options for our own videos on YouTube, specifically their “Hot Spots” graph, which measures aggregate attention for each video. JourneyQuest tends to hover between the 90th and 95th percentile, which is totally excellent, until attention starts to drop at five minutes. Some of that may be that people are leaving in droves as soon as the credits go up (which is understandable, but sad) and maybe YouTube can’t process that steep a slope.
Will we be able to see other Meet the Cast interviews? I find them informative and entertaining.
Also, I look forward to the DVD collection!
We have many more interviews to share. Just need to find time to get them uploaded!
Was the story and characters of JourneyQuest inspired by a D&D game that Matt Vancil, or any of the cast, crew, or production team played? If not, what inspired his characters and choice of plot?
Matt Vancil always has about fifty stories in his head at any given time. It’s more that his D&D games and his movies are all inspired from the same place—Matt’s imagination!
I love watching your videos! I have been following you guys since Dorkness Rising. I was wondering if you guys would ever be casting? I am an actor and a LARPER and would LOVE to be in your films/video’s/web series. Is there any way to audition/join?
Keep an eye on the Performer’s Callboard in Seattle. We generally post casting notices there.
Hey guys and greetings from Germany!
First of all: Amazing project! I thorougly enjoyed every single episode from acting to editing; great job!
But I have three small questions regarding finances on this project and I hope you don’t mind me asking
First of all … you speak about 30.000$ you spend on season one. Don’t get me wrong now, I certainly know that media productions are more hungry then starving orcs, but I was just basically asking myself where exactly that money went. I don’t ask for a table, just a generic direction – were actors paid? Was the crew paid? Did you have to buy or rent equipment?
I’d be curious…
Secondly, less heavy … with DVDs costing few dollars, but yet money, in production, I was wondering of those 14,90$ I’ll surely pay on season one, how much money eventually ends up at your’s and in the money pool for season two?
And last but not least: Say you guys reach 40.000$. Again, don’t get me wrong, I sure hope you can run the whole length, but let’s say it refinances season one, but does not reach a workable amount of money for a second season. Do you have a plan what’s going to happen?
Yes again: Amazing project! I really love what you guys are getting together here!
Like I said … just curious…
Greetings,
Thomas
Thomas — The season one budget covered food for cast and crew, props, set design, costumes, makeup, prosthetics, casting, location rentals, gear rentals, production insurance, transportation, DVD replication, web hosting and coding, and several days of lodging. Season two is more expensive because we insist on paying our incredible cast and crew next time, who volunteered over a month of their lives because they believed so strongly in the first season.
Second, up to the $30,000 mark, every bit of net revenue counts 100% toward the thermometer. After that we split net revenue between a season two earmark and the (not rich) producers who risked their own money on a film project that we’re giving away for free. For a $15 dollar DVD, our net per unit sold (pre disbursement) is between $4 and $11 dollars, depending heavily on whether it was purchased directly from us, through Amazon.com, or through a wholesaler. Expenses in this case include replication and packaging, payment processing, fulfillment, and shipping. So for a $10 net on a DVD sold, about $5 would go toward season two. This is still a much better per unit return that we’d ever see through a traditional distributor—in that case, we’d be lucky to get $.50 per DVD. (There’s also always the possibility that the producers who put in money this time will do so again for a second season, especially once they’re out of that $30,000 hole. But that’s the choice of individual producers, not the production.)
Last, even if we only reach $40,000 for season one, we believe that’s still enough success to find investors to make up the difference. We would rather maintain a steady growth and self-finance season two completely, since that increases the value of every dollar of net revenue by a factor of up to two. But even if we can only put in $40,000 of our own money to a second season, for example, with the difference made up by investors, that still means that our share of the revenue increases significantly, which allows us to keep chipping away each season at those budgets until we are self-financed. That’s the long-term goal—being truly sustainable, completely fan supported, and not reliant on money from multiple sources. (As an option of last resort, we can also shoot another forty-five minute season, although we really, really want to shoot a feature-length second season.)
Also, once we hit $30,000 on the thermometer and our season one revenues are split, we’ll still have a “Donate” button on the site that allows people to contribute at a one-to-one ratio to the second season. And that means that direct contributions will always count 100% toward our fundraising goals. Everything is a step toward becoming self-sufficient!
Does that make sense, or would more explanation help?
No, that does indeed answer my questions – thanks for taking your time to write that long and detailed answer. That was even more then I expected
Like I said, I was just curious what exactly ate up the money. Seeing that you paid for many things that in other projects of this size are just put into the hands of the other people involved, make-up or transportation for example, I can understand how the costs have summed up so quickly.
Most “no budget” fantasy movies I know over here in Germany, including our own, are not financed via crowd sourcing, but rather “crew sourcing” in a way. It might be safer bet I guess, but the potential of your method is huge and I really, really hope it’ll pay off!
Greetings,
Thomas
Forgive me if I missed this earlier but is there a date or approximate one for the DVD release. I would love to get a few in my hands for Christmas time. Thanks.
We’re aiming for March so that we can finish up all the extras, but if we can get it sooner we totally will.
First of all congrats and thanks for this gem of a journey … or is it a quest? The work you guys are doing is a testament to the real potential of webisodes, fantasy, and comedy (especially when their powers combine!). Anyway, my question is “Do you have any plans for merchandising of any kind? It seems like an obvious way to advertise and generate funds.” I for one would be honored and stoked to wear a JourneyQuest tee. Plus, the short nature of the episodes and quippy nature of the dialogue presents a nearly infinite mine of slogans (i.e. Try not to get your fail-blood on me or Lactomancer).
We do want to do merchandise. The challenge is learning how to do merchandise.
Salutations!
I was at your panel at PAX this year and while there I heard someone ask about ways to support beyond donation. The response was DVD sales, obviously, but also there was jocular talk of purchasing words in Orcish to use in future seasons. Is this a real thing and, if so, how do I do it?
Lots of love!!
-mi
That we are working on.
I discovered this wonderful show through Hulu quite by accident. I watched the first five episodes. When I went back and watched 6 & 7 they had put commercials breaks in the episodes. For a 6-8 minute episode this is kind of ridiculous. But, I figure you guys are getting a cut of that revenue, right? I hope so.
You can also watch commercial-free on YouTube. But we do appreciate the additional benefits that Hulu gives us.
Hey guys, I’m a huge fan of you guys. Gonna try and get you guys some support from up in Bellingham =D
Half of us live in Bellingham!
Can we have google checkout?
I would have donated, but I refuse to use paypal after the stunts they have pulled.
Google Checkout is worse. At least with Paypal it’s not run by a robot. (Regarding the Wikileaks freeze, at least Paypal finally released those funds. But we’re hoping to find a better long term solution for obvious reasons.)
Have you guys considered releasing a .torrent of the first season? I would certainly seed it for a long time.
Guess what we’re releasing later today?
I really hope those tattoos are real.
i want a mean henge shirt
Have you guys ever considered doing a send up of science-fiction gaming? I’d love to see a send up of the 40K universe in particular but maybe its just me.
Where can we find out more about Rilk and his band of orcs? Green skin never looked so good. And I thought Klingons were hot. Orc is the new sexah!