It's Summer Kickstarter Season! 3 Projects I'm Supporting

Yes, it's summer again....when thoughts turn to Kickstarting your latest creative endeavor. It seems that June through September is the high season for the website Kickstarter, where creative types like myself can crowd-source their projects to the people via Kickstarter, which has lately become popular via famous folks such as Zach Braff and the VERONICA MARS team. Even original indie guru Spike Lee has taken to the site with a somewhat vague proposal for a million dollar movie.

But all those celebs aside, I wanted to focus some well-deserved attention on a few truly indie projects that I'm supporting that are raising funds for some very worthy and entertaining projects. My good friend and collaborator David Zellnik wrote a wonderful new musical with his brother Joe called YANK!, which centers on the story of a gay soldier in WWII writing for the Army's in-house paper.  I have seen this show 5 times in various workshops and professional productions and each time I'm absolutely charmed and moved by it's story and music. Now they are recording a cast album and are raising 35K to do so. You can check out details and some snippets of the songs on their Kickstarter page here.

The other two projects I'm supporting are more in my wheelhouse--a short film and a web series.  The web series is the second outing by writer/director Adam Goldman, who made the incredible show THE OUTS (which if you haven't seen you should watch!).  His new show, WHATEVER THIS IS, follows the misadventures of two roommates who work on various film/TV gigs...a different one apparently for each episode. I went to the premiere last night at the Knitting Factory and it looks great, with the same sharp writing and quirky, realistic characters.

The other short is by a first time filmmaker Mark Allen, who I've known from way back in the day (like early 90s!) when he was well-known downtown go-go boy. Since then, he's been writing, performing and a regular on NPR. Now he's putting together his first short film which sounds sorta experimental and very cool, with details on his Kickstarter page too (along with a funny video starring socks!).

So check out their pages and video and give a little if you can. These days, the entertainment you get is the entertainment you support.

Web Series THE OUTS Wraps It's First And Final Season

My favorite web series, Adam Goldman's (pictured center) THE OUTS wrapped up its first and unfortunately final season this week with a Chanukah special, which debuted on Easter Sunday. This super-sized seventh episode of the series is a lovely finishing touch to the show about two ex-boyfriends and their contentious relationship. It doesn't exactly tie things up but proves a very satisfying finale to this show which has more in common with well-made cable shows like GIRLS than the lower-rent feel of most web series.

Also, more than other Internet-based shows, THE OUTS has truly utilized the flexibility of this new format by using a wide-range of running times, from 7 minutes all the way up to the massive final one, clocking in at over 40 minutes.  It also employed some well placed time jumps and jumpbacks which made the story more interesting if it had been told straight through as most shows are.  

The final episode is linked below but if you haven't seen the rest, it might be a bit confusing  To catch up, you can watch all of THE OUTS on their website.