PRODIGY BOWLERS TOUR Camera 2 Campaign

Now that PRODIGY BOWLERS TOUR has moved to the Kansas City area, I am thrilled to provide coverage of the monthly Kansas City Open Youth Scholarship Bowling Tournaments that enable young bowlers to win SMART scholarship awards to help cover the cost of their future college education.

 

But as of right now, I only own one camcorder suitable for recording these events, so I'm only able to cover one of the Kansas City Open divisions each month. There are five divisions. What the KCO would like for me to do, and what I would like to do, is provide coverage of TWO of their divisions each month. Ideally, I think viewers of the show would like to see the Division I competition each month, and then I would like to rotate between Divisions II, II, IV, and V each month on a second show each month, so that all the kids bowling the Kansas City Open would have a chance to appear on the show.

 

But in order to achieve that, PRODIGY BOWLERS TOUR needs a second camcorder.

 

Also, to achieve the vantage point that PRODIGY BOWLERS TOUR viewers are used to seeing, we'll need a second platform upon which to set the second camera, so we can get the camera up high enough so that its view of the bowling pins is not blocked by the heads of the kids bowling.

 

Back in 2017, I ran a GoFundMe campaign to fund the purchase of the first camcorder and platform that we still use today on PRODIGY BOWLERS TOUR.  (Thank you!)  And now, I'm asking loyal PRODIGY viewers to step up and help fund the purchase of a second rig -- the camera, platform, and the peripherals that make up a portable kit.

 

Here's the detailed breakdown of what we need:

 

CAMCORDER:  Sony FDR AX-700.  The closest thing Sony makes to the camera we now use (it's no longer being made).

B&H price:  $1,898

 

BATTERY:  Sony NP-FV100A V-Series Rechargeable Battery Pack
B&H price:  $178

 

CAMERA BAG:  PortaBrace Compact Camcorder Case (Blue)

B&H price:  $151

 

TRIPOD:  Benro TAD27A Series 2 Adventure Aluminum Tripod

B&H price:  $134

 

PLATFORM:  Intellistage Lightweight 4' x 4' Folding Portable Stage Unit (w/32" legs)

StageDrop price:  $547

 

SHIPPING:  Some items will ship free, while others will not.  I'm budgeting $150 for shipping.

 

TOTAL OF ALL ITEMS:  $3,058
SALES TAX:  Approx $200

TOTAL OF EVERYTHING:  $3,258

 

Yes, I know, it's a big ask.

 

So what would you be getting for your contribution?  Well, for starters, you'd get the satisfaction of knowing that you would be helping to keep alive one of the most popular youth sports series that is produced exclusively for YouTube, and quite possibly the only such ongoing program dedicated exclusively to youth bowling.  To my knowledge, PRODIGY BOWLERS TOUR is the only regular series devoted to youth bowling anywhere in media, social or otherwise.  As it stands right now, if I can't get my hands on a second camera, the show will be forced to go to a one-show-a-month schedule during the bowling season.  (It used to be weekly, with as many as 36 shows each season.)  By adding a second camera and platform, we would be able to film TWO of the Kansas City Open's championship rounds each month and stagger their release to create TWO episodes of PRODIGY BOWLERS TOUR each month.

 

Because Kansas City area bowling centers are so busy with open play on Saturday afternoons, PRODIGY is not able to plant itself at one bowling center and just take over the place each Saturday afternoon like we did in suburban Atlanta, where a glut of bowling centers exist and plenty of lane beds are available for use.  In contrast, there's virtually a scarcity of bowling centers in the KC area, making it much harder to find a center that has 8 or 10 lanes it can give us each and every Saturday to stage our PRODIGY events.  That's why we've partnered with the KCO -- so we can keep doing the show, and keep bringing viewers out there in PRODIGYLAND a quality show.  We've just had to cut back on the frequency of episodes.

 

But given the amount of time and effort I put into producing each episode of PRODIGY (usually between about 35 and 40 hours editing each show), two shows a month feels about right to me.  But the simple truth is, since the KCO is where we'll be filming our PRODIGY episodes in the foreseeable future, with only one camera, we can only film one show a month.  The Kansas City Open wants me to expose more of their kids -- in all five divisions -- on the show, and that is what I'd like to do, too.  We can do it, but only by acquiring a second camcorder.

 

PRODIGY BOWLERS TOUR has grown from its humble beginnings in 2016 as a vehicle with which I was able to promote the youth leagues that I ran at Brunswick Zone Roswell (now Bowlero Roswell) in Roswell, Georgia.  The BrownswickBowling channel, which is the channel that hosts PRODIGY on YouTube, began as nothing more than a channel where I could post videos of me bowling.  Not surprisingly, the channel only had about 30 subscribers when the only content to see there was videos of me bowling.  But once PRODIGY BOWLERS TOUR began, the number of subscribers to the channel began to grow quickly.  From the show's launch in September, 2016 until Christmas that year, the subscriber base grew to 1,000.  Then a couple months later it was crossing the 2,000 threshold, and the growth kept continuing until the pandemic forced us to suspend production in the Spring of 2020.  Only now that I've moved to the Greater Kansas City area where I grew up have I returned to a commitment of making the show regularly once again.

 

PRODIGY BOWLERS TOUR and the BrownswickBowling channel now have over 19-thousand subscribers, and the channel has received nearly 9 million views.  I truly believe the doing of the show is a worthwhile endeavor, as it showcases young people in a positive light expressing their commitment and determination to achieve excellence in the sport they love.  And as anyone who's watched PRODIGY BOWLERS TOUR knows, some many of them are really good at bowling.  REALLY good!

 

A couple of kids who have appeared on PRODIGY BOWLERS TOUR were discovered by college recruiters through their appearances on the show and were signed to scholarship deals.  And numerous PRODIGY kids have reported having PRODIGYHEADS (fans of the show) come up to them while they were at scholarship tournaments out-of-state and ask for their autographs.  The show has helped turn several PRODIGY kids into junior bowling rock stars!  :-)  How cool is that?  Bottom line is, I really think PRODIGY BOWLERS TOUR is a good thing, and the doing of the show actually helps to put some good out into the world.  I'd like to believe that the show lives up to its mission statement:  to celebrate junior bowling and elevate junior bowlers.

 

So won't you help? Please contribute to the "PRODIGY BOWLERS TOUR Camera 2 Campaign" today. By funding the purchase of this equipment, you'll be helping us add a second show each month so we can bring you the action of not one, but TWO divisions of the Kansas City Open Youth Scholarship Tournament each month when the new bowling season begins!