To Kickstart or not to Kickstart?

[24pfilms]

Getting pretty close to releasing my Kickstarter out into the ithe interweb...
It is a daunting task, and huge amount of work. But I think I have all in order.

All I have left to do is shoot and edit the video.

My Kickstarter is a hardcover photobook book on "Quinta da Regaleira - Light and Shadows". Regaleira is an amazing place and is a UNESCO site in Sintra, Portugal.
I shot over 70,000 images over 2 years, and the book is designed and ready to print.
The Kickstarter is to help with the printing costs.

If you are interested I will be putting up posts on my blog about all aspects of my KS book project.  http://www.taylormoorephoto.com/blog
Some of you might find this interesting for your book ideas and for a way to give back to other photographers and artists.

Obrigado!

[Tim Lookingbill]

I admire your energy, enthusiasm and inventiveness using kickstarter to finance your coffee table book. I wish you all the luck on your success.

My town of New Braunfels, TX is designated by the Arbor Day Foundation as a "Tree City" for at least 25 years making it a very photogenic town to live and I have the photos to back it up. I'm involved with a community organization "Friends Of Landa Park" that protects and nurtures this park which has the most variety of trees with some over 100 years old. The leaders of this group have been trying since 2010 to get a coffee table book published that documents the history of this park but it appears they're having a hard time raising the $70K required to get it done.

Your kickstarter idea might be the way to go and I thank you for mentioning it.

Wonder who are the best volume book printers with good color reproduction and quality control capabilities?

[ddolde]

Your photos are fantastic !

[luminerewhite]

I think its an excellent idea. Good luck!

[24pfilms]

Thanks a lot for your support. I will keep you informed on my process...and research. (Which has been massive)

I am presently struggling with the name for the Kickstarter as the name "Quinta da Regaleira: A book of Light and Shadows" is a beast to say and damn confusing.
The book when published will have this name but for KS it need to be simple and clear.
For KS I will have the heading be something like "Light and Shadows: A photo book of Quinta da Regaleira"

I am hammering away. Working on the video script and hope to shoot it this weekend at Regaleira. Sadly I cannot operate the camera and be on camera at the same time so my girlfriend will be the camera operator...this should be interesting.) i will post some behind the Scenes fotos for comedy sake.
Instead of renting a mic and recorder for 35euros , I made a great lavalier mic from a iphone headset, and a free iphone audio recorder that works at 44.1. I will post a video on that.
it works well. Then I will synchronize the separate audio back to picture.

I better get a haircut for the shoot...
Thanks again. I will try to update this thread every couple of days.

[24pfilms]

So the shoot went pretty well, aside from me forgetting my DIY mic back in Lisbon. So a quick trip back and we were a go.
So the DIY mic worked great, aside from some slight windnoise as it was all exterior shots. If you take this path, Just cut a small piece of foam and  cut a small hole and put mic inside the foam.
Free apps I used:
For the teleprompter on my ipad I used LCD4video. It worked great and my girlfriend just held the ipad above my camera. It kept my eyeline true to the camera and lens.
For the audio recording I used a free app called voice record pro. It is great and can record up to 256khz as well as 48.It can upload to dropbox with the files.

My girlfriend shot a bunch of B-roll video of me waling around looking very much like a photographer to use in the edit.
So now I am editing the video and hope to have it in the can soon. Once done I will post it to here to get some feedback.

Find attached some mockup marketing shots for the video and Kickstarter campaign.

[24pfilms]

Well I finally got the greenlight from Kickstarter.
Everything is now in place.
I am just working on the press release, and trying to figure out how to drive this crazy bus.
Looks like I wil put it out into the world a week from today.
If you are interested in doing a KS. please ask away.
The workload is not for the faint of heart.

Here is the preview kickstarter link. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/924468600/1093885950?token=63029a4b

I appreciate any feedback.

With respect,

Taylor

[Kevin Raber]

It was good speaking with you today and I am glad you came on board the forum.  You'll find good advice hear plus we are all anxious to see how you KS program works out.

kevin Raber

[24pfilms]

Thanks for your support Kevin. Much appreciated.
T minus 6 days

[Tim Lookingbill]

Portugal is a very underrated and not well known country at least from what I've seen in pop culture and the media in general throughout my 55 years. Your book and video gave me chills confirming you've stumbled on what appears to be a new and mysterious world that needs to be seen by a lot of folks to be appreciated.

I've never heard of Sintra or Regaleira. I now wish I could afford to travel there. Maybe I could get a KS account going to fund it.

Several years ago I befriended an 80 year old former Las Vegas black jack dealer Portuguese woman neighbor in my apartment complex and found her to be a spitfire, engaging personality but with an old world charm who spoke with what I had to assume was a Portuguese accent. It wasn't Spanish, Mexican, Italian even though it sounded similar but I could sense an ancient, a bit primitive kind of royalty and wisdom to the tone that kind of is reflected in your images and in the video.

Wonder why I don't hear a lot of news out of Portugal in the media? It's always about the middle East, France, England, Italy, Japan or Israel.

[24pfilms]

Well Portugal is a hidden jewel.
Almost everyone speaks english, the quality of life in insanely high, and great wine and seafood is 1/3 North American prices.
It is also insanely deep in history.
I love it, and that is a big reason why created this book project.

Here is another glimpse of Sintra. Please watch in HD.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqjEYqvQPps

[24pfilms]

"It's ALIVE"
After last minute changes, and cover design changes the crowdfunding is live!
If you could share this out to other friends and photographers would be greatly appreciated.

Quinta da Regaleira - A Book of Light and Shadows

Here is the link.
http://bit.ly/1H1wdfb

Now the hard work really starts.)

[24pfilms]

After a slight change of direction, and doing what everyone said you should not do...
I jumped ship to kickstarter.com from Indiegogo.
I was finding there was no internal organic traffic in indiegogo. Also when it came to people re-sharing my link. The image reshare was some non-related not from my campaign.

So I jumped ship, and it has been the right decision.
If anyone has any question on this, I am more than willing to answer.
Here is the new link: http://kck.st/1PBOxO5

Here are a couple of images from the book design.

[Tim Lookingbill]

I'll stayed tuned to see where this goes.

It'll give some indication on the dynamics of going viral online and offer some insight on why some things get a lot of attention and gain traction while others don't.

I suspect there's more to it than just hanging a shingle out and hoping (expecting) by planting a seed among a few folks on a forum, it will grow to hoards beating a path to your door especially if it involves donating/investing money.

It takes a brave and dedicated person to take on such a project and I wish you all the luck in the world on its success.

[Rainer SLP]

Hi Taylor,

Best luck with your project. Just added a small contribution so the book gets real

Tudo Joia 

[24pfilms]

Thank you so much for your contribution. It is greatly appreciated.

I see you live in MX. I grew up in Puerto Vallarta in 1969-75.

I then returned to Chacala and Guanajuato in 2013. both incredible places.

Thank you. Obrigado

[24pfilms]

What a blast!
Really enjoying this Kickstarter ride.
So for those that are interested...we have almost reached our funding goal in 2 weeks.
I have created some Stretch Goals if anyone is interested.

Kickstarter Stretch Goals on the rapid path to $4000…
For each new contributor who puts us over each $100 level on the path to $4000 (starting at $3500 then $3600 then $3700 etc. ) will receive a set of 10 of our art card/post cards.
When we reach our goal of $4000 ALL CONTRIBUTORS will receive a full set of 16 of our ArtCards/Post Cards. (People love them so much they don't even mail them away)
The more you Share the greater chance everyone will win!!!
Here is the link:
http://kck.st/1PBOxO5
Obrigado!

[Otto Phocus]

Best of luck to you!!!

[24pfilms]

Thank you Otto.
So we reached our goal in 15 days.
We are in the last week of the crowdfund. This has been really fun, all the highs and lows.
Much appreciate the support from the LLS members.
Today we received the Featured Project in the Photography section. Was a proud moment.
Much appreciate the support from the LLS members.