WE DID IT!

On the final day, people came through, and they made this dream a reality.  Miraculously, in the last three days of the Kickstarter fundraising project, we went from 35% funded to to 100%!  I’m still amazed, humbled, and extremely grateful.  50in50 will be back SOON!

If you’re still interested in supporting 50in50 but missed the Kickstarter deadline, you can still donate safely and securely HERE, at the Donations page, and it would be greatly appreciated.  Every dollar that comes in goes to support this project, and goes back to the community of artists that helps to make it.  With just roughly twenty-five episodes to go, we’ve still got a huge challenge ahead of us.

New episodes will resume in just a couple weeks, and we’ve got some exciting stuff coming up, including BILL PULLMAN and an extra special music video for the hollidays.  Please do subscribe over at my YouTube channel, and keep checking back.

Here are a few favorite episodes to tide you over until the show is back:

Week 22: Classic

Week 4: Brett Dempsey Isn’t Drunk

Week 8: The New Freedomland Dancers

Week 3: Al Griffin Goes Outside

Week 21: The Last Words of Ed Byron

Week 15: Me and My Penis Pump (Music Video)

Week 20: Salsa for Shawn

Thank you so much to everyone who supported!  If you’re interested in reading my final update on the Kickstarter project, check it out here.

Much love,

B

ONE WEEK LEFT!

Dear friends and fans of 50in50,

The big news of the day is that there is only ONE WEEK LEFT in my Kickstarter campaign! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/brentrose/50-characters-in-50-weeks That’s the bad news. The GOOD news is that in the last couple days I jumped from 18% to 34% of my goal! That is a HUGE jump, and it’s really exciting. What does it mean?

It means that it’s possible. It’s still a long-shot, but everyone loves to root for a long-shot, right? They key is for more people to get involved — that is the essential ingredient. This is a grass-roots campaign, and it’s truly not going to happen without you. Yes, YOU. Don’t look around at the other people, thinking I mean them. I don’t. I mean YOU. Will you take just a few minutes today, write a short letter explaining what 50in50 is, and why you believe it’s important to support it, then go through your address book and click everyone’s name who you think might be willing to help (either by pledging OR by sending it on to more people), and PRESS SEND.

The whole endeavor won’t take you more than five minutes, and it might just be the one thing that can keep 50in50 alive. That donation of five minutes of your time, could make all the difference.

Will you help?

Thank you so much for your support.

Best,

Brent Rose
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/brentrose/50-characters-in-50-weeks

Quick Update — Mucho Media

Hey friends,

Just a quick update on media coverage of 50in50 (but see the entry below for the big update).

-The Clyde Fitch Report is now an Official Media Sponsor of 50in50.  The Clyde Fitch Report is a wonderful website devoted to art and politics.  They will be posting two articles (with a link to some of my favorite episodes, with introductions written by me, in character) a week for the next few weeks, in an attempt to drive traffic to my Kickstarter project.  Very exciting!  Here’s a link to the first one: http://www.clydefitchreport.com/?p=4379

-Liz Shannon Miller just posted a new article and interview on NewTeeVee.com (which may also be syndicated through GigaOm to Salon.com and many others).  She’s a wonderful writer, and has great style.  http://station.newteevee.com/show/fiftyinfifty/

-A really great review just came out from Steve Spalding at 93 Studios.  Very excited about this one: http://ninetythrees.com/screenings/50-in-50/

-AND I recently did a phone interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, which is huge, but I’m not sure if the article is going to come out in time to save my bacon.  Will update when it does.

So, that’s about it.  I’m increasingly concerned about how dramatically things have slowed down for 50in50 on Kickstarter.  If you haven’t yet pledged, or if you haven’t yet sent out a big email to your friends, I would really appreciate that.

On a personal note: I’m moving this weekend, and all is chaos, but I’m excited.  My world will be engulfed by cardboard for the next few days.  Good times.

Cheers,

BR  10.15.09

The Great Kickstarter Experiment — Two Weeks In

Dear friends and supporters of 50in50,

As you likely already know, I have put 50in50 on a short hiatus in an effort to fund raise for the second half of the project.  I’ve been doing this through Kickstarter.com.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/brentrose/50-characters-in-50-weeks
(If you’ve not already visited the project page on Kickstarter, please take a moment and do so.)

I’m proud to say that at two weeks in, we are 17% of the way toward the goal.  Considering the size of the goal ($10,000), this is incredibly encouraging.  That said, obviously, there’s still 83% more to go, and only four weeks in which to do it.  That’s incredibly scary, yet, right now, I believe it can be done.

It can be done because it must be.

50in50 has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career.  It’s also been the most grueling.  The thing it boils down to is hours in a day.  Virtually none of my episodes have taken under twenty hours to make, and many of what I consider to be my better episodes (see below) have taken well over thirty.

A Few of My Favorite Episodes:

Classic:

Al Griffin Goes Outside:

The New Freedomland Dancers:

The Last Words of Ed Byron:

Salsa for Shawn:

Me and My Penis Pump (Music Video):

Even the simplest of the above episodes — The Last Words of Ed Byron –  easily took twenty hours to make, when you consider character development, writing, memorization, setup, shooting, video transfer (which I had to do twice, thanks to my POS camera), footage logging, video editing, exporting, uploading, then releasing and writing a blog entry for it.  It adds up quickly, and that was one of the easiest ones I’ve done.

When I was trying to do all of that every week and a full-time job, I very quickly did terrible things to my health.  I am incredibly passionate about this project, and I will always make sacrifices for the things I am passionate about.  In the first half of this project I sacrificed sleep more often than I care to remember.  There was no other option, as I saw it, in order to get the project out each week, while working full-time to keep a roof over my head.  I am very proud of many of the episodes I’ve made thus far.

That said, looking down the barrel of trying to do that for another twenty-five weeks… I’m not sure my body could take it.  That’s the real reason for this Kickstarter fund raising.  It’s not a question of being lazy or feeling entitled; it’s a question of wanting so badly to complete this challenging project I’m so passionate about, but not wanting to drive my health into the ground to do it.

I’m grateful to Kickstarter for giving me and others like me a chance to get funding for our labors of love in a way that we couldn’t have accessed before.  That said, man, it is STRESSFUL!  I’ve invested so much time in the Kickstarter project already, and the idea that all of that effort might come to nothing (which is what happens if you’re even a few dollars short of your goal by the time your deadline rolls around) is absolutely crushing.  …so I’m trying not to think about that.  I’m trying to focus on the positive.  I’m trying to rally myself and my audience each day to spread the word a little more.  Speaking of… here is how you can help:

SEND AN EMAIL!  Yes, I know, it takes slightly more effort than simply clicking “Like” on Facebook and reposting it to your “wall”, but that little bit of extra effort is rewarded by a much greater rate of success.  It has got to be personal.  It has got to be from you, and come from your heart… your friends will know the difference.  Even friends that can’t give are certainly capable of passing it on to their friends, and if you phrase it like that, chances are better that they will.  To make it easier for you, you can copy/paste this list of links:

Here’s the link to the project page on Kickstarter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/brentrose/50-characters-in-50-weeks

And here are a handful of my favorite episodes so far:

Classic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPvWry9u2-Y

Al Griffin Goes Outside:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R9UQeGxREM

The New Freedomland Dancers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c01irK-EFw

The Last Words of Ed Byron:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdjsVpQw8I8

Salsa for Shawn:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egHGDbJEgxE

Me and My Penis Pump (Music Video):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgngVQagE7M

I know, it’s asking a lot of you, but if you’ve enjoyed even one or two of the episodes I’ve created in the first twenty-five weeks, I hope you will consider taking a few moments and sending it on.  If this comes through, I can promise that the second twenty-five episodes will be better than the first.  I promise that.  I’ve got some great ideas brewing, and I can’t wait to show you.

I hope you’ll consider pledging (I’ve set up some really cool backer rewards) and I hope you’ll pass the word on.  This can be done, and with your help, it will be.

Thanks so much.  More updates coming soon.

All the best,

Brent Rose

P.S.  Another new article about 50in50 came out last week.  Check it out here:
Attribute Magazine: Actor Brent Rose Attempts 50 Characters in 50 Weeks

I Need Your Help

Dear Viewers/Readers/Fans/Friends,

“I need your help” is something that’s very hard to say, but I’m saying it.

You may have noticed that there hasn’t been many new posts 50 Characters in 50 Weeks recently.  The reason is that I’m not sure I’m going to be able to continue it.  When I was trying to do the project and working full-time I drove my health into the ground (on average, episodes take about 20-30 hours a week to make, and the more detailed ones are always at the top end of that spectrum–some have taken 40 hours).  There is a MAJOR glimmer of hope, though.  I have been invited to try to fund my project through a website called Kickstarter.com

Kickstarter is “micro financing”.  Essentially, artists post a project proposal, and then people from all around the world can pledge to fund it.  They can pledge as much or as little as they want, and there are BACKER REWARDS for each level.  For example, if someone pledges $5 they get their name on the website, exclusive updates, and a limited edition 50in50 thank you card.  If they pledge $10, they get all that plus a pin of their favorite character.  If they do $25 they get all of that PLUS a full-resolution DVD of their five favorite episodes.  The list goes on.  It ends up being a really cool thing for the artists and for the people who fund it, because then they really become a part of the project and become invested in its success.

If you pledge, that’s great, and I’ll be extremely grateful, but I have a bigger favor to ask.  I want to ask for a little bit of your time.  If everyone who reads this would take just a few minutes, and write an email to as many of their friends as possible (and encourage them to do the same), there is a very real chance that we might be able to pull this off.  I know you’re all busy people, and I know we all have many projects going on, but this is one of those things that would mean the world to me, and good karma will find it’s way back to you.

Here is the link to the Kickstarter page for my project:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/brentrose/50-characters-in-50-weeks

Email is the best way, because it’s personal, and it’s from you, directly to them, but in addition to that at the Kickstarter page you will find links so you can help get the word out on Facebook, Digg, Twitter, Myspace, Delicious, and others.  And please, encourage your friends to do the same.  You can ever get the widget above to put on your blog!

Here is the critical element: I only have six weeks, and it’s all or nothing. I have got to get at least $10,000 worth of pledges by November 6th, or I get none of it.  I know that sounds like a ton of money, but many projects (that were trying to accomplish much less) have raised a lot more money than that through Kickstarter.  And think about it: that money divided over 25 short-films would just be 400 bucks per film (which is practically unheard of for something high quality).  The money would allow me to upgrade some of my equipment, which would make the episodes look/sound better, but would also cut out about two hours of my edit time each week.  Most importantly, though, if the funding comes through, it will allow me to really put my all into each episode.  It would be enough so that I would be able to work part-time, instead of full-time, so I could give each episode the time it needs without killing myself.  I’m not asking people to fund a vacation — I’m asking them to fund the project, which is the most massive endeavor I’ve ever undertaken.

Another key point: the all or nothing nature of it means that if you pledge $25, and I don’t make it to my goal before the deadline, you don’t pay a dime. Pledges are only fulfilled IF the project meets its goal, so you don’t have to pay now and worry that some company is just going to take your money.  No money will be deducted until Nov. 6th, and that’s only if the goal is reached (or exceeded… which would be even better, obviously).  Also, the money is all handled by Amazon.com, so you know it’s safe and secure.

So, that’s it, my pitch to you, and my humble request for your help.  Will you please consider emailing your friends and family?  I’ve set up some really great backer rewards, I think (and if you have suggestions for more/better rewards, please let me know.  I can always include more.).  The cool thing about it is that if this succeeds, then it really isn’t my project, but it’s OUR project.  Even people who donate just $5 are producers, and it adds up.  You aren’t asking your friends for a huge sum of money, that’s the beauty of Kickstarter–many projects have successfully reached their goals without large donations.

This project is about people, in all their many and varied flavors, so it’s only fitting that it should be funded by many and varied people.  It’s a tall order, but together, it’s absolutely possible if we just try.

The link, again, to the Kickstarter page is:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/brentrose/50-characters-in-50-weeks

In your email if you want to send your friends the videos, here is a link to the All Videos page:
http://50in50.wordpress.com/all-videos/

And here’s a link to some of the press that the project has received:
http://50in50.wordpress.com/press/

So, for the next six weeks, there probably won’t be much in the way of new videos as I’m going to be working a job-job and trying to get as many backers as humanly possible (with your help, I hope).  With some luck, and with the help from my friends, and their friends, (and hopefully their friends’ friends), 50in50 will be back and better than ever before.  This will also create more work, for more actors, as the scope of the show grows, so it really will be good for the artist community as a whole (actor friends: I may well come asking you to be in an episode that would be great for your reel).  I’m sure I’ll be writing more in the coming weeks to update you on the progress.

Again, it’s so hard to ask for this kind of help.  Thank you for listening, and thank you even more if you write an email and help get the word out.  It would mean so much to me.

Much love, and much thanks,

Brent

Postponed Due to Life

Life has reared its wacky and fearsome head again.  This week’s episode has been postponed.

Big announcement pending.

-BR 9.18.09  4.41am

Week 24: Dan Kelly Understands You

(For a better viewing experience click on the HQ button once the video starts.  Everything is more fun in full-screen mode…)

[Big ups to my funkadelic friend Petur Magnussen for shooting this one and helping me out.  Petur has been incredibly generous with his time while I've been here, and has helped with a number of episodes.  He also made a hilarious cameo in Episode 22: Classic.  Thanks again, my friend.]

Here’s how I came up with this one.  My good friend Max Livingstone (who was in Episode 6: The Ad Campaign) lives just down the street from Albany High School (where I, in fact, did go to high school, once upon a time, and where we shot this episode).  We were sitting on his porch last week just as school was getting out, and basically just started joking about, “What if we were these pervy older guys who just sat here all day, trying to pick of high school girls?”  We improvised almost half of this episode right then and there. When I got home I wrote down all of the stuff I could remember.  So that was the seed.

The characterization, however, grew out of somebody I actually knew when I was in high school.  I was a freshman, and he was a senior, and he would just hang out all day, hitting on the freshman girls.  A couple years went by, and he was still hanging out around high school, wearing his leather jacket, talking about his band, being “mysterious” and “edgy”… and hitting on sixteen-year-olds.  The grossest part of it is that it it worked; he slept with a lot of (way underage) girls I knew.  The whole thing made my flesh crawl.

I toyed with a few different aesthetics for this one, before I finally decided that the best way to get this story/character across would be to write it as a monologue, and do it in one take, like it would be in real life.  This is the first one I’ve done in 2nd person (the camera being the other character I’m talking to).

I’m happy to say that this was the easiest edit I’ve had yet, by a long shot.  I didn’t even have to tweak any audio.  It was bliss.  No all-nighter required, and I don’t feel like hell today.  These are good things.

I’m winding down my time here in California.  I’ve got two more performances of The Farm (Sat and Sun at 4pm… but get there very early because we’ve been PACKED.  People climbing trees and sitting in bushes to watch.  No joke.), and then I leave Monday morning.  This weekend is going to be a whirlwind.  Leaving is always bitter-sweet.  I love it here, but I have a lot of things I’m looking forward to in NY.

I feel I should let you all know, I’m considering putting 50in50 on hiatus so I can get some fundraising done.  I’d essentially be putting pause on the project for six weeks or so, then starting up again as if it never happened (thus extending the end of the project).  I have mixed feelings about it.  Part of me wants to stick to the original fifty consecutive week timeline, but on the other hand, my episodes have been SOO much better when I really have the time and energy to focus on them.  If I was able to raise some money do the show, in theory, that would mean that I’d be able to do it as my full-time job, and then the my second twenty-five episodes could have my full focus, and I think they could be really, really good.  I have a ton of ideas, but many of them would be impossible to pull off while working full-time.  I want this show to be as good as it possibly can be.  So, we’ll see what happens.

Much love,

Brent  9.11.09  3.43pm

Week 23: Dale Tining’s Regimen

(For a better viewing experience click on the HQ button once the video starts.  Everything is more fun in full-screen mode…)

[First off, giant thanks once again goes to my brother Matt for manning the camera for a good portion of these shots.  Couldn't have done it without you, dude.]

I’m going to tell you the truth: I feel just a little bit chewed up and spat out right now.  That’s because I was just bitten by a large predatory cat… a Snow Leopard.  I’ll try to keep this tirade short, but here’s the story.  I upgraded my operating system to Snow Leopard, after a friend tested it out with FinalCut and said it seemed to be working fine.  So I made it all the way through the edit for this episode, and I go to export it, and… nada.  Nothing doing.  ”Codec error.”  That was the only information I was able to obtain about what was going wrong (which is annoyingly typical of Apple).  I think it’s something wrong with my h.264 codec (getting nerdy now), but I wasn’t able to find anyone else who was having this problem in the forums.  So, at 2:30am I began to try to teach myself how to use Compressor.  I’d never used it before, and the editors I’d learned from never used it (at least when I was around) because it’s so damn complicated.  There’s a silver-lining to this stormy story, though: I actually did it!  I somehow managed to figure out how to use Compressor, while falling asleep, and with no instructions.  In case you can’t tell, I’m fairly proud of myself for that.  Not only that, I think the ratio is now, finally correct 1 to 1.  I think I’ve been stretching my videos vertically this whole time and I didn’t even know it.  Oops?  I guess that’s how it goes when you’re self-taught.

As for my feelings on the rest of the episode… well… I have an ongoing discussion with my friend Bay who feels that I use “disclaimers” too much in these blog entries, whereas I feel like I’m just being honest about my process and how I feel about the work.  If you, dear readers, have an opinion on that, one way or the other, I’d love it if you’d weigh in.  In any case, right now I’m exhausted and am too close to it to fairly judge it, so I’m just not going to.  Maybe I will later this week.  Or maybe not.

Briefly, this episode came from a couple of things.  I’ve been feeling spread really thin lately, and it was suggested to me that I make a schedule for myself.  That’s probably a good idea, actually, but I thought it’d be fun to explore a VERY extreme version of that.  Really, though, this character was born out of the idea of someone who buys a calendar, writes R’s and L’s on alternating days to remind him which side to tuck his wang so it will hang straight.  I’m not sure where that idea came from, but I enjoy it.  So, I started at that angled and worked outwards from there.

Bedtime for me.  So wrecked.  I finally got in some real surfing in on Wednesday.  Was out for hours, and it was the first time I successfully rode a shortboard.  I’m still really stoked about that.

Folks in the Bay Area, you’ve got two more weekends to see The Farm (and we’re doing a show on Monday this week, as well).

Much love,

B.  4.19am  9.4.09

Honesty Check

4:40am and I can’t sleep.  Thought it might be time for an honesty check.

I’ve been in California for about 2.5 months now, working on The Farm.  The reality is seeping in, however, that I have two weekends left, and then I’m heading back to New York.  If I’m to be completely honest, that idea fills me with both eager anticipation and dread.

I quit my day job in June in order to come and do this play.  There is still no question in my mind that that was the right decision for me.  This play has been a transformative experience for me in many ways.  It’s afforded me opportunities to learn, grow, and really stretch myself in new ways.  It’s also been an important proving ground for me with regards to 50in50.  One of the theories operating behind the impulse to do 50in50 is the idea that it would make me a better actor… and I think it has.  That’s entirely subjective, I know, but I believe it’s true.  I think I’m far more willing to take risks because of this project, and I think I have a better, visceral understanding of what good/bad acting is from watching all of the footage of myself every week while editing and seeing so clearly what works and what doesn’t.  I can’t tell you how encouraging this is.

All that said, my stomach still turns to knots sometimes when I think of the unknowns I’ll be returning to.  Specifically, I’m wondering how I’m going to pay rent.  Humbling to admit that, but damned if it ain’t the truth.  I’m generally pretty confident in my abilities to scrape together a living, but it’s still scary to be heading back there with nothing solid on the table (especially in this economy, when so many of my friends are leaving to find work elsewhere).  Also, significantly, it’s hard for me to do just anything any be happy.  I mean, my last temp job was almost certainly the best day-job I’ve ever had in my life, and it still caused me to have a small panic-attack (which was the impetus to get on the phone, find this theatre gig, and get me the hell out of there).  So, I know that I don’t want to go back to that… but I’m unsure what options I’m going to find when I get there (don’t say “strip”… everyone says “strip”… and they’re only half kidding… and I’m not going to… seriously.  So don’t.).  Worst is that this trip has just confirmed for me how much happier I am when I’m just making my living through acting and writing.  Or maybe that’s the best thing.  Mmm, it’s both, really, but my point is that it’s always harder to go back to doing something you don’t love.

I tell you this: if I could figure out a way to make a living with 50in50, I would be pretty effing ecstatic.  I love doing this project.  Love it.  I just don’t want it to be a case of having to choose again between my health and keeping it going.

So, that’s what’s on my mind these days, and I suppose that’s why I’m not sleeping tonight despite having had a wonderful, full day.  I’ve got one eye looking toward re-entry, but for now, I think the thing to do is to try to soak up as much of this moment as I can.  Spend time with family and friends, go surfing, be as good as I can be in this play, and eat as many California burritos as humanly possible.  The burritos here are other-worldly.

More soon,

Brent  9.1.09  5.07am

Week 22: Classic

(For a better viewing experience click on the HQ button once the video starts.  Everything is more fun in full-screen mode…)

[First off, humongous thanks to Petur Magnusson, and to my brother Matt.  Both did a lot of camera work, and both were stellar on-screen as well.  Very much appreciated.  Huge thank you also to The Pacific Pinball Museum / Lucky Juju Pinball.  That place is AMAZING, and they're a non-profit, so give them some love.]

Simply put, I am too, too tired to write anything sensical right now (is “sensical” even a word without its “non”?  Spell-check doesn’t think so).  I did however write a fairly long blog-entry yesterday called Letting Go of “Acting School Mentality”, which may be an interesting read for some of you (or not).

A couple of quick things:

-Matt and Petur were both champs, and there’s no way I could have pulled this episode off without their help.  We had a pretty good time shooting.  Playing horse was way too much fun.  Neither of them are trained actors, but they’re both very funny guys.  Petur has the best deadpan of anyone I know.

-This episode was all improvised.

-This may have been the toughest edit I’ve had yet.  I have no idea how many hours it took me.  Fifteen?  More?  Dunno.  All I know is that I’m taking a break from documentary style (again).  They’re fun to shoot, but I always end up hating myself in the editing process.  No mas!  Not for a while.  If you’re interested below is what my timeline ended up looking like.

Too.  Many.  Edits.  (and don’t get me started on the audio)

Okay.  Good night (a.k.a. good morning).

-Brent 8.28.09  8.41am