More Tales From Ten Forward
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We're the cast and crew of Tales From Ten Forward, a loving and somewhat inebriated tribute to our favorite stories from the many incarnations of Star Trek over its 52-year history. Our project is a labor of love born out of sincere enthusiasm, made by talented volunteer filmmakers using borrowed equipment on a shoestring budget.
Unfortunately, we're running out of shoestrings.
Every short we make demands a few unique odds and ends we can't make ourselves out of whatever's handy: costumes, props, or parts for sets. The shoots themselves also take a long time; the shortest one we've ever done was still a 14h marathon day that went from 9AM to 11PM. Our amazing volunteer crew can't do that on empty stomachs, so we supply on-set meals -- breakfast, lunch, and dinner. All told, those combined costs run an average of $650 per shoot,* and we just can't sustain them on our own.
That's where you come in.
Our goal is $1950 to retell some more classic stories. Every little bit helps!
We don't have the usual crowdfunding rewards (we don't want to lose focus by trying to print and deliver t-shirts or whatnot -- we'd rather make new shorts for you), but what we DO have is the chance to feel some of the glitz and glamour of show business by offering honorary producer credits! If you contribute at or above a certain level, we'll put your name in the credits of a random future story along with a title:
- $10 or above: Yeoman Producer
- $20 or above: Adjunct Producer
- $30 or above: Deputy Producer
- $50 or above: Superintending Producer
- $75 or above: Extreme Producer
- $100 or above: Prime Producer
- $150 or above: Command Producer
- $200 or above: Champion Producer
- $250 or above: Supreme Producer
- $300 or above: Producer Regent
- $350 or above: Ultra Producer
- $400 or above: Sovereign Producer
NOTE: For all levels at or above $200, email us a selfie (we'll figure out how to get in touch) and we'll draw a crown on it with MSPaint for inclusion in the credits
Stretch goals
+$650x(n): Anything we make afterward will simply go to funding more shorts, in multiples of $650, for up to a value of n=3. For the math scholars in the room, that's up to $1950 past the initial goal.
+$2000: We have faraway friends on the East Coast who'd love a chance to do a retelling. It takes three crewmembers to film one (camera, sound, interviewer), so we estimate round-trip plane tickets plus accommodations will run a total of $2000.
+?????: Quite frankly, any amount over $3950 beyond the $1950 we're already asking for seems like an absurd notion to us, so we haven't really planned for anything past this point. We will if it seems to be going that way, of course, but we don't want to get ahead of ourselves. Spoiler: it'll probably involve funding more shorts, or travel to far-flung friends to record more retellings.
Things we will never use this money for:
- Building a film studio
- Creating merchandise of any kind
- Rent
- Jewelry
- Sports cars
- Designer drugs
ANOTHER WAY TO HELP: if you've got costumes and toys cluttering your attic that could be used as props, get in touch and we'll be happy to take them off your hands (full disclosure: you won't be getting them back, but you can rest easy in the knowledge that they were put to good use). In particular, we'd make great use of:
- Starfleet uniforms of any era (we're most in need of DS9/VOY)
- Commbadges and other insignia
- Toy starships
- Hand props: phasers, tricorders, PADDs, etc
- Vulcan ears
- Nerf weaponry
- Unused wigs
*APPENDIX: THE MATH
How did we arrive at a per-shoot cost of $650? Let's lay it out:
1. On average, we assume a crew of 7:
DP
Gaffer
2 grips
1st AD
Makeup
PA
2. We assume a cast of 8.
(Total == 15 people)
3. For lunch, we assume a per-person cost of $10/person.
($10 x 15 == $150)
4. We assume the same for dinner.
(Another $150)
5. Breakfast we assume to be a big ol' pile of bagels, and also some snacks for the day.
(We can get these from Costco for roughly $50)
6. We then assume another half day of shooting, which includes breakfast and lunch.
(Another $200)
7. The remaining $100 goes to securing any set dressing, props, or costume elements needed for that particular shoot.
8. All told, this totals out to $650.
NOTE: By our estimates, a day and a half of filming is about average; out of the five shoots currently completed, we've only had one that was done in a day, and that still took 14h.
Thank you for being here; thank you for reading this; thank you for everything!
LIVE LONG AND PROSPER.
We're the cast and crew of Tales From Ten Forward, a loving and somewhat inebriated tribute to our favorite stories from the many incarnations of Star Trek over its 52-year history. Our project is a labor of love born out of sincere enthusiasm, made by talented volunteer filmmakers using borrowed equipment on a shoestring budget.
Unfortunately, we're running out of shoestrings.
Every short we make demands a few unique odds and ends we can't make ourselves out of whatever's handy: costumes, props, or parts for sets. The shoots themselves also take a long time; the shortest one we've ever done was still a 14h marathon day that went from 9AM to 11PM. Our amazing volunteer crew can't do that on empty stomachs, so we supply on-set meals -- breakfast, lunch, and dinner. All told, those combined costs run an average of $650 per shoot,* and we just can't sustain them on our own.
That's where you come in.
Our goal is $1950 to retell some more classic stories. Every little bit helps!
We don't have the usual crowdfunding rewards (we don't want to lose focus by trying to print and deliver t-shirts or whatnot -- we'd rather make new shorts for you), but what we DO have is the chance to feel some of the glitz and glamour of show business by offering honorary producer credits! If you contribute at or above a certain level, we'll put your name in the credits of a random future story along with a title:
- $10 or above: Yeoman Producer
- $20 or above: Adjunct Producer
- $30 or above: Deputy Producer
- $50 or above: Superintending Producer
- $75 or above: Extreme Producer
- $100 or above: Prime Producer
- $150 or above: Command Producer
- $200 or above: Champion Producer
- $250 or above: Supreme Producer
- $300 or above: Producer Regent
- $350 or above: Ultra Producer
- $400 or above: Sovereign Producer
NOTE: For all levels at or above $200, email us a selfie (we'll figure out how to get in touch) and we'll draw a crown on it with MSPaint for inclusion in the credits
Stretch goals
+$650x(n): Anything we make afterward will simply go to funding more shorts, in multiples of $650, for up to a value of n=3. For the math scholars in the room, that's up to $1950 past the initial goal.
+$2000: We have faraway friends on the East Coast who'd love a chance to do a retelling. It takes three crewmembers to film one (camera, sound, interviewer), so we estimate round-trip plane tickets plus accommodations will run a total of $2000.
+?????: Quite frankly, any amount over $3950 beyond the $1950 we're already asking for seems like an absurd notion to us, so we haven't really planned for anything past this point. We will if it seems to be going that way, of course, but we don't want to get ahead of ourselves. Spoiler: it'll probably involve funding more shorts, or travel to far-flung friends to record more retellings.
Things we will never use this money for:
- Building a film studio
- Creating merchandise of any kind
- Rent
- Jewelry
- Sports cars
- Designer drugs
ANOTHER WAY TO HELP: if you've got costumes and toys cluttering your attic that could be used as props, get in touch and we'll be happy to take them off your hands (full disclosure: you won't be getting them back, but you can rest easy in the knowledge that they were put to good use). In particular, we'd make great use of:
- Starfleet uniforms of any era (we're most in need of DS9/VOY)
- Commbadges and other insignia
- Toy starships
- Hand props: phasers, tricorders, PADDs, etc
- Vulcan ears
- Nerf weaponry
- Unused wigs
*APPENDIX: THE MATH
How did we arrive at a per-shoot cost of $650? Let's lay it out:
1. On average, we assume a crew of 7:
DP
Gaffer
2 grips
1st AD
Makeup
PA
2. We assume a cast of 8.
(Total == 15 people)
3. For lunch, we assume a per-person cost of $10/person.
($10 x 15 == $150)
4. We assume the same for dinner.
(Another $150)
5. Breakfast we assume to be a big ol' pile of bagels, and also some snacks for the day.
(We can get these from Costco for roughly $50)
6. We then assume another half day of shooting, which includes breakfast and lunch.
(Another $200)
7. The remaining $100 goes to securing any set dressing, props, or costume elements needed for that particular shoot.
8. All told, this totals out to $650.
NOTE: By our estimates, a day and a half of filming is about average; out of the five shoots currently completed, we've only had one that was done in a day, and that still took 14h.
Thank you for being here; thank you for reading this; thank you for everything!
LIVE LONG AND PROSPER.
Organizer
Jon Sung
Organizer
Oakland, CA